I was at Oke Agbe, Akoko North West in Ondo state home to business mogul Otunba Solomon Oladunni and the late Chief Rufus Giwa where I was Guest Speaker and Special guest of honour at the commissioning of one of the 50 Mega schools built by the Mimiko administration. Each of the schools with capacity for 550 pupils provides conducive learning environment with contemporary facilities for the learners. The facilities include among others: computer laboratories, modern library, sick bay, and recreational facilities with magnetic boards.

Primary school children clad in uniforms freely provided by government were seen working dexterously with the computer to the amazement and appreciation of parents and guests conducted round as witnesses. The aesthetic beauty of the architectural design and landscape of the Mega School is food for the eyes!

Nelson Mandela tells us Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. It is education that could and would make the child of a ‘nobody’ to compete and most times outclass the children of somebody.

Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan says that education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family while Malcolm X affirms that education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today. The great philosopher Obafemi Awolowo says the Mind is the master of man.

In the light of the greatness and power attached to education as enumerated in these quotes, Dr Olusegun Mimiko has been harping on the theme of education these past 8 years and that is why he has refined and redefined the parameters of education in his state. His mantra has always been service to motherland, and there can be no better service than to ensure that your motherland has a better future. This is what has informed his administration’s unparalleled investment in education, the provision of several primary school blocks, secondary schools, outstanding world class 50 Mega schools, the refurbishment, expansion and reinvigoration of the Adekunle Ajasin University at Akungba, and the first of its kind the University of Medical Sciences at Ondo City, the first in West Africa and second in the whole of Africa among several others. Education as emphasised in my speech is ‘the catalyst for development’.

Investment in knowledge [education] yields the best interest, dividend, according to Benjamin Franklin and to that end we are guaranteed that the huge investment by Mimiko in education is bound to yield bountiful interest. History will record this as imperishable legacy.

Some critics are quick to query the need for Mega schools arguing that most towns where these Mega schools are been established do not have sufficient population in their catchment areas to fill up the spaces in such schools. This line of thought is of course either myopic or deliberately mischievous. Nigeria today is one of the fastest growing countries in the world. She is currently the 7^th most populous country in the world with her 186,879,760 people [Source: Internet World Stats] and believed to jump to 225 million in less than ten years, it is only reasonable that a man with foresight should plan ahead. Besides, Mega schools operate on the economics of scale and they are a win-win situation for the people and the state.

I should quickly add that Mimiko being an award winning medical doctor knows the relationship of sound body to sound mind as beautifully espoused by the late Professor B.O.O. Osuntokun. He has ensured that along with education adequate provision was made for the health and general well being of not only the school-going children but also of their parents especially their mothers who Nature made to provide nurture and nourishment to their children and wards.

This leads us to the second leg of his impressive legacies waiting for history to take cognisance of:

THE TRAUMA CENTRE, ONDO.

The greatest attraction for history is Mimiko’s extraordinary investments in health care delivery facilities making his state first among equals in Nigeria. The most outstanding is the world acclaimed Trauma Centre being currently run by Dr Oluwole Ige as CMD. I took time to visit the facilities. And according to the CMD Dr Ige the hospital became functional exactly 3years ago, November 2013. It is a purpose built hospital with a structure that allows the right flow for efficient trauma and surgical care delivery, comparable to the best centres around the World.

The environment and surrounding is striking, clean and devoid of the typical hospital smell. It is adorned with well maintained lawns and general aesthetics that can make a visitor feel like being a patient.

The centre has a group of young, committed Professional caregivers across medical fields that are full of energy and drive to deliver excellence at all times.

The hospital has state of the art equipment, instruments, gadgets and hospital furniture for efficient service delivery and it is remarkable that these have been well maintained and the necessary supplies needed for functionality of these equipments have never been lacking since the inception of the hospital unlike what is obtainable in most public hospitals around the country where equipment get out of use due to lack of maintenance or consumables.

It is worthy of note that all these resources are connected to efficient service delivery by a well researched operating protocol and processes that recognises the inherent challenges of trauma and surgical care delivery in Nigeria, such that victims and patients who require emergency care get the right and prompt attention. The hospital renders care across all surgical specialties, which by the American System designation of Trauma Centers, makes it a level 1 trauma Centre. This is the highest degree of sophistication.

Other services rendered by the hospital include Arthroplasty surgery i.e. Total knee and hip replacement, minimally invasive surgery like laparoscopy, Arthroscopy and Endoscopic procedures, all the range of Spine Surgeries, Pediatric Orthopedics, Sport Medicine, Cancer and Oncological Care, Complex trauma care, Burns, Plastic and Reconstruction Surgery, Urological Surgery, General Surgery, Maxillofacial and General Dental surgical services, Otorhyngolaryngology (ENT), Cardiothoracic Surgery, Vascular Surgery, Neurosurgery, Ophthalmology, Pediatric Surgery, Interventional Radiology, Anesthesia and Critical Care as well as Physical therapy and automated multi specialty laboratory and blood transfusion services.

The trauma response is fast and efficient, it gives the maximum chance of survival to victims of trauma irrespective of the severity or degree of injury, this is achieved through a crash system that has the state of the art crash bay as its engine room. In the Crash room are Overhead bed Panels with constant Oxygen flow, suction pumps, multi parameter invasive monitors per station, a functional crash cart with constant supplies, Point of care machine that can rapidly carry out blood investigations including arterial blood gases, base deficit and lactate level which are essential investigations that is not done in more than 90% of Nigerian hospitals. The crash room is also equipped with high resolution ultrasound machines for Focused assessment sonography for trauma (FAST scan), mobile X ray, facilities to quickly establish and maintain Airway including tracheotomy, insert central lines and chest tubes. Any patient who requires ventilator support has that commenced in the crash room.

Unpublished data in the hospital puts the reduction in Morbidity and Mortality at more than 50% as compared to other tertiary centers in the country. The Centre also has the record time for carrying out emergency surgical intervention which implies that all the preliminary preparations before surgery are done in a record time. It's also noteworthy as an objective measure of these feats that the hospital was granted accreditation to train post graduate doctors in Surgical specialties, in an unprecedented record time of less than 1year after its commencement by the National Postgraduate Medical College, the West African college of surgeons after a year and later by the West African College of Surgeons and National post graduate medical college for Anesthesia and Radiology

MOTHER AND CHILD HOSPITAL ONDO, MCHO.

History will certainly look kindly on Mother and Child Hospital Ondo, MCHO

Currently headed by DR Michael O. GBALA as The Chief Medical Director,

The Mother and Child Hospital Ondo (MCHO), commissioned on November 30, 2012 has according to the CMD registered and attended to over 85,212 patients in the four years of her existence. It has performed over Four thousands of major Obstetrics and Gynaecological surgeries free of charge. The hospital is a major battle axe in the Ondo State, world-acclaimed “ABIYE Safe Motherhood Initiative”, a lethal bullet against maternal death and under-5 morbidity and mortality. This was instrumental to the success of Ondo State being the only State in Nigeria to achieve MDG 5. MCHO has been accredited and commenced training of postgraduate resident doctors in Obstetrics and Gynaecology by the West African College of Surgeons (WACS) and National Post Graduate Medical College of Nigeria (NPMCN). Residents from some Federal Teaching Hospitals and Federal Medical Centres do come to MCHO for Clinical attachment. The Anaesthesia unit of MCHO collaborates with Ondo State Trauma and Surgical Centre for training of Residents in Anaesthesia.
The Obstetrics and Gynaecological unit is already developing into multiple subspecialty units including Feto-maternal, Oncological, Community obstetrics, and Reproductive/Fertility and Contraceptive units. The Neonatal units of the MCHO have done so well such that premature babies delivered at 26 weeks or weighing 600gm at birth survive routinely. This is almost unparalleled in the Nigerian medical setting. This success has been recognised in some leading Universities in the United State of America leading to collaborations and exchange programs for our doctors and nurses in University of Iowa. The Children Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is already in a collaborative study with the Mother and Child hospital Ondo.

The MCHO has been recognised by World Health Organization (WHO) as a research friendly institution and has participated in her recent researches including the BOLD study, Growth study etc. MCHO has been listed as a Research Centre for several multinational studies including the corticosteroid study, Kangaroo care study, etc. Several local studies are ongoing.
Some studies conducted at MCHO by her Consultants have been published by leading international journals and some are in the process of being published. The MCHO consultants have done well in projecting the Ondo State Government’s laudable health achievements by making solid presentations of their clinical and academic works at local, regional and international conferences e.g. FIGO Canada 2015, WACS Cameroun 2016, SOGON 2016.

THE KIDNEY CARE CENTRE, ONDO

The Kidney Care Centre Ondo completes the picture of the One-Stop Centre for health care delivery facilities in the Hospital Complex and is currently headed by Dr. Akinbodewa AA (MBChB, FMCP, MISN) as The Chief Medical Director.

Since inception, the Kidney Care Centre has achieved the following feats:

It is the 2nd largest dialysis centre in Nigeria. According to preliminary reports Ondo State Kidney Care Centre has surpassed all other public institutions that receive supplies of dialysis consumables from them within one year of commencing operation.

So far,1,440 new cases have been registered, 560 admissions recorded and 3,591 sessions of dialysis from March 2014 to November 19 2016 were conducted at an average of 1,150 sessions of dialysis per annum.

The Centre is the only full-fledged Renal Hospital in Nigeria. The first of its kind. This is because other renal units are sub-units of a medical department of a teaching hospital or medical centre.

It is also the only Renal facility with dedicated Resident Renal dietitians (BSc Dietetics and Nutrition), Clinical Psychologists (MSc Clinical Psychology), Medical Social Worker and Biomedical Engineers (Ghana trained) working with the Nephrologists and dialysis nurses. This is unprecedented in Nigeria.

The Centre has 18 beds on the male and female wards to cater for the patients who require in-hospital care. The hospital runs a 24-hour service.

The dialysis unit is arguably the most equipped in Nigeria with 24 dialysis machines. The first phase of installation has 10 machines that are actively in use. KCC is the most viable centre that can dialyse patients with infections such as HIV/AIDS and viral hepatitis B and C. Referrals are received from many recognised teaching hospitals and Federal medical centres for dialysis of such patients.

It has carried out Community screening of over 3,000 indigenes of Ondo State. Screening is also freely given to several private and public institutions in Ondo town such as banks, schools, police stations, Federal Road Safety Corps etc, students and lecturers of Adeyemi College of Education. There are standing Outreach and Research teams which coordinate these community outreaches. KCC on some occasions also collaborated with the Catholic Diocese, the Redeemed Christian Church of God, the Junior Chamber International, Ondo Kingdom Chapter and the Ikeja Christian Fellowship to achieve these feats.

The Centre has published over a dozen original papers and case reports in reputable journals (both Nigerian and International) since inception of clinical activities in 2014. Notable among this is that the Centre became the first in Africa to discover and report the rare co-existence of lupus nephritis and Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease through research drive. This is significant because all over the world, only 32 cases of this important disease complex have been reported. This report has been published in Annals of African Medicine, an internationally recognised medical journal. This discovery is of immense benefit to the promotion of the image of the medical village and Ondo State at large. For example, this report has received almost 800 views on line by various readers.

In June 2015, this Centre became the first to host the Peritoneal Dialysis Training for Nephrology Nurses in Nigeria. Participants came from recognised institutions like UNILORIN, National Hospital Abuja, Lagos University Teaching Hospital, etc.

The Centre carries out Capacity building for staff of the Centre such as international experience and training of the Head of Nursing Services at the Dubai Fresenius Conference for renal nurses in 2014 and review update course for the Consultant Nephrologist at the Hamburg Fresenius sponsored conference in 2014. Continuing Medical Education training for medical doctors within and outside Ondo State holds annually at the Kidney Care Centre while the centre collaborates with Mother and Child Hospital Ondo to reduce maternal mortality. More than a dozen women who developed kidney failure have been saved by such an arrangement in collaboration with the Trauma and Surgical Centre Ondo to care for acute renal failure patients and reduce mortality in the Intensive Care Unit.

Space may not permit enumeration of all his achievements and contributions such as human capital development, urban renewal efforts exemplified by recreational centres, world class event centre ‘tagged the Dome’, modern super markets and modern neighbourhood markets with auxiliary complements built all over the 18 LGs, lush parks which have transformed the state especially the capital city to the cynosure of all eyes. The community development efforts is also unique and highly commendable where over 664 projects emerging from a need assessment process according to the dictates of the people themselves in a bottom up approach and top down support by government were executed in over 360 communities of the state, housing development policy and other inexhaustible life enriching programmes and policies.
No doubt, there is a significant place for Mimiko in the annals of history.

•Chief Tola Adeniyi, a former Managing Director of Daily Times of Nigeria, is Executive Chairman, The Knowledge Plaza and Founder Global Intelligentsia for Buhari. He can be reached via can be reached via adetolaadeniyi@hotmail.com

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