Dr Mathias Oladehinde Shoga is a medical doctor, indeed a surgeon.  He, along with other like  minds has assumed responsibilities for carrying out surgery on children with cleft lips, among other assistance to school children and women through his primary constituency, Rotary Club International.

Dr Shoga, 50, attended Loyola College and  The Polytechnic Ibadan for HSC and then College of Medicine, University of Lagos.  He had a stint in the General Hospital, Lagos, before moving to the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi.  Dr. Shoga is our role model this week.

Growing up
I grew up under very strict parents. My father would not compromise discipline and hard work.  Even when you were doing well in school, not even the usual well done. He believed you must do well anyway.  This is one of the things that have helped me out in life.  I have not faced any challenges more than what anybody would have faced in life, but the way you tackle or approach your challenges matters.

Dr Mathias Shoga and wife

I give glory to God.  My parents were not that rich but they never had any problem paying our school fess.  My father would stop at nothing to instill discipline in you and do what you ought to do at the right time.

That helped me a lot and I thank God, things generally went well for me.  I never had to do an exam twice, except for post graduate which  was a bit tougher.  Again, I have been blessed with a good wife and lovely children.

Choice of career.
It started like a childhood fantasy.  The story is that, I was admitted in a hospital when I was four years old.  Right there in the hospital, I admired the doctors, the way they carried out their duties and the nurses. I returned home calling myself a doctor, wanting to administer treatment on people.  Incidentally, the older people around then adopted it and they started calling me doctor.  I just made up my mind since then that I was going to become a doctor.

I began to work towards that and I thank God the path was okay.  It was not foisted on me; it started like a dream and it became a reality.  Though it wasn’t easy especially getting admission into college and having seen some who fell by the way side.  My father never condoned cutting edges, I had to face it squarely, but I thank God it paid off.

Youthful indulgences
I think I’ve always been a well behaved chap as I grew up. Once or twice in my young age, I smoke but then, I immediately realised that it was not really a way to go and I quickly dropped the idea.  But when you take that out of it, I wasn’t a rascal in any way, maybe because of the very strict background that I come from.

Lessons learned about life?
The first lesson is that fingers are not equal. God made you a special person and you should try to be who you are.  Again, in the course of my job, I have come to realise that there is a very thin line between life and death.

I have learned that you need to be patient and understand people’s situation.   That also brings me to some of the lessons learned from my father.  You have to be disciplined, be contented with what you have and be good to others.  Care for others around you and make sure everything is done in the right way, without going through short cut. Do not  attempt to cheat people or take what does not belong to you; have the spirit of fairness and so on, With that you will have every thing going on well for you.

How he intends to impart those lessons.
My involvement in Rotary has given me the opportunity to pursue and achieve those things I would have been doing individually.  You will agree with me that working alone may not give you the same level of success you would have attained working collectively as a group. We have been carrying out various projects collectively.

Again, part of the expectation of the Rotary International President this year is for us to actually reach out to younger people and take the message of ethics and proper behaviour to them.  And that is what we are doing.

On his service to humanity.
We recently carried out a programme to assist children with cleft lips.  We brought in surgeons from abroad with some of us here to carry out operations on some of these children with cleft lips and it was a huge success.

Quite a lot of children benefited from this gesture.  Don’t also forget that over the years, Rotary has also contributed immensely in the fight against polio in the federation.   Again, we have also been able to assist young women, not necessarily widows, but those who are in business but need some kind of financial assistance to improve their business.  This form of assistance comes in form of soft loan to improve their businesses.

We also have a programme coming up soon that will actually involve children in secondary schools, organised by different clubs so as to reach schools in different areas of our district.  You know we used to have school debate competitions those days. Now nobody talks about them anymore.  We are actually planning to organise that in secondary schools focussing on areas relating to ethics.

For instance, a club in Yaba will take on the schools in that area while also the one in Mushin will take on those in the area and so on.   When we do that, we believe we will get the children to begin to see the world in another way.

All they see now is what they read in the papers, see in movies and around them.  So, when we bring them together to engage in debates, some of the positive things they will learn from it will begin to develop in their lives and change their attitudes.  Our fear is that if we allow them to grow this way, these same people will eventually lead us tomorrow and we will be sorry for not guiding them aright.

Mathias Shoga

Primarily and individually, in the course of my work, I see the lonely, the poor and the rich, but working in that kind of environment actually allows me to touch the lives of ordinary people, who after involving in an accident, could not get up on their feet again.  Through my work, I’m able to do that, and then Rotary also provides another opportunity for serving the humanity.

This means, we team up with other like_minded people to provide service and offer scholarships to people from all walks of life, support their quest for education, and healthcare.   This platform has afforded me the opportunity to do more.   You see, as an individual, there are many who have a good heart, who will love to make a difference and attend to the needs of people in their environment, but then, they will be limited only to what they can do individually.

In other words, one would be doing just little on his own.   So, the spirit is important, when you have the spirit, even when you don’t have the means, you should not be laid back.  If you now find yourself in a group of people ready to come together and help those in need, it will go a long way.

If I was not a Rotarian, yes, I would still have the desire but my resources may not allow me to make a significant impact.  The inability to make significance impact can actually discourage you in doing what you desire to do. The opportunity to join my colleagues in this country and other parts of the world to carry out humanitarian service has strengthened me a lot.

Factors responsible for his success
Everyone can actually succeed.  What is needed is to know what to be done and taking the right steps to get them done. You have to work hard and believe that nothing comes easy. Above all, God of course, you need the divine grace.  In everything you do, you need His grace to be successful.

On whether he would like to change anything about himself
I’m very happy the way I am.  May be I would have loved to be more comfortable, because as human being, we will always aspire to greater heights.  But I’m happy and give glory to God.

Again, What I would have loved to change is that allowing good leadership in this country to thrive.  Put more clearly, I would have loved to be in politics if it was played in a better way.
I would have loved to serve in government and reached a larger number of people using the resources of government.

On the way he sees himself and what he will never do
I’m natural; I really don’t like people who show off.

On relaxation
I enjoy listening to all kinds of music; in fact I wish I was a musician.   I also like sports. I was a sprinter when I was younger, but I don’t have the time again. I am learning how to play golf now.

His Role Model
Well, quite a number of them nationally and internationally.  But I think I have been inspired by the good works of Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

NAME:     Dr Mathias Oladehinde Shoga
AGE:         50
Project:     Service to humanity
SCOPE:     To give succour to children with cleft lips, and assist
women especially widows in their economic lives.
CURRENT
BENEFICIARIES: Hundreds of children and women in states of the federation