How Aproko Doctor is addressing medical issues through social media, storytelling

In a country like Nigeria where healthcare challenges seem insurmountable, Aproko Doctor has lent his voice in many ways.

Known for simplifying complex medical issues through humor and storytelling, he has become a household name, empowering millions of Nigerians to take charge of their health.

From using social media to spread critical health information to stepping into Nollywood with a focus on health education, his journey is nothing short of inspiring.

In this interview with BusinessDay’s Chioma Onuh, Aproko Doctor opens up about the moments that shaped his passion for health advocacy, the importance of preventive care, and how technology can revolutionize healthcare in Nigeria. He also shares the personal health challenges that have driven his work and offers advice to young Nigerians who aspire to make a difference in a nation where opportunities often seem limited. Excerpts-

Your journey from humble beginnings to becoming one of Nigeria’s most influential health advocates has inspired many. Could you share some key moments in your story that shaped your passion for health advocacy?

I graduated from Nnamdi Azikiwe University in 2015, I had to do my house job a year after in Imo State university Teaching Hospital and I had the opportunity to do that in a rural area that’s Orlu part of Imo State and this gave me quite the opportunity to see just how behaviour can affect healthcare. I met women who would use cow dung, charcoal, to try to abort their children’s pregnancies. I also met women who did not believe in hospital deliveries but would rather go to churches to get delivered and this led to a number of lethal cases. A lot of people didn’t make it alive and I needed to change that by educating the public.

Initially we started with outreaches here and there, teaching people in their own traditional languages and I knew that more people needed to hear this. It was my first experience with patients that shook my passion for health advocacy because I knew that people needed to understand and to hear, be more aware about health issues and how their lifestyle can influence it.

You often use humor and storytelling to simplify medical issues for the average Nigerian. Why do you think this approach resonates so well with people, and how do you balance entertainment with delivering accurate health information?

I think that’s because as human beings we generally have a bias towards storytelling. I mean most of the biggest lessons we’ve learnt in life came via stories.We as a people have evolved via storytelling from the old days of the masai tribe and even when our ancestors were still wanderers, we told stories and so, unfortunately at some point we started lecturing people and it looks like the professional world lost some sort of contact with the people who were not in the professional world simply because we didn’t tell stories. We focused on facts and as Nigerian’s we somehow tilt towards humor. I mean that’s one of the ways we cope with pressing issues especially in the world and I knew that if I was going to get the attention of people I needed to do it via storytelling.

We had tried different approaches, I had tried educating, using lecture format, graphic designs but after experimenting over and over again we decided to use storytelling as our major strategy and it kicked off with the Nigerian audience and apparently now with African audiences including people in diaspora.

We’ve been able to balance entertainment with delivering accurate health information because first and foremost I do not describe myself as an entertainer, I am first a medical doctor who uses entertainment and storytelling in order to pass across health messaging and this keeps us in check.

With the state of Nigeria’s healthcare system, many citizens face limited access to proper medical care. What motivated you to step up and use social media as a tool to educate and provide health information to the public?

So a lot of people may not know this but when I was in school, in my 400 level I was burdened with trying to educate people using media generally. I know I auditioned in two radio stations in Anambra state and got rejected at both of them but that did not stop me from trying to reach more people using the media . At some point I had to look at the tools at my reach and social media was a part of them. This was in the early days of Facebook and I started sharing health information using Facebook. I started from Facebook and went into Instagram, Twitter now X and here we are at the moment.
I call social media ‘New Media’, because it democratises information and we’ve been able to reach a huge number of people using this and I’m grateful for how far we’ve come and the amount of people we’ve reached. We’ve been able to build a community of almost 10 million people across our social media channel.The motivation for me is that I needed to use the tools I had within my reach and social media was a part of them.

You starred in the Netflix movie ‘Strain,’ which raises awareness about sickle cell anaemia. What motivated you to step into the acting world, and how do you see storytelling through film contributing to health education in Nigeria?

As Nigerians like I said we learn a lot through storytelling and one of the biggest ways we tell stories is through nollywood which is one of the biggest industries especially in Africa. My acting career with ‘Strain’ was my first and it required me to step out of my comfort zone and actually embody the stories that are not told. I believe that.

Storytelling through film will contribute a lot to health education in Africa and I believe that because we have also produced movies of our own, we’re not yet on Netflix but we will be on Netflix soon.

Our first movie is a short film called STITCHES , it’s about cervical cancer and how it weighs into our daily lifestyle, it’s currently on Facebook. The reception was very beautiful and I believe that people can relate better to storytelling through film, they can see and envision what they see as well as understanding, and for us that will be our next course of action.

Nigeria has one of the highest rates of maternal and infant mortality in the world. In your opinion, what are the major causes, and how can we address these issues at both grassroots and governmental levels?

It’s no news that Nigeria has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in Nigeria and one of the causes are bleeding during pregnancy and obstructed labour infection amongst many others. We need to recognize that some of these cases are not just cases by themselves, there are usually contributing factors like poverty, inadequate health services and situations like ignorance. Like I mentioned before, I practised in a teaching hospital located in a rural area and a lot of cases I witnessed could have been prevented if there was proper education.This also goes with kids with infection, pneumonia, Malnutrition, and malaria. This also contributes to cases of infant mortality especially under five(5)

As these issues are solved especially at the grassroots levels and governmental levels I think one of the interventions will be to improve the primary healthcare services and systems that currently exists and the reason we need to do this is the primary healthcare system is usually the first point of call when it has to do with healthcare and so there has to be interest in improving the primary healthcare centres that currently exist in Nigeria.

Health promotion is also a very important factor that needs to be considered. Unfortunately when we are budgeting towards health, health promotion seems to take a back seat. Health promotion , health prevention also need to be taken into account and that has to do with educating and informing people about certain things at the grassroots level. Obstetrics services also need to be very accessible, and affordable so the pregnant women can always receive the care they need.

Read also: Strengthening your heart: A journey towards optimal cardiovascular health

As someone who has faced your own personal health challenges, how has this influenced your approach to health advocacy, especially when it comes to raising awareness and providing support for people dealing with critical health issues?

My personal health challenges have actually helped me to be on both sides of the health keep in Nigeria. One of the ways it has influenced my approach towards health advocacy is that it has helped me understand what some pressing challenges would be on the other side and how to effect that. It has also increased the understanding that certain Nigerian health patients might have, especially for critical issues.This has actually helped me to focus on prevention because if my case were found any later it would have been a disaster. So I’m focused on early prevention and early signs.

As a behavioural change communicator, you have worked hard to educate Nigerians on various health issues. What has been the most rewarding part of this journey, and what keeps you motivated to continue?

As a behavioural change communicator who has been at this for the past 9 years, the most rewarding part of this journey would be day to day interactions with people who meet me on a daily basis from almost every stage of life, the old, the young, the elderly, the middle aged, who tell me face to face just how impactful my work has been in their lives and to me that’s the most rewarding part and it keeps me motivated to actually continue because it shows that my work has value that can be measured in the lives of people.

Nigeria has been grappling with issues like medical brain drain and inadequate healthcare funding. What steps do you believe need to be taken to rebuild the healthcare sector and retain top medical talents within the country?

I strongly believe that for the health sector, the inadequate medical brain drain to be solved , healthcare in Nigeria needs to take a centre stage. I mean we have the Abuja declaration in 2021 that states that Nigeria should devote at least 15% of its budget towards healthcare but it doesn’t look like we have crossed that number. I believe that healthcare tends to take a central role in order words healthcare needs to be important to the people who are in positions of power and I believe that we’re focusing on other issues rather than healthcare without realising that a healthy nation is a wealthy nation. When we increase the health in Nigeria we increase the amount of people who can contribute to the workforce and not just that if we improve the working conditions of doctors who are currently in Nigeria we might prevent this brain drain and that requires funding from the top. For that to actually happen healthcare needs to take a centre stage.

We have a saying “put your money where your mouth is ” and we need to do that in Nigeria. Healthcare needs to not be a condition or an organisation that’s been funded after everything else has been funded. We also need better disbursements of these funds.

With the rising cost of healthcare and limited access to medical facilities, what role do you think technology can play in making healthcare more accessible to Nigerians, particularly in rural areas?

I was opportune to be in new York for the goal keepers conference and I was exposed to some bit of technology that had gone round in the healthcare space and it improved my believe in technology in healthcare for instance we were exposed to an ultra sound that can be fully interpreted by AI and had very little error rate, it could interpret results almost better than a doctor would and this would improve the quality of healthcare that’s available especially in rural areas where we have a paucity of health professionals and it could definitely help reduce maternal mortality rate and also telemedicine where we can have doctors form different aspects of the world consult in rural areas so that the brain drain is not felt so much and yes technology would contribute I mean china just celebrated the ability of a surgeon that was tens of kilometres away to remove a tumour, so yes irrespective of where a medical professional is ,they can still contribute to the healthcare here in Nigeria with the help of technology.

You have emphasized the importance of preventive health measures in many of your campaigns. What are some common misconceptions you have come across in your work, and how can people better take control of their health before serious issues arise?

So common misconceptions that I’ve come across with in my line of work will be vaccines which for example have been doubted to cause infertility and other numerous side effects but I believe it’s just some bit of poor information about the root cause and blood gotten from malt and milk which is usually one of the hilarious ones that I’ve come across. How do I think People can take better control of their health especially before serious issues arrive and one of the things we need to pay attention to is the rise of NCD’s which is ‘Non Communicable Diseases’ especially in this party of the world and one of the causes is lifestyle, choices of food, sedentary lifestyle and I believe that when people take a personal hand on their healthcare which is healthcare moving from the hands of the doctor to being in the hands of people who feel they have a personal stake in their own health care. There are certain changes they make in their lifestyle that can actually improve their healthcare. We can prevent these serious issues before they arrive.

Mental health has become a growing concern in Nigeria, particularly among the youth. How do you think we can better address the stigma around mental health, and what role does education play in this process?

So I’m glad that mental health has become a growing concern however there’s still the issue of the growing stigma. I think that’s also because of how it’s been relegated to the background where we have treated mental health in Nigeria as a bother for example if someone attempts suicide in Nigeria it’s treated as a crime and we need to rewrite those laws that does not treat mental health as a criminal offense but rather as a cry for help.

I believe education will play a role in making sure that this happens and I believe it will help prevent stigma first of all because people fear what they don’t understand and when they understand they know better and can better relate with these issues and this is why I think entertainment and storytelling comes in becauseI’m a strong advocate for education using entertainment and storytelling .

You have been involved in various health campaigns, including those related to cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. What upcoming events or programs do you have planned, and how do you hope these will make an impact?

So when it comes to health campaigns especially those related to cancer we have actually focused on two types of cancer which is prostate cancer in men and cervical cancer in women and so far we have run successful campaigns that have screened over 1000 women and saved 150 women from cervical cancer all on the field and for free. This has been one of the best campaigns of our lives and we plan to do more in the coming months .
However, when it comes to Cardiovascular Diseases and Non Communicable Diseases, one of our major focus right now is lifestyle changes which is why we came up with the Aproko Nation Fiesta in which its main aim is to introduce people to healthier lifestyles, imbibing healthy choices in them so that they can actually adopt this lifestyle changes, and improve their chances of not coming down with cardiovascular diseases.

We have more campaigns coming up in the future , we have film campaigns and we have other campaigns that are even targeted towards the younger generation, the kids because we have to catch them early and young and some of these will be coming across your screens soon.

Lastly, for young people who look up to you, not just as a doctor but as a role model and aspire to make a difference, what advice would you offer them about staying focused and making an impact, especially in a country where opportunities seem limited?

I would like to say that it is where it looks like opportunities seem limited, that’s where they are always abound because problems are always looking for solutions and I believe that young people especially in this part of the world, I’m not saying it’s easy but I’m saying that you’re going to need a lot of grit, a lot of focus but what’s most important is exposing yourself to new information and staying ahead of the curve at all times.
Get into circles , look for people who would actually help you, mentors , networking at your level because when we say networking a lot of young people think they need to network upwards but you need to network at your level and that will increase your voice, receive mutual support and get collaborative opportunities which will be more tasking to get with networking upwards.