“I was not able to attend this year’s TheNiche Annual Lecture because this year has been my learning year, I have been learning how to walk again,” Dr. Kolade told TheNiche crew that went to his Lagos home on Tuesday to present to him the newspaper’s Hall of Fame induction plaque.
By TheNiche
When an 89-year-old man falls with multiple fractures on the hips, the healing process is always painfully slow.
That was exactly the fate that befell Dr. Christopher Kolade, former Nigerian High Commissioner to Britain, in January.
He was told by his doctors that he should consider himself lucky if he is able to celebrate his 90th birthday in December on his feet.
But fate didn’t reckon with his doggedness and the irrepressible will to overcome. A man of immeasurable faith in God, Dr. Kolade has made tremendous progress.
“I was not able to attend this year’s TheNiche Annual Lecture because this year has been my learning year, I have been learning how to walk again,” he told TheNiche crew that went to his Lagos home to present to him the newspaper’s Hall of Fame induction plaque.
“I think all the people who know me know that I have been a victim of the surgeon’s attention early in the year and the amount of surgery that was done on me, I have been told not to be too ambitious to run around for the rest of this year.”
Learning how to walk again at 90 is not a walk in the park but he has done remarkably well.
As Expected, he attributes his recovery to God’s infinite grace.
“But I thank God he has allowed me to manage what I’m experiencing,” he said.
But TheNiche didn’t only present a plaque, we had a blockbuster interview because as an Igbo adage says, anyone who has the privilege of climbing an Iroko tree should endeavour to take whatever he wants before coming down because it is not every day that one is privileged to be up there.
So, in our inimitable style, we pressed Dr. Kolade for an interview and he obliged, the first interview he will be granting in the last three years. Incidentally, the last interview he granted in 2019 was also to TheNiche.
And what an interview this one is: Dr. Kolade at his diplomatic best – forthright, methodical and witty.
Keep reading TheNiche. Details shortly …