By Denrele Animashaun

‘We cannot hold a torch to light another’s path without brightening our own. – Ben Sweetland

For the last couple of weeks, I have dedicated my page to the health and social issues of the nation and this week is the last of the series. I extended an invitation to the wife of Oyo State Governor, Mrs Florence Ajimobi because I heard good things about the health programme, ABC Health Care in Oyo State which she initiated in 2012.

I wanted to know more about the programme and what inspires her. Mrs Florence Ajimobi, is a daughter of a Lebanese father and a Nigerian mother. She had her secondary education in Ibadan, and of course, she has been married to the governor of Oyo State for over three decades.She is very attuned to the needs of the people of Oyo State, in health and social care.

Mrs Ajimobi describes herself as:”someone with every sense of modesty and truthfulness, a God-fearing person and I must be quick to say that, this is beyond the usual cliché that people are so quick to use when asked to describe themselves. In all honesty, I am in total awe of God and the magnificence of His ways. I always wonder how such a big and mighty God could take cognizance of small and insignificant me. I have seen Him move on my behalf on so many occasions and I cannot but acknowledge that indeed I have a great awareness of Him in my heart and this guides my relationships with other people. In addition to this, I am a perfectionist, a goal-setter and a goal getter. I am quite compassionate with a very selfless spirit. No one is perfect and I would say my shortcoming is that, I don’t have a large storehouse of patience. When I want things done, I want them done as soon as yesterday!”

She is not kidding, from what I have been told and I have read about the ABC health initiative, this was no mean feat. The progress she has made in advancing community based health care in Oyo State, can only be done when someone has a strong determination and not doing things in half measures.  It takes a certain person with high standards to pull this off within the time frame.

I  wanted to know if there are any advice given to her and that she lives by? “I take my ultimate advice from the Holy Bible from the two greatest laws as laid down by our perfect example, Jesus Christ and that is to love my God with all my strength, with all my heart and with all my mind and also to love my neighbour as myself. As long as one stays within the ambit of these two laws, all will be well,” she replied.

As a busy mother of five, a grandmother of three and the first lady of Oyo State, does she have any interests and what drives her?

“I have very keen interest in advancing the cause of women and children because they are more likely to be vulnerable and  have less power,inequality and are more often than not unable speak for themselves. The culture of silence has wreaked a lot of havoc on our women and the girl child more especially. We are battered, humiliated, violated and life goes on. Women die daily in their numbers because no one cares. I am driven by my passion to make a difference. The status quo cannot continue, something must give and very soon too,” she added.

As they say, a society is measured by the way, they treat their most vulnerable  citizens. The maternal health in Nigeria, is very poor and mortality rate is  32 .31 per 100  total population aged 15-59 in 2015, this is not good at all. As this is the case, then we need the likes of Mrs Ajimobi and the ABC health initiative up and down the country. Imagine the difference that would make in the lives of many people who could not afford the costs of health care. This is the main reason, why I like the cut of this woman’s gib and the fact that, she and her team have been able to make such a difference in such a short time is quite remarkable.

She told me the reasons  why she set up the health programme and what she was trying to achieve by the health programme:”The health programme is an offspring of my passion for women and children. One of the greatest challenges  many women face is with their health. A lot of women in an attempt to make ends meet forget totally to pay attention to their health and even those that choose to, most times cannot afford the cost.  With Access to Basic (medical) Care (ABC) Foundation the aim is to complement the efforts of the state government in making quality healthcare available and accessible  to all without leaving  a deep hole in their pockets.  with this in mind, it is developing and sustaining health care for the future. The ABC medical Foundation ensures healthcare for people in the various local government areas of Oyo State”.

She went on:” that the  ABC Foundation Hub is kitted out to world standard screening equipment for cervical cancer as well as equipment for mammogram and sonogram and a state of the art diagnostic laboratory all manned by highly skilled professionals. We get referrals from clinics within and outside the state because we have earned a reputation of perfection and also because these screening services are almost free which you cannot get anywhere else in the state. To take the health message closer to the people, there are mobile clinics scattered all over the local governments within the state where primary health care services are provided at no cost at all to the patients”.

I wanted to know if the health initiative caters for specific target group?  she said that:”Well, although the clinics cater to everyone, my main target group is the women. They are the ones who take care of everyone and forget to take care of themselves. I want to make it as easy as A-B-C , no pun intended, for them to have access to quality healthcare”.

Asked if the ABC health programme has made a difference. She tells me: “Honestly, I wish you could take time out for opinion sampling within the state but since that is not likely to happen, I can confidently say with every sense of responsibility that the Access to Basic Care Foundation has made a huge difference in the state. We currently have 10 fully operational clinics that attend to an average of 500 people each, every week. That’s about 5000 patients in a week. If we multiply that by 4 weeks, that is an average of 20,000 people in a month. If that is not called making a difference, I don’t know what is. People now know that they don’t need money to access primary health care and that ABC will take care of them”.

As with such innovative health initiative, I wanted to know that,is it the case of here today and gone tomorrow and is the programme sustainable?

“ABC Foundation is a non-governmental organisation and so even though I am the wife of the governor of Oyo State, we receive absolutely no funding from the state. We have survived so far on donations from people and organisations who believe in us and who share our dream and our passion and as long as we continue to be passionate, committed and transparent in all our affairs, we will always have people who will lend their support to keep this dream alive. We also hope that in good time, we will also be able to access international funding and thus extend the scope of our activities in the health sector.” she replied.