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My Mum Turns 70: Melo Ni Mo Ma Ro Nipa Abiyamo Iyabode?

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  Melo ni mo ma ro nipa abiyamo Iyabode (how much will I broadcast about a mother incarnate Iyabode), who was bequeathed to mother earth on 13th February 1955? My siblings and I may not be throwing a 70th birthday party for our loving mum because of her grief over the recent loss of her younger brother, Dr. Ademola Akinmola (a medical doctor), whose painful passing in a ghastly road traffic mishap on 26th August 2024 remains a sore wound for ma’a mi (my mother – in Yoruba language) , Mrs Iyabode Moromoke Lillian Ademujimi (nee Akinmola). Be that as it may, my pen needs neither a sound of music nor clinging plates & cutlery to expressly and openly celebrate and acknowledge the relentless, selfless and priceless disposition of my mum to her husband and three offspring - my humble self (her first male), Toun (her second child & only female) and Toyosi (her second male & last child). Ma’ami is the first child of her late father, Pa Israel Adenodi Akinmola, who departed t...

Our Failing Social Order; Her Fading Crucial Other

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    The pockets of preventable deaths due to fire incidences resulting from accidental spillage of gasoline by trucks conveying these highly flammable substances over the past few weeks are proofs of dearth of a vital societal fabric in Nigeria. Poverty, illiteracy and ignorance may have been largely responsible for the unrestrained rush by passers-by to scoop ‘free’ petrol that may unfortunately burst into flames at the slightest trigger, resulting in wanton killings as witnessed across three States recently. Nonetheless the triple excuses I just stated, there is a prevailing decline of social order - a dangerous wave of less observance of standards, values and laws. How come Nigerians living in diaspora, irrespective of their socioeconomic, literacy and awareness status, observe the laid down social order (or earn sanctions) in their respective countries of residence abroad? Notwithstanding the economic challenges that Nigeria currently experiences, and the policy initia...

A Nude Yearn for A New Year!

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  Happy New Year to all Nigerians. I align with your naked hearts, bare mouths and unclothed words that convey our candid collective desires of a less burdensome economy and functional society in year 2025 unlike the old year – 2024. What we yearn for are normal things, which unfortunately, have been missing in our nationhood for forty years or more, making the current ‘abnormal’ situation appear as ‘normal’ features of the Nigerian society. Using this and other media to reach those in authority about year 2025, therefore, here is our natural request for a new breath, or fresh air, in 2025 - a nude yearn for a new year! On one hand, it is a fact that many occupiers of public leadership positions in Nigeria may not necessarily have the quality and character of good leaders. On the other hand, it is fair to point out the reality that many inhabitants of Nigeria are also far from been called good citizens. Despite this dual shortcoming, it is ironical that the latter group (the go...

Public Service Reform Initiatives: Ignoring the Highfaluting; Igniting the Low-hanging

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  Being a paper presented by Dr Adetolu Ademujimi at the Maiden investiture of Rotarian Royal Bunmi Alade, FCTI, FCA, Permanent Secretary, Ondo State Ministry of Physical Planning & Urban Development by Rotary Club of Akure Royals on Friday 21st December 2024 at SITA Hall, Akure Protocols Compliments of the yuletide season to everyone in the room. It’s heartwarming to be here to felicitate Rotarian Royal and Chief Bunmi Alade, a distinguished bureaucrat whom I have been privileged to be acquainted with for about a decade as one our admired “Ogas” in public service of Ondo State. It is also a spec of honour for my humble self to have been requested to deliver a lecture on a burning topic of public governance at his maiden investiture by Rotary Club of Akure Royals. If efficiency, transparency, accountability and adaptability are the expected outcomes of Nigeria’s bureaucratic machinery – the public service, then the subject in consideration is necessary and urgent, but wit...

Local Production for National Possession - Of HIV Medications and Tests Kits in Nigeria

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On this 2024 World AIDS Day, please tell your neighbours, friends, family members, work colleagues and all other Nigerians that HIV is now like hypertension, diabetes mellitus, osteoarthritis – a mere chronic disease! Thanks to the efficacy of the Anti-Retroviral drugs externally sourced by Nigeria’s HIV program development partners and freely offered to Nigerian beneficiaries, with United States President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) bearing the largest funding portfolio, trailed by the Global Fund, and then others. Apart from flickers of input-financing effort through salary payment to healthcare workers who man the HIV clinics and purchase of some units of condoms (and rarely, test kits), the national and subnational governments of Nigeria collectively contribute a meagre percentage to the overall annual financial burden of the program to cater to the estimated 1.63 million Nigerians on treatment for HIV. Overall, the unsaid words appear to accentuate a silent interpret...