‘I have No Other country’

My country gave me security, gave me the sources and funding to do my education. – Oyewale Tomori

Feb 22, 2023

An Interview with Professor Oyewale Tomori. ONYINYE DIKE

Editor’s note: This essay is available in our print issue, Godfathers: An Introduction. Buy the issue here.

Oyewale Tomori is a Nigerian expert on global health. He is a professor of virology, an educational administrator, and a former vice chancellor of Redeemer’s University. He has worked for the World Health Organization to eradicate polio and sits on several committees and boards in the global health space. Tomori received the Nigeria National Order of Merit in 2002, the country’s highest award for academic excellence and is the incumbent president of the Nigerian Academy of Science. He views every accolade as a debt to Nigeria because they are the results of the investments the country made when he was younger.

Tomori tells me his path began with his father. In his words, to call his father simply polygamous would be an insult. His father had 15 wives of which Oyewale is the 39th child. His father was more than polygamous—he was ‘multi-gamous’. At the time, all the children were destined to work on the family farm but then the Nigerian government stepped in with mandatory free education.

‘My father, not wanting to go to prison, sent all of us to school,’ Tomori says to me. ‘Without that, I wouldn’t be where I am today.’

Speaking to him it becomes clear what the secret to his successful career has been—free education. Tomori’s education was all free; primary, secondary, and university. ‘Those are the things I owe my country, and that I can never pay back,’ he says. He clarifies that this investment has led to a certain sense of national pride unique to his generation. Future generations don’t have that same sense of pride, as they do not imagine that Nigeria values their worth and will invest in them. Therein lies the challenge for a future Nigeria; how to rekindle the belief that the government is working on behalf of its citizens, investing in them, and creating the enabling environment for them to thrive.

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About the Author

Charles Ebikeme

is a science writer based in London and a sub-editor of The Republic.

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‘I have No Other country’