Oba Ala of Oke-Ayedun: Celebrating centenary with service

HRH, Oba Jacob Ala, the Alaye of Oke-Ayedun Okunoye II in Ekiti State, will turn 100 on August 8. As a prelude to the week-long celebrations planned for August 8 to 13, the Ala family, in conjunction with Mamie Foundation and Jasons Foundation, organised the Oke-Ayedun Community Health Outreach on Saturday, July 2.
Medical personnel that included optometrists, dentists, laboratory scientists and family physicians treated at least 600 members of the community and provided them with free drugs.
As early as 8am on July 2, the grounds of St. Patrick’s Catholic Primary School on Orisunmbare Street, Oke-Ayedun, had been overtaken by mostly old, young and pregnant women accompanied by their children, all dressed in their Sunday best. The men were to come later in the day, perhaps after some of the women had gone back home to spread the ‘good news’ of healthcare.
Activities for the day started with volunteers, with the Jasons Foundation preaching the word of God and giving those present a health talk.
Manager for Jasons Medical Missions International, Wale Akinrinsola, told TheNiche that “this is the way” they begin their activities wherever they go around the world. Early in the morning at the palace chapel where they had all gathered before they set out, there had also been a prayer meeting, with Akinrinsola ministering. There was praise and worship, capped with exultation from the book of Isaiah in the Bible.
“This foundation is a Christian organisation; so all that we do is biased towards bringing the gospel of Christ to people. That is why anytime we carry out medical outreach, before the dispensing of drugs, we always preach about Christ to the people. There is a place we are going and that is the bias of this foundation. That is what makes it different from other foundations,” he said during an interview.
Jasons Foundation is part of the Jasons Medical Missions International, which was started in June 2004 by a medical consultant then with the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Dr. Vincent Jason. The foundation’s office is located at the UCH.
Oba Ala arrived the venue resplendent in blue agbada, wine red beads on his neck, just before the health talk ended. The ovation from the members of the community gathered showed that he was not just loved but also respected. Among those singing his praises that morning were the women and young people who had so heartily welcomed the volunteers the night before with song and a drama presentation entitled ‘Integrity’, dance. The play staged by some of the young palace staff and subjects told of a kingdom whose kabiyesi had zero tolerance for corruption and no patience for evil. That kingdom could have been Oke-Ayedun (‘hill where life is sweet’ in English). Life is indeed sweet here, with fresh air and fresh farm produce all year round.
Opening prayer at the outreach was led by Rev. Father Pius Ajibade of St. Patrick Catholic Church, who said he was impressed with the outreach and blessed all those who had volunteered time, money and manpower to make it a reality.
It was then the turn of Oba Ala to declare the programme open by submitting himself to a blood pressure check after which the first patient was called at 10.09am. He later also consulted with one of the physicians.
The precision with which the activity for the day went on spoke of the experience of the people doing the work. There were four consulting rooms at the school, with two doctors attending to men, optometrics, two dentists and two ophthalmologists. There was also a unit for laboratory scientists and one for dispensing the drugs prescribed during consultation. It all went very well and by the time the last patient was called out to collect her drugs at about 7pm, everyone in the team had given their very best.
Perhaps the only drawback was how long it took for the drugs to be dispensed, resulting in those treated having to wait for hours to get their drugs. And as it is often the case even in the cities, the dentists didn’t have many patients to attend to; although at the end of the day, over 20 patients had a tooth or two pulled.
Mrs. Funsho Ola, a general nurse with the Paediatric Department of UCH, a volunteer with Jasons Foundation in the last three years, explained that she decided to get involved because she felt that it was a means of reaching out to the community, helping the less-privileged where they are not able or capable of getting access to medical attention.
“So, what the Lord has given unto us we render to them free of charge and at the same time minister to their souls,” she said.
On whether the people she has met over the years are either appreciative of the service, she said it depends on the community the foundation goes to.
“There are some places they engage with us; but there are some places where they reject you and you just have to leave the land for them. But in most cases, it is always very interesting because they accept us, they welcome us warmly and we are able to render our services freely,” she said.
She explained that the rejection they have had could be attributed to ignorance about what has been brought to such a community.
This, Mrs. Ola added, may be partly due to the fact that the foundation is faith-based, since in some places, when they hear that the foundation would be talking about the word of God, they are removed from it.
But not the people of Oke-Ayedun, who lapped it all up all day. Even the rain that fell for at least 40 minutes and the registration stopped at 3.30pm did not deter them, as they kept coming to the school in their numbers.
Incidentally, this is not the first time the community is benefitting from such an outreach and it could not have come at a better time with civil servants not paid since January in the state and the health centres in the community on strike for over three weeks.
Dr. JK Ladipo, a consultant surgeon with UCH and Mamie Foundation, said that two years ago they had embarked on the same journey with a group of medical personnel to render the same service in the community. He explained that it was small scale compared to what obtained on July 2. However, that visit is what gave fillip to the current one.
Two of the women who were present the first time, Yeye Oba Bola Pedro and Lady Grace Osanyinlusi, remember that visit fondly. It is one reason they showed up once more, although for a different ailment they both confessed.
Talking through the help of an interpreter, Mrs. Pedro said she felt better after the treatment she got the first time from a white female doctor. It turned out she was referring to Dr. Modupe Ladipo, a consulting family physician with the UCH and Mamie Foundation, also on the recent trip.
“I felt better after the treatment,” she said. “I have come back for another complaint and not the illness from the last time.”
She added that she would like the outreach to continue, so that more people in the community could benefit. From the number of people who continued to show up even after registration closed, it is one request that the community needs to look into.
Osanyinlusi said the medicine she got the first time reacted very well to her ailment.
“I came back today for a different complaint and I am hoping that the medicine will work very well like the last time,” she said, adding that the two medical centres in the community are not enough.
“People are many here. That one is not enough for us; we need more clinics and bigger ones, too,” she stated.
It is easy to agree with her when the monarch, who has been on the throne for 26 years, put the community’s population at 30,000.
Dr. Modupe Ladipo said the ailments they encountered during the outreach were not different from those being treated in other parts of the country, but that the number of people with a particular ailment may cause some concern.
“Especially, we found that there were a lot of people who were hypertensive. And not just hypertensive, but severely hypertensive. Some didn’t even know that they were hypertensive. We had to treat some and observe them for about two or three hours before we could even allow them to go home,” she said.
She explained that it means their blood pressures were very high and they had to do a lot of councelling on how they should modify their lifestyle, their diet, exercise, taking their medication and going for regular checkup.
“That was the most striking one – hypertension. But all the others are common ailments in the rest of the country; malaria, some diabetes, arthritis, cough, catarrh and such ailments,” she said.
She and her husband mentioned earlier in the article are both consultants with the UCH and work with the Mamie Foundation, which was set up in memory of her mother of German origin, but passionate about Nigeria who was born in 1929 and passed on in 2010.
MAMIE stands for Margo Abayomi Memorial Evergreen (Foundation.)
Medical outreaches like this in Oke-Ayedun are among the many works that the foundation does to carry on the legacy of hard work, honesty, cleanliness, love of nature and the less-privileged their mother left behind.
Others who were part of the programme include: Kolade Mosuro of the Ibadan-based book seller and his wife, Tolani, who is the daughter of the Oba; Augustine Edet (Jasons), Akinbiyi Okelola (Private), Mrs. Bunmi Akinboade (Paediatric nurse, UCH), Adebukola Adewunmi (Optometrist) and Mrs. Eunice Arelogun (public health nurse, UCH).
Others are: Mrs. Elizabeth Ige (registered nurse, midwife and public health UCH), Alaba Ologundudu (private), Fisayo Akinola (dentist UCH), Shola Mosuro (consultant family physician UCH) and Oluwaseun Adeleke (dentist, Ondo State Specialist hospital).
It was an elated Oba Ala who thanked everyone that had taken part in the outreach early the next morning and prayed for journey mercies back to their different destinations.