Dr Muyi Aina, standing so tall at fifty.
By Babajide Obafemi.
Can someone raise a glass of wine to celebrate this colossus called Dr. Muyi Aina, the CEO of National Primary Health Care Development Authority? Can we glow with pride because we have this medical doctor and a public health professional as an Okun man, a Kogite, and a Nigeria? He is fifty today, but for me, looking at his achievements both in the private and public sector, it appears that he is more than fifty. The numbers of professionals in Nigeria who knew what they wanted early and went for it and built a sterling cv through it are not in the majority. That is not to say one is looking down on others. Not even this writer can boast of that kind of professional speed; so you may see it as a case of pointing a finger at someone, while the four remaining points at you.
I had met this great man through a kith and kin, ESV Gbenga Olurotimi, CEO Olurotimi and Co, as huge and compelling as his name is, he came in like nobody, he sat down with no airs around him and was so soft spoken. I was soon blown away by how soft he speaks and how intelligently he delivers his words and how so compelling he drives his points home. Again, I noticed how much a listener he is and how fluid he was in delivering.
Not a giant, but not a pint size, Dr Muyi gained in knowledge, what he may have missed in stature and so, if there are a thousand men standing, he would have still shown brilliantly amongst them, except if competence is jettison for incompetence or nepotism.
A few moments later, at our meeting point, his brother worked in, and he happened to be someone I had met and had striken a friendship cord with back then when he came to do his masters in the UK. We hugged and bantered as we used to, and as his usual character of being jovial Femi Aina, Dr Muyi’s brother also exudes brilliance and great knowledge, then I murmured to myself that it is in the family.
I never recovered from that meeting because DMA waoooed me with every utterance that came from his mouth, then I said to myself, Nigeria is truly and richly blessed with abundance of brilliant young men, if only we can harness those brains and allow them lead us through this logjam. Little wonder why the Western World comes to ransack and cart away our exceptional brians for the upgrade of their own world.
After our meeting, I had to look him up on the search engine, and as of then, he has had over 25 years of experience working and leading in the public health sector with different international agencies.
With a track record of solving issues on public and primary health all over the World, it wasn’t out of place when the Tinubu led administration courted and appointed him as the CEO of NPHCDA, a sector that is truly meant to help the grassroot in the matters of health and wellbeing. It is, indeed, a round peg appointment in a round hole.
Dr Muyi Aina is not a man who grapples for position or jostles for posts. He is a man who wants to serve. He threw his heart into the ring to contest for the Kogi West Senatorial position in 2023, but when he noticed some foul plays and shenanigans, he withdrew quietly and faced his normal life He is not ready to be at dagger drawn with anybody over the need to serve and give back to his people, that describes who he is and how intramundanely and negatively unambitious he can be.
Today, DMA is blazing the trail in the primary health sector. He is giving back to the society and solving the health sector’s grassroots problems; he is doing so with relentless abandoning, not minding locality, tribe or race.
DMA is a lover and helper of people. He is also a supporter of the Ona-Ara Movement, a movement founded by ESV Olurotimi to actualisse a positive service to humanity nationwide.
Today, in recognition of his selflessness and pragmatism, we raise fifty glasses of champagne in a beautiful toast to him on his golden jubilee.
Babajide Obafemi is a journalist and public affairs analyst.
