Olasiji Olamiju: Celebrating A Silent Achiever @ 46

By Oluomo Wale Okiki

With the breaking of dawn comes day, days develop weeks, weeks beget months and months run into years. From years comes decades and decades generate into generations. While ages can count beyond generation to as far as century and millenniums, I beg to stop at generation and of course, celebrate a local breed man with global content, who is living a life of post generational impacts. While I try to live everyday celebrating him, the importance of September is too significant to be quiet. Lo! He was born on the 1st day of September and hence, his birthday.

Men they say are not made wise by the recollection of their past but by the responsibility of their future. However, in discussing the young, likeably amiable, magnanimous, learned, brave, humane, diligent, adept and a Pharmaceutical doctor, in person of Dr. Olasiji Akanmu Olamiju, popularly called 'AKOL' one has to look at the past. Not to dwell on it but perhaps, to enable it justify the essence at hand.

Without mincing words, “AKOL” is a compound name in both Osun politics and among Pharmacists and this reputation automatically waves the nugget task of introduction.

Olamiju stands tall among his contemporaries. Asides being a practicing Community Pharmacist of repute, first class in osun, he is an erudite scholar and a guru in healthcare provision and advocacy. Over B.Pharm and Master's degrees, he has Doctor of Pharmacy and Doctor of Science in Pharmacy. Yes, two Doctorate degrees!
He caps it all with Fellowship of Post Graduate College of Pharmacists as a Consultant Public Health Pharmacist, 2002, 2008, 2014, 2015 and 2018 respectively.

He had attended several workshops/trainings within and outside Nigeria in community health management, Health supply chain management, Pharmacoepidemiology, Preventive health in Tropical Africa, etc.

As an astute manager of both human and material resources, group managing over 400 staffs of his group of companies. Over 17 years in healthcare practice. He served at the state of Osun 6-man Special Apex Health Committee under the Chairmanship of Dr S. A Afolayan for 6 years (2012-2018), of the efforts is Osun Health Insurance Scheme recently funded by Governor Oyetola with 150 million naira.

As a Pharmaceutical guru, he produces drugs of his own brands being used in several Tertiary and Secondary health facilities across Nigeria.

While his works are evidently speaking for him. His intervention in other areas of human, social and infrastructural development has become glaring so much that his critics who have access to the social media have resorted to self consolations with the tune… “he’s trying”, obviously not because they wish him well but because they are compelled to say the truth or risk been rubbished by the physical presence of his good works.

Yet, what seem to be most unique about Dr. Olamiju is that despite the level of success he has recorded, he unlike his contemporaries who believes in blowing their own trumpets stood different with all his interest been channelled to only how his impact can positively affect the lives of everyone.

Just recently, I tried to challenge him against his style of doing things secretly without blowing trumpets, his response was simply put as “Wale, you don’t post everything online, what matters is to ensure all we do ameliorate the suffering of the people and hopefully, God will reward you”. Only then I realized how silent the achievements of Dr. Olasiji Olamiju are as he is simply not interested at impressing anybody but to contribute his own quota to the development of the State to the best of his ability and to the glory of God.

1. Finally, as he celebrates his birthday today, I join many of his teaming supporters, customers, well wishers, friends and even enemies to wish this highly untiringly intelligent man a very happy birthday celebrations and may God grant him many happy returns of the day…Amen!