A f’eniyan soro, ohun gbogbo loni.

In other words, Unity is Strength, echoing the motto accompanying the nation’s resilient coat of arms. With unity, every member of any collective is emboldened, making concretely manifest the usual proclamation of “the more the merrier”.

Overtly indulged, the climax of almost a whole quarter of merriment for me happened on Friday July 18, 2025.  The Lagos State University Muslim Community finally made to formally congratulate me and other members recently promoted professors and deputy registrars. It was a grand occasion presided over by the Chief Imam of the university, Distinguished Professor Amidu Sanni.

What made the event even grander were the multiple venues. For all such sessions ever organized by the community, the mosque alone had played host. Ours was special.

As soon as the regular jumah service was over, the Chief Imam announced that everyone concerned with the special prayer session should step forward for the usually prompt programme. No fewer than three members of the Imam-in-Council, spotting different shades of white, were already seated. Then came the Chairman of the LASU Muslim Community and Professor of Accounting, Professor Babatunde Yussuf. Without wasting time, the chief imam personally kickstarted the event by enjoining a congregational chorusing of the standard preliminary chants of muslim prayer sessions. Everyone else joined, thus reinforcing the chorus the more for some ten minutes.

Over with the preliminaries, Professor Sanni signalled to another member of the council, Prof Kabir Paramole, to re-appreciate the mission of the session and pray for all concerned. Every phrase of the prayer point was loudly punctuated by loud choruses of ameen. Next was the turn of Prof Kudus Amuni. Like both Sanni and Paramole, Amuni led the congregation in some other popular Islamic renditions. Then came the announcement from the Chief Imam that the day’s special prayer would be extended to the brand new guest house of the muslim community which is right behind the mosque complex. “We’ve decided to dedicate today for rains of prayers to our new professors and deputy registrars at no cost. We’re particularly intentional to invoke the joy of the newness of our new facility to deepen the prayers for our newly promoted brothers and sisters. The facilities have been long expected and gulped colossal amount of money but alhamdulilah, it’s now habitable to the glory of the Almighty Allah”.

The reception arena of the new storey building oozed refreshingly cool air ceaselessly but mildly dispensed by the silent air-conditioners complimented by the sounds and visuals of the television adorning the whitewashed walls. The reception already had invitingly puffy furniture for guests who need not be in a hurry to go anywhere else once there. Well tiled from the very first step into the facility, the entire longish stretch expectedly smelt fresh paint as workmen were still doing final fittings and all.

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After some fifteen minutes of exploring and appreciating Allah’s great gift to the LASU muslim ummah, the chief imam called the congregation to order and personally led us all in prayer and re-enacted the same process we had in the mosque making the duo of Professors Paramole and Amuni pray again for the newly promoted. As we were all on our feet, this time, a roll call ritual was flagged off. Names of everyone concerned was called for special blessing and applause.

For us at FCMS, we never had any ceremony so fun-filled.  Ours shall remain an everlasting bond.

The show of love to us by the members of the imam in council and some other members of the community was immense and reminded me of the Shakespearian claim that “the love that follows us sometime is our trouble which we still thank as love”

The muslim community’s boundless show of affection with voluntary fortification with prayers for new crowns like me was most reassuring.  It came as the strongest reinforcement to the similar showers of love on me and Dr Omolade Sanni when on May 12, 2025, we were both celebrated on account of our newly attained age of 60 years.

Our entire family at the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies, FCMS, led by the first rate disciplinarian dean, one far removed from mindless partisanship and my friend like no other in the fold, energetic and focused Professor Jide Jimoh, took time to set a beautiful stage for the grandeur.

The ceremony enjoyed the full subscription of the entire faculty including the non-teaching staff, to the fullest most demonstratively. No sooner had the dean dignified the event with a formal declaration for commencement than the festivities began to play out building on the suitable ambience cultivated with the colourful interior decoration of the choice location within the faculty premises.

One after the other, colleagues, including Rotimi Olatunji and Sunday Alawode, both LASU pioneer professors in their respective fields of public relations and advertising as well as broadcasting  and our former deans spoke glowingly about Dr Sanni and myself most inspiringly. Each of them, respected thought leaders within and outside of the university, including being leading lights of Christianity prayed for us.  They both demonstrated enviable leadership.  Sincerely, we can’t thank them enough for their precious time and love.

Often hailed as Iya Ato believed to be the matriarch of the faculty, Dr Lade Atofojomo did all that was possible to travel back from her sabbatical leave base of the Lagos State University of Science and Technology, LASUSTECH, Ikorodu  just to come and pamper the two of us.  “What will I not do to celebrate my namesake, Dr. Sanni? How about the second supervisor of my PhD thesis, Prof Akanni? Many may never have known here but there’s that inimitable bond between us as Prof Akanni shares the same date of birth with my darling son, Timilehin, who he makes his siblings envy with intermittent gestures?” Iya Ato’s prayers for us were greeted with loud choruses of amen. The martriach that she is, she later handed out personal precious gifts to us in addition to the one to which she had contributed specially presented to us by the faculty.

Then came the rendering of the citations of your sincerely and Dr Lade Sanni by the respected strategic communications scholar, Dr. Noheem. The citations were immediately followed by goodwill messages from colleagues and other well-wishers including those from outside the university among whom were veteran journos Mikail Mumuni former editor at Tell as well as Omololu Kassism renowned for his indomitability at Weekend Concord.

Typical of all such events on campuses, this also featured  a lecture. It focused on artificial intelligence and professional communication practices. It was presented by journalism veteran and the Executive Director of International Press Centre, IPC, Lanre Arogundade. Among others, the lecturer, a great friend of the house, asserted that communication experts could not afford to shy away from AI. However, in using AI tools, we must ensure that we guide them to our taste or desire even as we must always ensure quality control.

Over with lecture, merriments followed infinitely beginning with cutting of cakes individually by Dr Sanni and me and later together. The tasty cakes and drinks were evenly shared out and were later complemented with meals.

For us at FCMS, we never had any ceremony so fun-filled.  Ours shall remain an everlasting bond.

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Author: Omololu Kassim

Pages: 98

Reviewer: Professor Tunde Akanni

Foregrounding

In Back to Life, Omololu Kassim is back to the energy sapping but fulfilling business of writing on a grander height because the author of Back to Life was in the league of the best crop of reporters with optimal visibility prior to the  June 12-induced shutdown of the Concord titles. However, with the indulgence of this august audience, I dare say so much water had passed on…

In this 98-page volume, Kassim has combined the dexterity of a nosey and crafty reporter with the panache and precision of a medical sociologist to make the world better with the detailed documentation of the uncommon ordeals of the protagonist of his book, Quadri.

The said ordeals comprise a multilayered series of excruciating health issues made even worse by the paucity of suitable health facilities yet only affordable to insignificant percentage of the sprawling population.  Even in enviable Lagos, the setting of the didactic story.

The Substance of the Story

At the very beginning, Quadri, the man that can be credited with the proverbial nine lives, had felt intermittent pains in the groins and managed it over time. He has a modest income coupled with the protracted illness of the loving, strong-willed and supportive wife, Abeebat. Typical with her gender in most cases, Abeebat mustered all the energy to nurture the love. The strong woman was the embodiment of life-wire for Quadri and indeed the entire family, suppressing her own traumatic predicament for the wellbeing of others and particularly the sick hubby.

It is only fair that we appropriate a fair attention to the good memory of the better half of Quadri who seemed to, if only for love, prefers to see Quadri live forever.

Abeebat ignored her own failing health manifest with an emaciated physique to tear through the thickets of the frustrating Lagos traffic to visit her darling hubby while recuperating after each of the two surgeries he had.  She even prophesied recovery for Quadri. Ironically, just when Quadri, inspired by Amina the heroine of the entire gamut of all the health struggles in Back to Life together with Benjamin, Quadri’s brother, was ready to tackle the health challenges of Abeebat, it was the saddest encounter, to echo poet, Kalu Uka.

The queen that she was, she even organized what qualified as a psychological reset for the family members.  On the eve of her admission for the scheduled surgery to wipe off the root of her challenge following a proper diagnosis of tumour in the brain, she had some kind of energy resurgence.

Infinitely committed to the happiness of her entire family, she convened a dance session.  She danced and enjoined Amina, other children as well as the hubby to do dance steps to reigning music numbers. These included those of King Sunny Ade, KWAM 1 as well as hip-hop, particularly Kiss Daniel’s wildest of all times- “…lo lo lo, buga won”. It was the happiest moment in the recent life of the family.

It therefore became quite tempting to presume that the dance was to signal the message that joy is coming to the family and fully too. As daunting as Quadri’s case is, so shall it be for Abeebat, hence the dance session.

Back to Quadri, Amina managed to raise a loan to finance the surgery for hernia considered to be a minor one. She accompanied the father to Zenith Clinic on the appointed date.  The operation took only 30 minutes. It was a success. But the joy of that success, to echo Ola Rotimi in The God’s are Not to Blame, has a slender body breaking too soon.  Sigh of relief in order after the 30-minute procedure? No! He started vomiting. Doctors needed to do some scanning of the abdomen to ascertain the exact problem with precision.

Rather than head home to recuperate, Quadri, in company of Amina was, taken in his own car that he initially drove, to a diagnostic centre. The result: There was a blockage in the intestinal region disrupting normal flow of ingested drinks and foods. The alimentary canal could no longer function normally. The accompanying agony transcends comprehension as he could no longer pass excreta. No time to waste for the crucial task ahead. On to Central Metropolitan Hospital. Because of Quadri’s social standing and the fact that Amina is also a hospital administrator, the preliminaries at CMH were given accelerated attention Kassim reports:

…this health condition was considered clinically dangerous…an emergency case which could not wait for protocol. Screened blood was connected to Quadri’s body through intravenous lines before the surgeons got down to work.  This blood transfusion was necessary to replace anticipated excessive loss of blood… p6

Following the six-hour long operation, he continues:

…Amina followed closely behind the attendants as they transported her father from the theatre to the ward.  It was a solemn moment for her. She didn’t utter a word.  She couldn’t.  She only watched as her mind raced through many thoughts, thoughts about her father’s close shave with death in the theater. P9

Back in the ward and back to life, so to say. Unable to move his body on his own, Quadri’s body is also highly wired up:

… an intravenous drip  trickling  into his veins, drop by drop along a line which pierced through his left arm into his bloodstream.  Another line pierced through his nostril to drain out waste fluids from his lungs into a transparent receptacle.  Yet another line pierced through the right side of his belly to drain out waste fluids from his abdomen. Furthermore, a tube was inserted through his penis to drain out urine which flowed uncontrollably into another bag. P12

Quadri endured this situation for 44 days eating up the entire annual leave of Amina. Not a few of the spectacles will be forgotten by either of Quadri or her faithful daughter, Amina.  CMH being a public hospital is often overcrowded. All seats at the reception always taken up. Tales of sorrow everywhere with needy patients often requiring urgent attention but with no help in sight.

Quadri notes a particular cancer patient, Kamoru. This patient has no one to support her besides her withered mother begging for alms to support her dying son.  It took long before Kamoru got admitted into the 18-bed male ward with Quadri. His was a bad case. Often overwhelmed with unbearable pains, Kamoru would cry out aloud to the discomfort of everyone around but attracting little or no help.  Not long after being admitted, Kamoru passed on. But even before Kamoru Chief Allbert Ojoye gave up the ghost.

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Who will remember the poor in Nigeria regarding health? When will the poor be remembered?  Who will address medical tourism abroad undertaken by government leaders including President Buhari and others and thus bourgeoning by the day? These and others are the questions Kassim keeps raising regarding what seems the seeming callous disposition of government to the plight of most Nigerians who can hardly afford the continually rising cost of healthcare?

Although Quadri’s 44-day stay in the hospital was tiring enough with multidimensional repercussions, his freedom being outside even with the burden of colostomy bag or what you may call toilet pouch was not going to be for two long before being re-admitted. For a third surgery. Yet another corrective surgery.  But even the first post hernia surgery was corrective.

On the whole, I hereby wish to state that Back to Life is a manifestation of  Kassim’s commitment to, as we see in relay race, passing on the baton, but here to the society or sharing with humanity whatever our Allah-given endowment may be.

Incidentally, it does not occur to Quadri that he would need a third surgery. He had only gone to CMH for routine review on a particular day when he was told he would need to go through another procedure to normalize his life, so to say. He won’t have to carry the colostomy bag everywhere again so he could, afterwards, resume normal toilet practice as opposed to his dependence on colostomy bag.

Again with Amina, he returns to CMH. He is duly counselled and made to realise that he could need to be off food for some four days. Yes, four whole days! This is to make his body system ready enough for the surgery. On the said day, Quadri, right in Maryam’s presence is made to understand that the procedure won’t exceed two hours as opposed to the previous one that took six hours. Sheer toasting, to descend to the street. The procedure eventually runs for eight hours!

This situation raises questions we must ruminate seriously on to appreciate life, Quadri’s life precisely and indeed by extension, each of our own lives and indeed the life of the energetic care superintendent, Amina. The poor girl took a loan to finance what he thought was going to be a minor surgery but ended up getting stuck with two additional operations!

One may well ask: Who, assuming we are in Aminat’s shoes, will not be overwhelmed or dumbfounded? Who will not be broken, and you will excuse my resort to popular, as in severely shattered and disoriented? But what option have Quadri and her relentlessly supportive daughter? Right between the devil and the deep blue sea! Quadri survived this round and Amina as usual defrays all the bills obviously with the numerous support volunteered for her dad by family members and friends who had sympathized with them.

But it is no longer at ease for Amina now a serial task master. Abeebat’s situation has since degenerated. That dance session I mentioned earlier was hardly short of dance of death. It is the last with Abeebat who was hypertensive, had ophthalmic challenge of cataract and so forth. As was with Quadri’s hernia operation leading to other surgeries, Abeebat’s cataract surgery revealed the urgency of the brain tumour surgery which ultimately led to the Intensive Care Unit, ICU.  Sadly, it turned out to be the very terminal…

Lessons

Amina fought so hard to have her Daddy back on his feet complemented by her siblings, fiancé and Uncle Benjamin they lost the battle to save Mummy Abeebat. They can only make do with Quadri. Who, then, should do well to appreciate life more than Quadri? And Amina?

No less important is the need for us all to pay attention to the needs of our neighbours and the powerlessness in the hospital. Quadri, who became a fan of the popular Zee World TV programme while bedridden revealed that patients bear the bills of TV subscription. The TV set was probably donated by a past patient.

Yet another lesson from this publication is the need for us all to hold firmly to the pillar of our faith for that will strengthen our capacity for religious tolerance.  Nurse Stella being a Christian could only conduct daily morning devotion in the only way she knows.  It is left to individual patient to decide on their preferred worship renditions.

How about the intermittent fasting recommended for muslims and medics have also endorsed for good health? If you need do surgery you must experience it but there is no reward. So, why not establish it, perhaps that may be the only thing that will keep you away forever from the surgeon’s knife.

Finally, kudos, indeed a huge one to Amina who stood tall through the struggles of Mum and Dad.  Daddy’s journey back to life owes a lot to this energetic queen that her dad fittingly hails as faifhful daughter.

Overview

Finally to all potential readers of Back to Life, you will find the book quite enthralling and unputdownable. The prose-style adopted by Kassim is typically reportorial to the extent that this is even manifest in the paragraphing.  Adding up to that is the author’s poetic indulgence especially with alliteration.  He, for instance, describes the experience with the oxygen provided patients in the hospital such as given to Quadri as a “sweet surrender to superlative sedative”. Aint that super sexy? These and other linguistic adventurism avail the book with breather far from being dense and daunting.

Like Kassim’s favourite editor and author of the foreword, Mike Awoyinfa, he is intentional with choice of simple expressions that will enable average speakers of English Language to understand. Not for him the exhibitionist, high sounding lingos. Kindly indulge me to claim that graduates of Nigeria’s only Better by Far graduates are outstanding in this regard.

Quite commendably too, the author demonstrates transparency and genuine commitment to inspiring people to knowledge with generous footnoting to support otherwise inadequate, self-explanation of some medical terms. I wish to remind us here that I had earlier  dressed the author in the double garments of a journo and medical sociologist.

There are spelling slips in a few of the sections including an embarrassing one on page 79 even as that does not sabotage the intelligibility. Some incredibly long sentences equally abound distrupting the flow of the prose here and there comprising as many as 47 words.

Parting Shot

On the whole, I hereby wish to state that Back to Life is a manifestation of  Kassim’s commitment to, as we see in relay race, passing on the baton, but here to the society or sharing with humanity whatever our Allah-given endowment may be. The author, though no longer in the employ of any media organisation, has defied all distractions to pass on information and knowledge whose value is hard to quantify to the society that nurtured him and still supports him.  Kassim’s story in this book is as much Quadri’s return to life as it is of the resilience which returns Amina’s life being the task master of all the ordeals in Back to Life.  May we all keep triumphing over our challenges.

Professor Akanni teaches Journalism at the Lagos State University, LASU. Follow him on X: @AkintundeAkanni.

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The announcement was made on Monday in a press statement issued by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Ajuri Ngelale.

According to him, the new members of the management of the company are as follows:

(1) Engineer Jennifer Adighije — Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer

(2) Engineer Abdullahi Kassim — Executive Director (Generation)

(3) Engineer Bello Babayo Bello — Executive Director (Networks)

(4) Mr. Emmmanuel Umeoji — Executive Director (Corporate Services)

(5) Mr. Omololu Agoro — Executive Director (Finance & Accounts)

(6) Engineer Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama — Executive Director (Strategy & Commercial)

(7) Barrister Steven Andzenge — Executive Director (Legal Services)

Ngelale described the new NDPHC Chief Executive Officer, Ms. Jennifer Adighije, as an experienced engineer with vast competencies across management functions in the private and public sectors.

She holds a master’s degree in Wireless Networks & Telecommunications from Queen Mary University of London, UK, and a bachelor’s degree in Electrical/Electronics Engineering from the University of Lagos, Nigeria.

The president, Ngelale stated, expected the new members of the management of the company to deploy their expertise and experience to drive NDPHC’s mandate of effectively managing the National Integrated Power Projects, NIPP.

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