AFRO-NETS> Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, Nigerias Apostle of primary healthcare is dead

[A Odutola <chpss_abo@yahoo.com>]

Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, Nigerias Apostle of primary healthcare is dead
--------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, 76, dies
 
Vanguard
Published: June 3, 2003
By: Sola Ogundipe
 
Former Health Minister, Prof. Olikoye Ransome-Kuti is dead. He was 
aged 76. Family sources that confirmed news of his death, said he 
died yesterday in his hotel room in London while on an unspecified 
professional engagement. The probable cause of the death of the re-
nowned professor of paediatrics was sketchy at press time, but he was 
believed to have slumped in his room.
 
News of the sudden demise of the man better known variously as ?Fa-
ther or apostle of Primary Healthcare? was received with shock and 
disbelief. A close associate of the late professor, who pleaded ano-
nymity, confirmed that both of them attended a one-day public func-
tion last Friday in Abuja. ?We were together at the event. He 
(Olikoye) was hale and hearty throughout the event. He did not show 
any sign of illness nor did he complain about his health in any way. 
He was always healthy and full of life. I?m completely shocked by the 
news of his death.?
 
When contacted, President of the Lagos State branch of the Nigerian 
Medical Association (NMA), Dr. Kayode Akinlade also expressed shock, 
but declined to comment further until the family issued an official 
statement.
 
In similar vein, President of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital 
(LUTH) branch of the Association of Resident Doctors, Dr. Mark Nwaga, 
also lamented his passage, but declined to comment.
 
Ransome-Kuti, former Chairman of the Executive Board of the World 
Health Organisation, was in the limelight for several decades by vir-
tue of being a member of the popular Ransome-Kuti family of Abeokuta, 
and as an exalted health practitioner who had remarkable influence in 
various departments in the Nigerian health sector. Appointed Health 
Minister by the military regime of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, his main 
interest was restoration of the nation?s prevalently weak health-care 
system, poor child-immunization rates and lack of access to basic 
health services amongst others. 
 
In 1986, he set the state for the awareness about the HIV/AIDS epi-
demic in Nigeria when as Minister of Health; he announced the discov-
ery of a 13-year-old girl who tested positive for HIV, at a time when 
many people including his colleagues in the cabinet still doubted the 
existence of the disease. He also made history in 1997 when he openly 
admitted that his brother, Fela, died of complications arising from 
AIDS.
 
In the second year, of his tenure as Health Minister, the Federal 
Government set up the National Expert Advisory Committee on AIDS and 
a desk was created in the Department of Diseases Control and Interna-
tional Health of the ministry, and later upgraded into a unit in 1988 
and a programme a year later. Between 1987 and 1991, he facilitated a 
technical service agreement with a number of international donor-
agencies, and programmes for the control and prevention of AIDS. It 
was also on his insistence that in August 1991, at the launching of a 
highly publicized War Against AIDS campaign, the country?s three 
tiers of government were committed to an annual AIDS budget of N20 
million, N5 million and N3000,000 respectively.
 
He was founding Chairman, Lagos State HIV/AIDS Foundation and also 
Chairman National AIDS Committee. He was also a founding member of 
the Society for Family Health (SFH), a Trust dedicated to improving 
the reproductive health in the country. The former minister contrib-
uted immensely to effective monitoring and evaluation of activities 
and development of highly targeted communication messages aimed at 
encouraging healthy sexual behaviour and condom promotion. In his 
dogged crusade against the AIDS epidemic, he compelled Nigerians to 
secure the future of their businesses, families, and employees by 
taking appropriate action to help avert a future disaster in the com-
munity.
 
Prof. Ransome-Kuti will also be remembered for his relentless pursuit 
of the anti-smoking campaign in 1989. It was during his tenure as 
health minister that a law against smoking was enacted and manufac-
turers were compelled to carry warnings such as ?Cigarette smokers 
are liable to die young,? and ?The Federal Ministry of Health warns 
that tobacco smoking is dangerous to health.? To his credit, he ini-
tiated the Primary Health Care (PHC) programme. As Chairman of the 
Agency, he introduced the concept of using Community Health Workers 
as key to dealing with problems of both equity and justice in bring-
ing health care to rural populace.
 
In several ways, he was largely instrumental to the restoration of 
confidence into the nation?s healthcare delivery system. As a medical 
practitioner he cared for his patients as much as he did for his col-
leagues.
 
Once as minister, during a face-off between doctors and the Federal 
Government, he bluntly advised government to accede to the doctors? 
demands in order to bring the strike to an end within a short period 
so that doctors could return to work and not jeopardize the health of 
the nation.
 
Born December 30, 1927 to Reverend and Fumilayo Ransome-Kuti in Abeo-
kuta, Ogun State, Olikoye had a fulfilled educational career and in 
no time became a renowned paediatrician after which he got married to 
his wife, Sonia in 1956. The marriage is blessed with two sons and a 
daughter. In 1957, he was appointed House Surgeon at the University 
College, Ibadan. A decade later in 1967, he became Senior Lecturer, 
Paediatrics at the Medical School (now College of Medicine), Univer-
sity of Lagos. 
 
Prior to this and even years after, he worked in the United Kingdom 
and the United States on numerous aspects of paediatric gastro-
enterology and nutrition. Throughout his educational and professional 
careers, he was an active and energetic learner and teacher in addi-
tion to a winner of several awards. He was recipient of the first 
Janet Kirkpatrick Gold Award given by the College of Medicine, Uni-
versity of Lagos. Amongst his other awards are the Leon Bernard Foun-
dation Prize from the World Health Organisation, UNICEF?s Maurice 
Paate Award and Hero of Public Health Award given by Public Health: 
Magazine of the John Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health.
 
In addition to his appointment as Minister of Health in 1985-1993, 
Prof. Ransome-Kuti was a member of the World Health Organisation?s 
Expert Advisory Panel on Maternal and Child Care in 1968-1975 and 
Visiting Consultant, Department of Paediatrics, Makerere University, 
Kampala, Uganda in 1969. He also was consultant to the Ministry of 
Health and Senior Associate, Department of International Health, 
Johns Hopkins University, amongst others. 
 
Source: Vanguard, Tuesday, June 03, 2003. Pg: 1. By. Sola Ogundipe.
 
--
A. Odutola
Centre for Health Policy & Strategic Studies (CHPSS)
Lagos, Nigeria
mailto:chpss_abo@yahoo.com
http://www.expage.com/chpsshomepage
http://www.datelinehealth-africa.net
--
To send a message to AFRO-NETS, write to: afro-nets@healthnet.org
To subscribe or unsubscribe, write to: majordomo@healthnet.org
in the body of the message type: subscribe afro-nets OR unsubscribe afro-nets
To contact a person, send a message to: afro-nets-help@healthnet.org
Information and archives: http://www.afronets.org