With profound respect, I congratulate His Royal Majesty, Oba Rilwan Babatunde Osuolale Aremu Akiolu I, Eleko of Eko, on the twenty-third anniversary of his coronation as Oba of Lagos.

Since the crown was placed upon his head on 9 August 2003, Kabiyesi has held the ancient throne of Iga Idunganran with a constancy that has kept the customs of Eko intact through a period of rapid transformation in the life of the city, presiding over the traditional institution of Lagos with wise counsel to successive administrations, distinguished leadership to the Lagos State Council of Obas and Chiefs as its Chairman, and a settled moral authority to one of the most vibrant and cosmopolitan cities in the world.

That stewardship is drawn from a long life of public service, thirty-two years of it given to the Nigeria Police Force, and it is the same regard for integrity, for the peace and good order of a great city, and for the dignity of its people, that has distinguished twenty-three illustrious years upon the throne of his forebears.

My prayers are for Kabiyesi’s continued good health, for wisdom, and for many more years of a long, prosperous and peaceful reign over Eko and all who make their home within her. ...

I join my dear husband @BukolaSaraki in extending sincere felicitations to His Royal Majesty, Oba Mufutau Gbadamosi Esuwoye II @hrmolofa, the Olofa of Offa and Paramount Ruler of the Ibolo Kingdom, on the joyous occasion of his birthday, marked this week across Kwara State with prayers and thanksgiving.

Kabiyesi occupies one of the most revered thrones of the Yoruba nation, and his years upon it have been distinguished by a devotion to peace, to the dignity of his people and to the faithful keeping of culture and custom. The traditional institution remains among the most trusted guardians of community wellbeing, from the education of the young to the health, safety and prosperity of mothers, newborns and families in every household across the kingdom.

On behalf of the Ojora Royal Family of Lagos, and the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation, I wish His Royal Majesty and his entire family enduring good health, abundance and the blessings of Almighty God, that Kabiyesi may sit in strength and gladness for many years to come, to the lasting benefit of Offa and of all who look to him for guidance.

Ki ade pe lori, ki bata pe lese. Kabiyesi o.

#CultureisContinuous
#WellbeingForAll ...

Today, we lovingly remember our beloved Mother, Grandmother and Great-Grandmother, Chief Mrs Florence Morenike Saraki, on her 91st birthday anniversary.

Mama Saraki’s legacy of faith, grace, love and devotion lives on through our family and through all whose lives she touched.

We give thanks to Almighty God for the blessing of her life and pray that she continues to rest in His eternal peace and light.

Amen. ...

There is no greater blessing than friendships that grow into sisterhood, and I am fortunate to celebrate two such women today. Happy Birthday to my dear friend and sister Gbemi @gshash1, and to my dear aburo @morayoasoasiko! 🎉

I give thanks for the grace, warmth and good cheer that you each carry with you. One day is never enough of a celebration, so keep glowing, keep smiling, keep achieving, and enjoy your August season.

Wishing you both health, happiness and every success in the year ahead. 🙏🥰

#HappyBirthday ...

I am pleased to announce that I have joined the Advisory Board of @SyloCarebyTremendoc, in my personal capacity.

SyloCare is a health insurance aggregation platform through which members of the African diaspora in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada can arrange licensed cover for family members in Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya, purchased from regulated health maintenance organisations and administered through a single digital interface.

What draws me to this work is the mechanism upon which it rests, for out-of-pocket payment at the point of service remains the principal driver of catastrophic health expenditure across sub-Saharan Africa, and remittances, for all the generosity that carries them across borders, are sent only once illness has already taken hold.

Prepayment and risk pooling are the means through which households are shielded from that burden, and the means by which universal health coverage is advanced, and any undertaking that turns the steadfast support of the diaspora into structured protection, arranged before it is needed rather than after, is one I am glad to see taken forward.

I look forward to contributing my counsel, and to asking how the families furthest from care are reached, and how claims are honoured at the hour they are needed.

#SyloCare ...

It was a pleasure yesterday to join our @WellbeingAfrica Foundation Lagos Team virtually for a hybrid discussion with the leadership of @AmazonWebServices for Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa, where we were received by Robin Njiru, Regional Lead, Public Sector, Sub-Saharan Africa, Nnenna Irebisi-Okoli, Public Sector Lead for West Africa, and Chukwudi Obi of the Worldwide Public Sector team for West Africa.

Through the Health Equity Initiative, the Imagine Grant and its Social Responsibility and Impact Programme, Amazon Web Services has made a substantive institutional commitment to the place of cloud technology in the delivery of health, in which connectivity, computational capability and secure data infrastructure are understood as instruments of health equity.

The Wellbeing Foundation Africa holds that where connectivity is secured, expertise becomes a shared resource rather than a local one, and the standard of care rises accordingly.

My appreciation is extended to the Amazon Web Services team for a generous and forward-looking exchange.

#DigitalHealth
#HealthEquity
#HealthWorkforce
#WellbeingForAll ...

I welcome World Breastfeeding Week 2026, observed from 1 to 7 August under the theme Breastfeeding for a Sustainable Start in Life: Strengthen What Works, coordinated by the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action @WABA_Global with the @WHO and @UNICEF, and anchored this year in tracking progress across nutrition, food security and poverty reduction.

The week opens with the updated global investment case released by the Global Breastfeeding Collective, commissioned by WHO and UNICEF and produced by @NutritionIntl. It finds that scaling proven breastfeeding support to 75 per cent coverage in high burden countries over the coming decade would avert up to 263,000 child deaths and generate up to US$357 billion in economic gains, delivering returns of up to US$59 for every US$1 invested, driven largely by improvements in cognitive development, education outcomes and lifetime productivity. The cost of continued underinvestment is measured with equal precision, at US$339 billion in losses each year.

In Nigeria, exclusive breastfeeding has stagnated at 29 per cent and early initiation within the first hour has declined from 42 to 36 per cent, according to the National Demographic and Health Survey 2023 to 2024. I take the view that the gap before us is one of financing, accountability and enforcement rather than of evidence, which is why the midwives and nurses of the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation continue to deliver skilled infant and young child feeding counselling through our MamaCare360 antenatal and postnatal classes, in the communities where such counselling is least available and most needed.

My hope for this week, which is to close the distance between declaration and delivery, rests on the six priorities set out by the Collective. To protect through full enforcement of the International Code of Marketing of Breast milk Substitutes, to deliver through Baby Friendly Hospitals and skilled counselling, to enable through families and communities, to finance through sustained domestic investment, to scale through comprehensive national packages, and to partner, because no single actor can close the breastfeeding investment gap alone.

#WBW2026
#WellbeingForAll ...

Today the world observes the International Day of Friendship, proclaimed by the @UnitedNations General Assembly in 2011 in recognition that friendship between peoples, countries, cultures and individuals holds the capacity to inspire peace efforts and build bridges between communities.

The observance proceeds from the normative direction set by @UNESCO in its definition of the Culture of Peace, adopted in 1997 as a set of values, attitudes and behaviours which reject violence and address the root causes of conflict. Particular emphasis falls upon the participation of young people, as future leaders, in community activities that advance international understanding and respect for diversity.

Solidarity is a condition of effective multilateral cooperation, among them the shared governance of the resources upon which human survival depends, and it is the principle the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation applies through its frontline programming across Nigeria, in health facilities, in schools and in the networks it convenes with the communities it serves.

On this day I extend my warm regards to the friends, colleagues and partners with whom that work is shared, across countries and institutions, whose companionship has made the pursuit of health, dignity and peace a common undertaking.

📸: UN 2023 Water Conference, United Nations Headquarters, New York, March 2023

#InternationalDayOfFriendship
#CultureOfPeace
#WellbeingForAll ...

Today I observe World Hepatitis Day under the theme Hepatitis: Let’s Break It Down, an appeal to remove the barriers separating populations from interventions of proven efficacy.

The @WHO Global Hepatitis Report 2026 documents 287 million people living with chronic hepatitis B or hepatitis C infection in 2024, and 1.3 million deaths attributable to those infections. Hepatitis B-related deaths rose by 17% between 2015 and 2024, notwithstanding a vaccine of approximately 95% efficacy available since the early 1990s. Timely birth dose coverage stood at 45% globally against a 2030 target of 90%, and at 17% in the @WHO_Africa Region, which accounted for 68% of new infections.

The deficit is one of delivery rather than science, concentrated in the hours surrounding birth. A vaccine conferring lifelong protection is of no consequence to a newborn whose mother was never screened, never counselled on what the birth dose prevents, or never supported to deliver where that dose is available within 24 hours.

At the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation, our #MamaCare360 WBFA Midwives address this gap in every class, fostering the health literacy and trust through which women understand their hepatitis B status, take up antenatal screening, complete antiviral prophylaxis where eligible, and present for facility delivery so that their newborns receive a timely birth dose.

This demand for triple elimination of human immunodeficiency virus, syphilis and hepatitis B virus holds only where the commodities behind it remain affordable and simple to deliver at primary care level, which is the object of @Unitaid’s SAFEStart+ investment in integrated elimination of vertical transmission and of the implementation work of @PathGlobalHealth.

The WHO is explicit that lasting progress depends upon the leadership and participation of communities and civil society, among them the strengthening of partnerships with governments and health providers to deliver people-centred and equitable hepatitis responses, which is the standard to which every actor in this response must now be held before 2030.

#WorldHepatitisDay
#HepatitisLetsBreakItDown
#TripleElimination
#WellbeingForAll ...

Today, on the International Day for #WomenandGirlsofAfricanDescent, dedicated this year to the right to health, a fundamental right still denied to far too many, I join the global community in honouring the strength, brilliance and leadership of women and girls of African descent, who continue to navigate systemic barriers to quality healthcare, education and representation, yet who continue to rise, leading movements, fighting for justice, and breaking cycles of exclusion.

The evidence before us is compelling, for the Blueprint to Close the Women’s Health Gap, published by the @WorldEconomicForum with the McKinsey Health Institute, finds that women spend 25% more of their lives in poor health than men, and that closing this gap could unlock more than one trillion dollars in annual global gross domestic product by 2040. As a World Economic Forum Champion of the Global Alliance for Women’s Health and a contributor to this body of work, I was honoured last year, on World Health Day, to deliver the keynote address at the McKinsey Roundtable on Closing the Women’s Health Gap in Africa, convened in Lagos, carrying the voices of African women and girls into a dialogue determined to translate evidence into equity.

At my @WellbeingAfrica Foundation, this determination lives on the frontline each day, where our HPV vaccination drives protect girls from cervical cancer, our #PSHE and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene #WASH programmes in schools, including menstrual hygiene education, equip adolescent girls with knowledge, dignity and confidence, and our midwife-led MamaCare360 teams deliver respectful maternal care, breast cancer screening, hygiene promotion and mental health support across Nigeria.

On this day, the imperative is that governments, partners and health leaders secure this right through equitably financed health systems, respectful and culturally attuned maternal care, robust disaggregated data, and the meaningful participation of women and girls of African descent in shaping the policies that govern their health and wellbeing, for their health is their right, and until it is delivered in full, our work continues.

#RightToHealth ...

On International Self-Care Day, observed on the 24th of July to symbolise self-care practised twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, I wish to highlight self-care as an essential pillar of preventive healthcare, and its growing significance as a pathway to efficiency, equity and resilience in the prevention of non-communicable diseases for health systems globally.

The @WHO defines self-care as the ability of individuals, families and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and cope with illness and disability, with or without the support of a healthcare provider. The Global Self-Care Federation’s 2026 Global Social and Economic Value of Self-Care Report, launched this week in Geneva, finds that self-care generates 144 billion United States dollars in health system savings and 24 million quality-adjusted life years each year, and could deliver social and economic benefits up to 50% greater by 2040 where supportive policies on health literacy, access to quality-assured products and integration into national health strategies are in place.

At the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation, our frontline programming, which reinforces self-care as a key tool against antimicrobial resistance, has demonstrated that when mothers, families and communities are equipped with accurate health knowledge and skills to apply it, self-care becomes a functioning first tier of the health system, easing pressure on facilities and the workforce while improving outcomes across the reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health continuum, and that prevention, practised daily and at scale, remains the most powerful instrument for nations seeking health for all.

As health systems contend with ageing populations, the rising burden of NCDs and constrained public budgets, I call on governments and partners to embed self-care within primary healthcare and universal health coverage frameworks, to invest in health literacy and ensure equitable access to the quality-assured tools and services that enable every individual to be the first guardian of their own health.

#ValueOfSelfCare
#InternationalSelfCareDay
#WellbeingForAll
#FrontlineFriday ...

Yesterday evening in New York, The Toyin Saraki Global Policy and Philanthropy Office and the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation were represented at the @UnitedNations Town Hall, The Next Secretary-General, convened in the General Assembly Hall at United Nations Headquarters by the President of the General Assembly @UNPGA, H.E. @ABaerbock, with the support of @Bloomberg as global media partner. WBFA was present in the Foundation’s capacity as a holder of Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council @UN_ECOSOC.

The Town Hall assembled the six candidates seeking to succeed Secretary-General @AntonioGuterres, namely H.E. Michelle Bachelet of Chile, H.E. María Fernanda Espinosa of Ecuador, Director General Rafael Grossi of Argentina, Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan of Costa Rica, Ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett of Guyana and H.E. Macky Sall of Senegal, each responding to questions from diplomats, United Nations staff and civil society ahead of the Security Council’s first informal ballot on 30 July.

The selection of the next Secretary-General bears directly upon the health and wellbeing of the mothers, newborns, children, adolescents, families and communities whom the Wellbeing Foundation Africa serves across Nigeria and the wider African continent, and upon the midwives, nurses and frontline health workers upon whom their care depends. Our presence within the Hall gave expression to our abiding conviction that their voices must be heard wherever the future of multilateralism is deliberated.

As the United Nations prepares to entrust its highest office to new stewardship, we invite all Member States to weigh each candidate’s dedication to universal health coverage, to the survival and flourishing of every mother and newborn, and to the full realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals. The Wellbeing Foundation Africa stands ready to serve alongside the next Secretary-General in pursuit of a healthier, fairer and more peaceful world.

#UNSG
#WellbeingForAll
#FrontlineFriday ...

As a longstanding member of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health @PMNCH_Insta, a Board Observer and a member of its Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Workstream Group, I welcome the launch of the PMNCH Financing Campaign, Lives in Balance, Finance the Promise, #Act4WCA, a two-year global initiative to secure sustainable financing for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health, placing country-led resource mobilisation, parliamentary accountability and the defence of development assistance at the centre of the global health agenda.

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, official development assistance for health fell by 23.1% in 2025, the steepest single-year decline on record, even as a woman continues to die in pregnancy or childbirth every 2 minutes and 4.9 million children did not live to see their fifth birthday in 2024, as recorded by the @WHO and @UnitedNations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation.

The Partnership’s investment review shows that every US$1 invested in reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health returns up to US$20 in economic and social value, while the projected cost of failing to invest in adolescent wellbeing approaches US$110 trillion by 2050.

I am encouraged that Nigeria stands among the 5 initial campaign countries for domestic resource mobilisation, alongside Malawi, Senegal, Tanzania and Zambia, terrain we at the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation know through our frontline programming and advocacy for health workforce investment and quality care. Domestic financing anchored in political accountability offers the strongest and most sustainable foundation, and this campaign equips national coalitions to carry that argument into ministries of finance and parliaments alike.

The promise has been made and the resources must now follow, so I call upon governments, parliamentarians, donors, multilateral institutions, civil society and private sector partners to finance the futures of women, children and adolescents everywhere. Join us at act4wca.org.

#PMNCH
#WCAH
#PartnershipForChange
#WellbeingForAll ...