On this International Girls in ICT Day, I stand with the global community under the theme AI for Development: Girls Shaping the Digital Future, because as artificial intelligence continues to reshape healthcare, education, governance, and economic life at a pace and scale the world has never before witnessed, ensuring that girls are at the centre of that change is among the most urgent obligations before us.

Across Sub-Saharan Africa, men are 60 per cent more likely than women to perform at least one ICT-related task, Africa’s gender parity score in internet use remains the lowest of any ITU region, and by the age of 15 only 0.5 per cent of girls aspire to careers in ICT compared to 5 per cent of boys, figures that represent futures deferred, innovations unrealised, and systems designed without the perspectives of the communities they are meant to serve.

Through our @WellbeingAfrica Adolescent Skills and Drills Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education Programme, and under its WBFA Digital Village, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa has embedded digital literacy and STEM education within the health and development journeys of thousands of adolescent girls across Nigeria, grounded in our long-held conviction that girls must be visible in data, present in research, and represented in the leadership structures that transform their futures.

Achieving the @UnitedNations Sustainable Development Goals will require the full, equal, and meaningful participation of girls and young women in every dimension of the digital economy, and this day serves as a reminder that the commitment of governments, civil society, and the private sector to make that participation a reality must be matched by investment, by policy, and by intention.

#GirlsInICT
#AIForDevelopment
#WellbeingForAll ...

Happy 86th Birthday to His Royal Highness, Alhaji (Dr.) Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, the esteemed Emir of Ilorin!

Your continued leadership, wisdom, and dedication to traditional values have been a guiding light of inspiration.

May Almighty God grant you good health and prosperity as you devotedly serve Ilorin Emirate, Kwara State, and the Nation. Ameen! ...

🌍 On this International Mother #EarthDay2026, I am highlighting the principle of #OneHealth, the recognition that human health, animal health, and environmental health are inseparable systems that must be governed as such, because when Mother Earth sends us a message, those of us working at the intersection of global health policy and human development have an obligation to respond with far more than acknowledgement.

In Nigeria, that message is written in the contraction of the Lake Chad Basin, which has lost nearly 90% of its surface area within a single generation, in the maternal and infant mortality rates of Niger Delta communities bearing the compounded burden of decades of environmental exploitation, and in the advancing desertification across our northern states that is dismantling the food systems and water sources upon which maternal and child survival depend.

With over 60 million Nigerians still lacking access to basic sanitation, and water contamination directly linked to ecological degradation remaining a leading driver of child mortality, the #WASH crisis in this country is inseparable from the environmental crisis we mark today, as the @WHO and @WHO_Africa have documented that over 13 million deaths annually are attributable to preventable environmental causes, with the burden falling disproportionately on women, children, and low-income communities across the Global South.

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the Paris Agreement, and the WHO-COP Health Programme, alongside the vital work of @UNEP, @UNFPA, @WHONigeria and @UN_Nigeria in supporting Nigeria`s climate and health response, all demand the same answer, the full integration of environmental governance into health systems policy, into national financing frameworks, and into the multilateral accountability mechanisms that determine whether commitments made in conference rooms translate into changed conditions on the ground.

I am proud to continue to commit to the @UnitedNations #ActNow campaign, because the shift this moment requires begins with each of us choosing to govern, advocate, and act accordingly.

#WASHWednesday ...

During April, as the @UnitedNations commemorates the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace under the 2026 theme Sport: Building Bridges, Breaking Barriers, I find myself reflecting on how twenty years ago, sport had no formal place in the global development vocabulary. The Millennium Development Goals did not mention it, national budgets gave it little serious attention, and the idea that a football pitch or a netball court could function as a site of gender equality, disability inclusion, or youth empowerment was, at best, a peripheral conviction held by a minority of practitioners.

In Kwara State, in Lagos State, in communities across Nigeria, through the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation, we quietly and consistently fostered sport in the firm belief that it was a development instrument of profound yet underestimated power.

From 2004, WBFA began supporting the Kwara State School for Special Needs, hosting the first sports workshop for @SpecialOlympics @SONigeria children, and contributing to the establishment of the Nigeria Netball Federation, because we believed every child who had never played or been cheered for had been denied something essential. That conviction extended into NINJA`s Netball, delivered in partnership with @UNICEF under the theme Build Teams and Change Lives.

Through the Toyin Saraki Queens FC, we sustained women`s football in Kwara when very few institutions were willing to, and the team`s State FA Cup victory demonstrated to every girl watching that their game was organised, competitive, and worthy of attention.

As the Sustainable Development Goals era began, that commitment extended into the Toyin Ojora-Saraki Baseball and Softball Championships, bringing over one thousand young athletes from fifteen states to Ilorin, offering competition, talent identification, and a pathway into internationally recognised sport for young people who had never before seen their potential reflected in a jersey.

I invite you to read the full account using the link in my bio, with gratitude to every partner, coach, federation official, parent, and young athlete who believed alongside us.

#TeenageTuesday
#WellbeingForAll ...

On today’s International Wellness Day, I advance the principle that the ability to live a healthy, balanced, and fulfilling life is fundamental to the realisation of human potential and sustainable development.

The @UnitedNations recognises wellness as central to quality of life, with prevention, health literacy, and people-centred care shaping outcomes across the life course and accelerating progress towards #SDG3 on Good Health and Well-being.

I welcome the growing global self-care agenda, to which the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation contributes, in partnership with the Global Self-Care Federation, @BayerOfficial and BCIU, reflected in the Unlocking Self-Care for Global Health Progress white paper and the Global Self-Care Federation’s evidence on the value of self-care, which establishes self-care as a practical pathway to strengthen universal health coverage, address noncommunicable diseases, and support mental health, as I continue to advocate for a @WHO resolution on self-care to integrate this agenda within global health policy.

At #WBFA, this is embedded in our continued work to address the structural inequities which shape women’s health outcomes in particular. Women live longer, yet experience a disproportionate burden of ill health while sustaining the health of families and communities. Through our programming, we advance access and health education, and enable women and communities to take informed and timely action.

As I look ahead to the 2027 United Nations High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, I will continue to drive policies and partnerships that place individuals and communities at the centre of health, ensuring that wellness is anchored within the systems designed to serve them, and that we advance stronger together.

#InternationalWellnessDay 
#UniversalHealthCoverage 
#SelfCare ...

On World Chagas Disease Day, under the theme Women at the Heart: Protecting the Next Generation from Chagas Disease, we reflect on a disease the @WHO has characterised as silent or silenced, a parasitic infection that continues to affect an estimated 7 million people, cause over 10,000 deaths annually, and place more than 100 million at risk across 44 countries, highlighting how conditions imposing the greatest burden remain those least seen, least prioritised, and least resourced.

As the WHO makes clear, women have too often been unfairly stigmatised in the context of transmission during pregnancy, characterised as the source of congenital infection despite having acquired the infection earlier through the same environmental exposures as their families and communities, including contaminated food or drink.

Women are at the centre of the response as caregivers, frontline health actors, and the backbone of health systems, anchoring family and community health. Yet too many still face gaps in awareness, screening, diagnosis, and treatment, with significant consequences for cardiac health, adverse pregnancy outcomes, and the next generation. Evidence shows that treatment of girls and women prior to pregnancy is almost 100 per cent effective in preventing congenital transmission, while treatment in the first year of life achieves cure rates above 90 per cent.

At the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation, we advance this mission through community education, workforce strengthening, and the integration of #WASH within maternal, newborn, and primary care delivery. Safe water, sanitation, hygiene, and food safety are essential to reducing transmission pathways and addressing the determinants that sustain neglected diseases, in alignment with the WHO NTD Roadmap 2021–2030 to attain the Sustainable Development Goals.

For Africa, and for Nigeria, the relevance is structural. While Chagas disease is not endemic at scale, the system priorities support surveillance, integrated service delivery, and community level prevention, particularly where gaps in #WASH access persist.

#WorldChagasDiseaseDay
#WellbeingForAll ...

On this #MaternalMonday, as Black Maternal Health Week is observed from April 11 to 17 @BlackMamasMatter, I welcome the global health community’s focus on the persistent and unacceptable disparities in maternal health outcomes affecting Black women, and the renewed emphasis on advancing solutions from awareness into policy and practice.

In the United States, Black women remain around three times more likely to die from pregnancy related causes than white women, while in the United Kingdom, recent maternity data likewise show that Black women continue to die at more than twice the rate of white women, patterns that point to persistent failures in access, standards of care, and women’s experience within health systems, and are also reflected in Nigeria where a woman faces roughly a 1 in 19 lifetime risk of maternal death, one of the highest worldwide.

Through the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation, our #MamaCare360 programme and mission continues to advance midwifery and nursing led models, champion respectful maternity care, and integrate maternal mental health into routine services, including through the development of the Perinatal Mental Health Checklist, validated within Nigeria’s National Maternal and Child Health Handbook.

My engagements in global discussions, including the @MilkenInstitute Global Conference, Baby Blues: The Early Days of the Motherhood Journey Roundtable with midwives and doulas, and the @ClintonGlobal Initiative, The Fourth Trimester: How to Provide Postpartum Support and Reduce Post-Birth Mortality, have furthered discussions on postpartum care, elevating a clear and continued need to share lessons learned and evidence across settings to inform more responsive and integrated maternal health approaches.

We look forward to utilising the #BlackMaternalHealthWeek Resolution Guide to continue to connect advocacy to national and regional policy efforts, as it provides an important framework for aligning frontline leadership and implementation towards more accountable #MNCH health systems.

#BMHW26
WellbeingForAll ...

Today, with thanksgiving, I join family, friends, and well-wishers across Nigeria and around the world in celebrating Alhaji Aliko Dangote, GCON, @Aliko_DangoteGCON, on his 69th birthday, and give thanks for a life that has shaped industry, economic opportunity, and philanthropy across Africa.

A preeminent industrialist and nation builder, Aliko’s work through the @DangoteGroup reflects a sustained commitment to African self-sufficiency, strengthening local industry while positioning the continent as a global force in manufacturing and enterprise.

The vision continues with the @AlikoDangoteFoundation, through significant investments in health, nutrition, education, and humanitarian response, reaching communities with purpose and impact.

May Almighty God continue to bless and strengthen Aliko, and grant him fulfilment in the years ahead.

#HappyBirthday ...

I celebrate His Royal Majesty, Oba Saheed Ademola Elegushi, Kusenla III @HRMSAElegushi, on the occasion of his 50th birthday, marking his Golden Jubilee.

Ascending the throne at just 34 as the 21st Elegushi of Ikate-Elegushi Kingdom, His Royal Majesty has distinguished himself as a modern custodian of tradition, seamlessly bridging heritage with progress. His reign fosters a rare clarity of purpose, advancing education, empowering young people and entrepreneurs, and strengthening community wellbeing with consistency and intent.

Representing a new generation of African monarchs, globally engaged while deeply rooted, His Royal Majesty inspires a spirit of thanksgiving while guiding Ikate-Elegushi as a centre of economic vitality and cultural pride.

At fifty, this Golden Jubilee reflects a legacy of influence, principled leadership, and meaningful service.

May his reign continue to inspire and uplift, and may God continue to bless and uphold him, granting peace, grace, and prosperity to Ikate-Elegushi Kingdom. ...

Today on #WorldHealthDay, I echo the @WHO global call for collective action, Together for Health, Stand with Science, grounded in urgency, equity and shared responsibility.

As a member of the @WHO Civil Society Commission and an accredited Non-State Actor with @WHO_Africa, the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation, through the Wellbeing Africa Institute of Research and Development #WAIRD, is engaging alongside nearly 800 scientific institutions across more than 80 countries convened through the One Health Summit in Lyon and the WHO Global Forum of Collaborating Centres.

The #OneHealth approach recognises the interdependence of human, animal and environmental health. With over 60% of emerging infectious diseases originating in animals, and with climate and ecosystem pressures accelerating risk, integrated and science led responses across sectors are essential.

At #WBFA, this is reflected in our work across maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health systems, where prevention, safe care and community level action intersect with wider environmental and public health determinants.

To stand with science is to protect the institutions, partnerships and financing that translate evidence into equitable outcomes, and to sustain trust in public health guidance at every level.

#WellbeingForAll ...