On the first of July 2019, a celebration took place in an exclusive suburb of Victoria Island, Lagos. It was the 90th birthday of Dr Bolaji Ajenifuja, one of the doyens of the specialty of Pediatrics in Nigeria, and a man who, even in his lifetime, has already become a legend.
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“I have taken care of four generations of Onirus’ , he could say, in a matter-of-fact way. ‘I looked after his father, then the current Oba, and then his children, and now his grandchildren…”
He is a man who converses without affectation. He makes the truth look commonplace.
His youthful ambition, after his medical studies in the United Kingdom, was to become a gynaecologist. Dr Norman Williams, the Chief Medical Adviser to the Nigerian Government of the day, must have seen something in the young Ajenifuja – perhaps the air of care and compassion he exuded as a junior Medical Officer, when he persuaded him to try his hands at the then ‘virgin’ field of Paediatrics. He accepted the advice of the older man and began a stint as a Medical Officer in the unit at the General Hospital, Odan.
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In 1962, a new hospital was opened in the Lagos city-centre. It was located in the warren of streets and alleys that characterized the traditional areas of the expanding city. It was named Massey Street Children’s Hospital and was the first dedicated Children’s hospital in West Africa. The young Ajenifuja became one of its pioneer staffs, and spent some years happily labouring to help the sick babies of market women as they battled with malaria, childhood pneumonia and an assortment of other ailments.
Ajenifuja would take a break from the rigours of Massey Street to travel to England for professional qualifications.
He returned to Massey as a Consultant Paediatrician, having obtained the Membership of the Royal College of Paediatrics.
As you berthed in Victoria Island on this particular day, the memories of the 80th birthday of this great doctor and mentor at the same venue exactly ten years ago were still fresh in your mind. You wandered now what could be different about this one.
At 90, Dr Ajenifuja was still practicing Paediatrics.
He explained this with a genial shrug of his shoulders, as though in helpless resignation.
“My patients would not let me rest. Many of them – I looked after their parents. And then I looked after them. Now I’m looking after their children.”
That was how the story of the Oniru Royal family came about. It was clearly one of a great many.
“Even if it’s only two hours consultation I do daily, the clinic is always busy. I enjoy it.”
It is trite to say he does not need the money – he hasn’t needed money for a long time. When he retired from practice at Massey Street Hospital after fourteen years of sterling service, many of the greatest accomplishments of his life were still to come. But it was clear even then that he was a man with a bent for enterprise and private practice. He was already well-to-do.
When he moved from his government quarters in Ikoyi, it was to his mansion in Ogalade Close, Victoria Island.
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In 1968, Ajenifuja and a number of other pioneers in the field came together to form the Paediatrics Association of Nigeria. His compatriots of the day bore names that ring a bell in Nigeria to this day – Olikoye Ransome Kuti, Ishaya Audu, Asuquo Antia, Anjorin Animashaun. This coming together occurred while Dr Ajenifuja was a Consultant at Massey. Not long after his ‘retirement’, he was elected as President of the Association. Other accolades would follow. He was elected as President of the Union of African Paediatric Associations and Societies, becoming the first Nigerian to occupy that exalted office. He became a Standing Committee member of the International Paediatrics Association.
There is something very ‘Old Lagos’ about Dr Ajenifuja. He knows everybody, or so it seems, and everybody knows him. An early member of Yoruba Tennis Club, Island Club and the Exclusive Club of Ikorodu, he was also a pioneering member of the Rotary Club in Lagos.
The son of a well-to-do aso oke merchant from Ikorodu has made good and clearly has a lot to celebrate. Gathered together to celebrate his epochal entry into the nonagenarian category were friends, family, and generations of patients – people who appreciate how the now frail-looking and slow-moving Ajenifuja has impacted their lives.
He was seated at the head of a table in the expansive sitting room. His friends were clustered around him – the elders and eminents of Yoruba Tennis Club and the various clubs and associations he belonged to. Alhaji Femi Okunnu, suave and dapper as usual in jacket and bow tie, Baba Eto Chief Folarin Coker, Dr Olufemi Bucknor. Their conversation was lively and vigorous, filled with much laughter. Perhaps they were talking about matters many years old, pertaining to a life and a Lagos that existed long before many of the younger people in the room were even born.
You bowed low to pay your respects. Dr Ajenifuja held your hand and tried to introduce you to his friends.
“Chief Folarin Coker – Baba Eto…You know him?”
“Yessir,” you said, greeting the pioneer Permanent Secretary for Information and Strategy in Lagos State, who was vision-impaired. He reached for your hand and erupted in a long string of Yoruba prayers. “I was PS when Alausa Clinic was named after you sir…”
“And this is my friend – Dr Bucknor…”
“Dr Bucknor employed me into the Service sir…”
Having proved your bona fides with the elders, you sought out a spot among revelers closer to your age. It was not every day a pioneer and icon of the Medical profession gathered Lagos society to celebrate 90 years of a life filled with sterling achievement and service to humanity, especially the people of Lagos. It was a moment to be savoured.
Femi Olugbile
