Writer:
Dr. Ben Ajayi

April 17, 2015 is a black Friday.
Starting with a phone call the night before,
To the early hours of Friday,
When hope seemed to have overcome hopelessness,
The dark clouds suddenly gathered,
The storm raged with fury,
The bugler sounded his bugle,
At first, I thought t’was at the distance,
I listened carefully again,
It sounded so close,
Too close for comfort!
“Whose day has just ended?”
I asked, looking around me,
Then I burst into a Yoruba dirge,
Yombo da? (Where is Yombo?)
Ao ri. (We can’t find him!)
Omo Awojobi da? (Where is the son of Awojobi?)
Ao ri. (We can’t find him!).
Dr. Oluyombo Awojobi gave up the ghost at 11:32am April 17, in Eruwa. He was 64 on March 1, 2015. The whole of Eruwa town was thrown into great confusion as the news filtered round. All activities in the city came to a halt. Didn’t Shakespeare in Julius Caesar say, “When beggars die, there are no comets seen; the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes?”
In Yoruba land only Princes who lived with the people and for the people are given such spontaneous show of love and affection. Without any prompting, stalls and shops were locked, markets closed and crowds of people gathered here and there with mournful looks and teary eyes. Then they, natives and non-natives, began to surge forward peacefully to his house to confirm the news.
The worth of a man is determined, not by the wealth he has accumulated but, by the premium he places on those around him; those he interacts with daily; those he helped lift up from sickness to health or from poverty to abundance. Yombo lived for his patients; for the common good. I know for sure he had no savings by the time of his death - having spent all on the new Olajide Ajayi Cancer Centre which he wanted completed by June 2015. This is what Yombo said of the suffering of patients with Cancer, “They move from Lagos to Ibadan and Ibadan to Lagos for radiotherapy they can’t get because there is either an industrial action by workers or the radiotherapy machine has broken down. And they literally rot away, smelling like carcass. All this will stop with our Cancer Centre.”
Yombo was a man constantly challenged by his environment. He defied things that many found daunting and the word ‘impossible’ was way down the list in his dictionary. When Eruwa had no electricity for 10 years, he designed his own low cost sustainable electrical system and fashioned items of equipment that did not require the use of electricity. He produced his own intravenous infusions when there was scarcity in the country.
And he went on to conquer the most difficult of all the challenges - lack of water. By a unique system of capturing rain water and special control of effluents, he operated his hospital for several years with water flowing freely from his taps. When histology reports were taking several months to come, Yombo produced his own histology slides and sent them to Pathologists for diagnosis therefore getting the reports back within two days.
I could go on and on and talk about his exploits; about how he changed rural medical practice in Nigeria through his innovations.
Tomorrow, the city of Eruwa will wake up without Yombo Awojobi. They will (like members of his family and friends) have to learn to live without him - a daunting task. They can cut their losses and ease their pains if they ensure that the legacies he had built continue to live on. I heard Eruwa people talk about celebrating his life. And I can say this for them – they will. They are a great people; unique in manners, very accommodating and appreciative.
Every day of Dr. Awojobi’s life is worth celebrating but as Yombo succinctly put it, “I detest the extravagance of funerals when there is so much suffering around us. I want to be buried in the clothes I have on me the day I die and on the same day,” he had said weeks before his death.
Unfortunately this wish cannot be carried out in totality for logistic problems. If he had commenced clearing his final resting place as he actually wanted to do two weeks ago (but for the preparations for the funeral of his older brother who was buried on April 9), his last wish would have been easy to carry out.
We must celebrate his life with style and in the most unique manner ever done in the history of this nation. If you really loved him and appreciated what he did for our people and the nation, we must join hands together to raise N500 million (five hundred million naira) to ensure the completion of the Cancer Centre Project. It is a task that must be done!
We have lost the most innovative, pragmatic and certainly one of the greatest medical practitioners Nigeria has ever produced, a jewel of inestimable value, a relentless fighter for values that last and a loyal friend of the common man. He was a living legend in his time. His true worth will now begin to unfold after his exit. To his devoted wife, children, grandchildren and relatives, I say have courage, take heart. He is not dead. Thomas Campbell said, “To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.”
May his soul rest in peace.

RIP Doctor

Great regards to the nation's greatest medical doctor.Yombo lives on.

ebenobis:

Writer:
Dr. Ben Ajayi

April 17, 2015 is a black Friday.
Starting with a phone call the night before,
To the early hours of Friday,
When hope seemed to have overcome hopelessness,
The dark clouds suddenly gathered,
The storm raged with fury,
The bugler sounded his bugle,
At first, I thought t’was at the distance,
I listened carefully again,
It sounded so close,
Too close for comfort!
“Whose day has just ended?”
I asked, looking around me,
Then I burst into a Yoruba dirge,
Yombo da? (Where is Yombo?)
Ao ri. (We can’t find him!)
Omo Awojobi da? (Where is the son of Awojobi?)
Ao ri. (We can’t find him!).
Dr. Oluyombo Awojobi gave up the ghost at 11:32am April 17, in Eruwa. He was 64 on March 1, 2015. The whole of Eruwa town was thrown into great confusion as the news filtered round. All activities in the city came to a halt. Didn’t Shakespeare in Julius Caesar say, “When beggars die, there are no comets seen; the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes?”
In Yoruba land only Princes who lived with the people and for the people are given such spontaneous show of love and affection. Without any prompting, stalls and shops were locked, markets closed and crowds of people gathered here and there with mournful looks and teary eyes. Then they, natives and non-natives, began to surge forward peacefully to his house to confirm the news.
The worth of a man is determined, not by the wealth he has accumulated but, by the premium he places on those around him; those he interacts with daily; those he helped lift up from sickness to health or from poverty to abundance. Yombo lived for his patients; for the common good. I know for sure he had no savings by the time of his death - having spent all on the new Olajide Ajayi Cancer Centre which he wanted completed by June 2015. This is what Yombo said of the suffering of patients with Cancer, “They move from Lagos to Ibadan and Ibadan to Lagos for radiotherapy they can’t get because there is either an industrial action by workers or the radiotherapy machine has broken down. And they literally rot away, smelling like carcass. All this will stop with our Cancer Centre.”
Yombo was a man constantly challenged by his environment. He defied things that many found daunting and the word ‘impossible’ was way down the list in his dictionary. When Eruwa had no electricity for 10 years, he designed his own low cost sustainable electrical system and fashioned items of equipment that did not require the use of electricity. He produced his own intravenous infusions when there was scarcity in the country.
And he went on to conquer the most difficult of all the challenges - lack of water. By a unique system of capturing rain water and special control of effluents, he operated his hospital for several years with water flowing freely from his taps. When histology reports were taking several months to come, Yombo produced his own histology slides and sent them to Pathologists for diagnosis therefore getting the reports back within two days.
I could go on and on and talk about his exploits; about how he changed rural medical practice in Nigeria through his innovations.
Tomorrow, the city of Eruwa will wake up without Yombo Awojobi. They will (like members of his family and friends) have to learn to live without him - a daunting task. They can cut their losses and ease their pains if they ensure that the legacies he had built continue to live on. I heard Eruwa people talk about celebrating his life. And I can say this for them – they will. They are a great people; unique in manners, very accommodating and appreciative.
Every day of Dr. Awojobi’s life is worth celebrating but as Yombo succinctly put it, “I detest the extravagance of funerals when there is so much suffering around us. I want to be buried in the clothes I have on me the day I die and on the same day,” he had said weeks before his death.
Unfortunately this wish cannot be carried out in totality for logistic problems. If he had commenced clearing his final resting place as he actually wanted to do two weeks ago (but for the preparations for the funeral of his older brother who was buried on April 9), his last wish would have been easy to carry out.
We must celebrate his life with style and in the most unique manner ever done in the history of this nation. If you really loved him and appreciated what he did for our people and the nation, we must join hands together to raise N500 million (five hundred million naira) to ensure the completion of the Cancer Centre Project. It is a task that must be done!
We have lost the most innovative, pragmatic and certainly one of the greatest medical practitioners Nigeria has ever produced, a jewel of inestimable value, a relentless fighter for values that last and a loyal friend of the common man. He was a living legend in his time. His true worth will now begin to unfold after his exit. To his devoted wife, children, grandchildren and relatives, I say have courage, take heart. He is not dead. Thomas Campbell said, “To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.”
May his soul rest in peace.

Can the moderator move this to the frontpage pls.
Let learn to celebrate people with genuine selffless contribution to the cause of humanity instead of frontpaging tonto dikehs who doesnt gve a damn about anybody.

They wont. They are more interested in nonsensical stories!
I am a doctor, and found out about his deathe when I searched the internet, I was going to make contact to visit his hospital at Eruwa to learn from him.