Nigeria last week reported its first case of the deadly coronavirus that has so far claimed over 3,000 lives around the world. The index case was an Italian citizen who travelled to Lagos, Nigeria’s economic nerve-centre, the Ministry of Health reported.
This is coming six years after the country successfully battled to contain the equally deadly Ebola virus, working with the World Organisation (WHO) and other concerned agencies.
The index case of the Ebola virus in Nigeria, Patrick Sawyer, a naturalised US citizen of Liberian origin, got into the country through Lagos, a major gateway into the country as it plays host to its busiest international airport and seaports.
Babatunde Fashola, then governor of Lagos State, Jide Idris, commissioner for health, and his team of medical experts were at the heart of the battle to contain Ebola.
Now, with Nigeria recording its first case of coronavirus, Lagos is again on the spotlight. This time, attention has shifted to Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who sits as governor, Akin Abayomi, his commissioner for health, and their team of experts.
In particular, questions are being asked whether the state commissioner for health, who incidentally is the chief guardsman against coronavirus, has what it takes to fight the battle.
But those in the know say Abayomi is walking a familiar path as he was part of the team put together under Jide Idris as commissioner to contain Ebola.
“I have listened to him lecture and teach. I do not doubt in my mind that he is competent and will make a good commissioner for health,” one of his peers who spoke to BusinessDay on condition of anonymity said on phone.
Abayomi himself says he’s prepared and has what it takes.
“As a professor of medicine at the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research in Yaba, Lagos, I have been responsible for contributing to defining the National Medical Research Agenda. I have also been a consultant to the Lagos State Biosecurity Project in the Lagos State Ministry of Health under Dr Jide Idris, where we have been building capacity for Lagos State to withstand devastating biosecurity threats like Ebola for four years,” Abayomi said.
“I am at the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) meeting on COVID-19 where updates were given on the 7 thematic pillars and issues relating to #COVID19Lagos. The key highlights are: the on-going contact tracing and monitoring of about 50 persons in Lagos and 28 in Ogun State,” the commissioner tweeted on Tuesday.
Who is Akin Abayomi?
Abayomi is a professor emeritus of medicine with specialisation in internal medicine, environmental health and biosecurity. He completed his primary and secondary education in Ibadan and King’s College, Lagos, before going ahead to study medicine at the Royal Medical College of Saint Bartholomew’s Hospital in the University of London, where he specialised in Internal Medicine and Hematopathology.
He did his mandatory National Youth Service Corps programme in Kaduna State in 1987.
After completing his residency programme at University College Hospital in Ibadan, he attained Fellowship of Internal Medicine at the Royal College of Physicians UK and Fellowship in Pathology (Hematology) at the College of Medicine of South Africa.
He obtained a Masters in Ecology from the University of Pretoria and became a certified expert in Biosecurity and Biorisk management from the International Federation of Biosafety Associations.
He has worked in several countries around the world in internal medicine and has been exposed to a variety of geographical variations of disease patterns within the discipline of internal medicine.
The 68-year-old professor also trained in ecosystem integrity, wilderness management and biosecurity and has a special interest in environmental health and passion for ecosystem integrity and the impact of environmental degradation on human health, practising holistic organic agroforestry in combination with ecosystem conservation.
Abayomi manages a 300-acre organic bio habitat forest conservation project in his spare time in Osun State on the banks of Osun River.
What prepared him for current role?
Abayomi’s focus has mainly been on the concept of emerging infectious diseases and the development of laboratory and clinical capacity in Africa. He was a PI on the H3Africa Genomic project, director of the Cape Haematology Bone Marrow Transplant Unit and adviser to the Royal College of Pathologists for Africa. He was the president of the South African Society of Haematology and serves on the council of the International Society for Clinical Cytometry and the European, Middle East and Africa Bio-banking Society.
Until his appointment as the commissioner for health in Nigeria’s most populous city, he was a professor of Clinical Medicine at the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Emeritus in the Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, the University of Stellenbosch in Cape Town and Principal Investigator of the Global Emerging Pathogens Treatment Consortium or GET, which was established at the height of the Ebola Outbreak to address bio-security concerns in Africa.
He is a member of the African Academy of Science committee on Data governance. Abayomi was also the lead consultant on the Biobank, Biosecurity and Biodata Ebola Rescue Projects in Sierra Leone and Lagos Nigeria. He consulted for the Lagos State Biosecurity Project and the West African Health Organisation Biosecurity and Biobanking framework to service the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) member countries.
JOSHUA BASSEY & STEPHEN ONYEKWELU
