By Omoniyi Ibietan
Kongi’s Younger Brother, Olufemi Soyinka, a globally certified Dermatologist, Venereologist and Allergologist, dies at 85
The immediate younger brother of Professor Wole Soyinka, Professor Femi Soyinka, passed yesterday at his residence in Ibadan. He was a father, grandfather and great grandfather.
Importantly, he was a physician, scholar and a very resolute, but unlike his brother, a silent social and particularly health rights activist.
I have fond memories of the late Professor as I recall his passion for humanity which he demonstrated throughout his life. My first meeting with him was in 2005 when he rallied scholars, medics and human health enthusiasts to Abuja at the historic International Conference on AIDS and STIs (ICASA).
Professor Femi Soyinka gave voice and focus, including practicalising the substance of his research to mitigating the impact of HIV/AIDS, particularly in Nigeria.
By my reckoning, no one gave so much confidence to People Living With HIV and AIDS like Professor Femi Soyinka. He made people to come out to talk about their status at a time when stigma about the disease was incredibly high. He, it was, who brought a message of hope to those infected that they can survive and live a greater life even when the society in an uncharitable wave of stigmatisation made sufferers of the disease despondent.
He deconstructed HIV/AIDS, shattering its mythical as well as its devastating medical and social narratives. I so loved him, not because he was a Soyinka. Anyone close to me will testify to my love for scholar-activists. I consider it nonsensical for any true scholar to be dormant or silent about issues of the society. It is contradictory because to do so is to strip scholarship of its centrally defining matrix of community service.
Olufemi Soyinka studied medicine and surgery at Heidelberg, Germany, where he earned a doctorate in medicine in 1965. He was Chief Medical Director at Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Provost at the College of Health Sciences and he was also Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences.
Ayodele Soyinka, his son, who announced that his dad transited peacefully at his residence in Kukumada village, near Ibadan, stated that his father, was in the academia for 30 years and “pioneered several researches in the field of HIV/AIDS and worked as consultant to various international and local agencies including the World Health Organization, DFID, UNDP and Nigerian Federal Ministry of Health based on his extensive experience on the subject in various parts of the country.”
Premium Times and Qed also reported Ayodele Soyinka noting that his dad did not just translate his research findings into clinical practice but the late scholar particularly did extensive “research work on Tropical Skin Diseases and Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in collaboration with the Federal government, international donor agencies and organizations such as the World Bank, UNDP, DFID, the British Council; and the International Development Research Centre, Canada.”
By the death of Professor Olufemi Soyinka, the rank of Nigeria’s true, noble, selfless and decidedly dedicated patriots is depleted. The coincidence of his death with another Nigerian patriot, journalist and uncommonly humane social worker, Raheemat Omoro Momodu, Head of Human Security and Civil Society at ECOWAS, has left an excruciating pain in the life of those who knew them. But I am particularly consoled by the fact that the works of Olufemi Soyinka and Raheemat Momodu have enriched our civilisation.
My condolences to the larger Soyinka family, particularly my friend and beloved brother, Ilemakin, the late Soyinka’s nephew.
May the souls of Olufemi Soyinka and Raheemat Momodu rest in peace.
