Osi-Samuels: 54 Garlands for a Patriot

On Monday January 3rd, 2022, Dr. Jay Osi-Samuels, Havard-trained public health expert and Deputy Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of APIN Public Health Initiatives, clocked 54. The Fugar, Edo State-born, going by his style, won’t have thrown any party nor planned any big celebration. But one thing was sure though, friends and close family members would have celebrated this patriot who, few years ago, stepped out of his comfort zone and stood up to be counted in the onerous task of trying to salvage whatever was left of Nigeria.

In 2017, Dr. Jay, as friends and admirers call him, decided to be part of the political process and took a step beyond criticising leaders and complaining. He led the process that culminated in the formation and registration of the Alliance for New Nigeria, ANN. Dr. Jay single-handedly built and funded the party from the scratch. The party, alongside, others was registered late 2017 and it became, indisputably, the most popular of all the parties registered then.

“I could have stayed in my comfort zone and be watching,” he told THISDAY during an interview then. “But I felt there was the need to get those in the corporate world and technocrats to get involved in the political process. I believe we could retire these old politicians if we are determined. If all of us keep saying it was not possible, then it won’t be”.

He explained further: “ANN came about with the meeting of young and patriotic Nigerians, professionals, Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers, etc, who were been concerned about the state of decadence of governance in Nigeria and we felt it was right for us to play our role, hitherto even though most of us have not been involved in politics. We felt that we can’t just sit on the side line and be complaining instead of being part of the process. So, a group of us started coming together. We were initially 10 in number, but with time, we expanded with the original founding members of ANN, we are 10 and we cut across all professions and age. I happen to be one of the oldest among our group at that time.”

Osi-Samuels then became the proponent of what was then known as ‘technoticians’, which was used to describe technicracts who were involved in politics. The movement was to gain a life of its own. In fact, as at that time, the party was already having presence in the diaspora. Such was the organisational capacity of Osi-Samuels that more and more young Nigerians were being drawn to the party.

Unfortunately, those who Osi-Samuels thought were on same page with him were actually agents of same forces the party was trying to dislodge from the political scene. Some of them, who claimed to be for a new Nigeria, were actually agents and messengers of those who were hell-bent on maintaining the old Nigeria.

“Dr. Jay, quite rightly, thought he had put the party on a strong footing and felt time had come to step aside and allow others to continue. That was why he decided to step aside and allow a certain Emmanuel Dania to emerge as the party’s new National Chairman in 2018. But little did he know that the guy was actually working for some top leaders of the ruling APC,” one of the loyalists told THISDAY during the week.

When asked if Osi-Samuels was not being naive, he said that would be very unfair.: “To him, he thought these guys were on same page with him and don’t also forget that they were also young Nigerians in the early and late 40s.”

He said even the guy that was one of the front runners for the party’s presidential ticket was a wolf in a sheep’s clothing.

When asked how he felt then, Osi-Samuels said he was naturally and expectedly devastated by the turn of events but it was an experience that even a billion dollars could never have bought for him. Even as disappointed as he felt, he said it was an experience that made him realise how enormous the task of rescuing Nigeria was.

“It was a very nasty but also chastening experience,” Osi-Samuels told this reporter. “I could have chosen to be ruthless and negate the values that have guided me all through my life. But if I do that, I would not have been able to prove that I was markedly different from those charlatans.”
He said he was glad that he was able to contribute his own quota to the political development of his fatherland and also, it was a party that was good enough to attract the likes of Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim.

Osi-Samuels has since gone back to his first calling: ensuring public health safety and prevention of unnecessary deaths amongst Nigerians and also the strengthening of public health institutions. His organisation, being directly funded by the United States government, has recorded massive positives in the prevention of HIV/AIDS and assisting governments at different levels in terms of intervention against diseases and preventable deaths.

In 2019, the organisation published a book, ‘Turning the Tide: AIDS in Nigeria’. The book chronicled the efforts and successes of the organisation in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The organisation’s chief executive officer, Dr. Prosper Okonkwo, told THISDAY then that the book was necessary to correct the wrong impression that AIDS was on the rise in Nigeria despite their efforts.
“In actual sense, it was actually reducing,” Okonkwo said then.

At presently, his organisation is involved in almost ten states of the federation and is working closely with state governments and international organisations to further empower public health institutions through research and critical interventions.

For Osi-Samuels, a 1993 holder of MBBS from the prestigious University of Ibadan, before practice ceeding to Harvard, life has been good and God has been faithful. He is married to Mrs. Folasade Osi-Samuels and the union is blessed with a daughter, Jasmine.

hile there might not have been big celebration on Monday, perhaps, his fatherland will one day give someone like him a chance to contribute to the development of the country at a higher level.