By Yusuph Olaniyonu
Watching Mrs Toyin Saraki from far and close quarters for about a decade since I started working for her husband, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, one cannot but take note of the many contrasts she represents.
In her looks, her association with young people, many of whom she mentors, and her embrace of modern technology, I see a woman who is younger than the three scores she has spent in this world. However, with her international presence and the calibre of world leaders she meets daily through her advocacy for good health and well-being of the less privileged across the globe, it appears like she has always been around for ages.
In the same way, she has no problem relating with the young and the old across the board. Well, she has her aged parents who are still very agile and children who are in their 20s as well as grandchildren who are still in primary and kindergarten schools. And that must have accounted for her ability to relate to all across ages.
Despite being an aristocrat by birth and marriage, she comfortably relates with Kings, leaders of business, international bureaucrats, diplomats, and world leaders the same way it is not strange for her to crack jokes with domestic staff and other ordinary people that come her way daily. She comes to the level of her audience at any particular time.
It is also not strange to see Mrs Saraki, in one moment, post on her different social media handles a picture of herself with King Charles of Great Britain at an international event to which she has been honourably invited, and in another moment, she posts another picture taken at a wedding ceremony of one of her drivers or other domestic aides in one of the hinterlands in Nigeria. Without batting an eyelid, she would attend functions in Paris, New York and rush back to Nigeria to also be present at a function on health service provision in Pada (Patigi LGA of Kwara State), Nyanya (an Abuja suburb) or Ijora Badia (in Lagos).
It is the reason why many of her or her husband’s aides usually check to ensure that she does not have any important international engagement at a time they have fixed for their ceremonies because they are sure Madam will be there to celebrate with them if she is within the country.
I benefitted from the personal touch of Mrs Saraki during the period of my illness. One evening she just called my second son, Oladipo, to inform him that she was on the way to our house. She spent some time with us, prayed, and urged that we should feel free to let her know if there was anything she could do to assist. By the way, I had introduced Oladipo to her when he was a student in the UK. Until he graduated and returned to Nigeria, she was always calling him on the phone to ask about his welfare.
To her, the husband’s aides and members of her staff at The Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA), where she is president, are family. She extends love, kindness, compassion, care, and respect to those staff members and their family members. That is why such staff members can be sure to get valuable gifts from her during the Christmas and New Year period.
A very fashionable woman, she has been able to promote the local Ankara and Adire fabrics across the world as she creates beautiful Nigerian dress styles that she gracefully wears to international occasions to the admiration of other dignitaries. She is sure a proud ambassador and fashion model for the Ankara and Adire fabric sellers as she stylishly presents their wares to the world with dignity.
In Kwara State where her husband had served for eight years as governor and later served as senator for another eight years, she is reputed for operating in the background. Yet, she is a cult figure among the women folk there. Up till today, at every event where she is present in any part of the state, you can be sure to hear intermittent chants of ‘Sai Toooooyin’ with a loud chorus and applause. Kemi Asefon, then writing in the Punch Newspaper once did a piece on her titled “Toyin Aya Bukola”. In that feature story, the writer submitted that she was perhaps the only wife of a governor in Nigeria who the populace referred to by her first name.
She has a way of mingling and relating so well with the women in the rural areas of Kwara State that except for her well-tailored Ankara dress, she will seem to look like one of them. The various empowerment programmes and health initiatives which she spearheaded brought succour to many women. Many years after her husband has left the office of governor and no longer occupies any public office, Mrs. Saraki through her WBFA is still sponsoring many programmes in the area of maternal and children health in Kwara State. Also, during Sallah and Christmas period, she still donates drugs, food, and clothing items to prisons, primary health care centres, and community development associations.
The only daughter of the very wealthy Prince of Lagos, Otunba Adekunle Ojora, and his wife, Erelu Ojuolape, the Erelu Oodua of Ife, Mrs Saraki is a Princess Royale of Ijora and Iganmu Kingdom, in Lagos. She holds the title of Erelu Bobajiro of Iruland, also in Lagos.
Her love for research is always baffling to me. Anytime she chooses to raise or discuss any issue, she will delve into the archive and produce over 100 internet materials ranging from links to newspaper publications, academic journals, relevant speeches, books, and pictures. It is usually an overload.
She is a “global advocate for women and children’s health and empowerment, with two decades of advocacy covering reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health; ending gender-based discrimination and violence; and improving education, socio-economic empowerment, and community livelihood in sub-Saharan Africa”.
It is one of her positive contrasts that while her husband who is a medical doctor has shifted focus to business, and politics and became a lawmaker, Mrs. Saraki who is a lawyer with a Master’s degree in Law from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, is the one who has taken to advocacy in health issues. And she is a huge success in that field.
She is the Emeritus Global Goodwill Ambassador for the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM); Special Adviser to the Independent Advisory Group (IAG) of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Regional Office for Africa (AFRO); and was named by Devex as Universal Healthcare Global Champion. She is also the Save the Children Newborn Health Champion for Nigeria; and is a Global Champion for the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood. Mrs. Saraki is a member of the UN Women African Women’s Leadership Network and also serves on the Steering Council of the African Women Leadership Network Nigeria.
Her WBFA is the sponsor of the ‘MamaCare’ programme which delivers classes in primary healthcare centres, hospitals, and Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps. The Foundation is also an implementing partner for the Alive and Thrive Infant and Young in campaigning for improved breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices by mothers. This campaign was prosecuted alongside FHI 360 and Save the Children International with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as the sponsor. Inder this programme, 303,002 pregnant mothers, 132,155 post-natal mothers (two years) and 40, 744 influencers benefitted across seven states and FCT.
The WBFA under Mrs Saraki also sponsored the #MaternalMonday advocacy campaign to remind and encourage mothers and their healthcare givers that “for a safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery, every mother should deliver her baby in a properly equipped medical facility attended by a skilled and qualified midwife with access to appropriate medical referral to a doctor and/or surgeon”.
There are many other maternal and child health advocacy programmes undertaken and sponsored by the WBFA under Mrs. Saraki to reduce the grim statistics of women dying during childbirth and the over 800,000 children who die before their fifth birthday.
It is for these services to humanity and her good disposition as a person that have made me wish her a happy birthday as she joins the Club of Sexagenarians today, September 6, 2024. Many happy returns, Ma’am.
- Olaniyonu writes from Abuja
