Death of Prof Ogunlesi, Nigeria's doyen of medicine, a great loss to Africa, says Dr Gloria Shoda

  Late Prof Theophilus Ogunlesi

By Charles Segun Adegbite

The Regional President of the African Regional Council of Women, ARCW, and Board member of International Council of Women, ICW, in charge of Africa, Dr Gloria Laraba Shoda, MFR, has described as a huge loss, the death of the Nigeria's first Professor of Medicine, Emeritus Professor Theophilus Oladipo Ogunlesi.

In a condolence message made available to news media, Mrs Shoda, who is the immediate past National President of National Council of Women Societies, NCWS, described the death of Ogunlesi, as being not only a huge loss to Nigeria but the entire Africa.

According to this Regional Coordinator of women organisations in Africa, the worth of Prof Ogunlesi and the loss was difficult to quantify.

 "How do we describe the loss of a man who trained the former Vice Chancellor of Nigeria premier university, the University of Ibadan and later Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, and many other professors and medical experts in Nigeria and abroad?

"How do we quantify the worth and loss of a man who pioneered the establishment of Department of Medicine of Nigeria's premier university, as the first H.O.D. and founding the University College Hospital, UCH, Ibadan, where a lot of who people in Nigeria, who could have died prematurely, were rescued from the jaw of death?

"How do we estimate the worth of a man who laid solid foundation for the establishment of university teaching hospitals in Nigeria, which became a model for creation of university medical schools in Africa and helped raised many of the first generation of medical doctors and other medical personnel in Nigeria?" She asked further.

She stated further: "His death, without mincing words, is a huge loss. We however take solace in the fact that he lived a fulfilled life, reached the old age of 99 and left great legacies behind in Remo; as the Baasegun of Remoland, in Ogun; as Chairman of Ogun State Civil Service Commission and in Nigeria, as first  Professor of Medicine, founding head of UCH and first Emeritus Professor of Medicine in Nigeria." She explained.

Mrs Shoda, who holds the chieftaincy title of Yeye Moye of Remoland, where Prof Ogunlesi hailed from,  commiserated with the family of the deceased, the Akarigbo and Paramount Ruler of Remoland, Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun, who is also a Remo prince and the Nigeria President, Muhammadu Buhari.