Today, on #MalalaDay, we mark thirteen years since @Malala Yousafzai stood before the @UnitedNations on her sixteenth birthday and called upon world leaders to protect every girl’s right to education. It was an honour to join Malala in Abuja in 2023, at the United Nations House, during her third visit to Nigeria, where young advocates and civil society leaders gathered to renew our shared commitment to the girls of Nigeria and of Africa.

That commitment must be matched with action, for Malala Fund reports that more than 122 million girls remain out of school worldwide, even though a girl with an education can help grow economies, with the global economy standing to gain between 15 and 30 trillion dollars in productivity and earnings each year if every girl completed secondary school. Working alongside local activists, educators, and advocates, Malala Fund has reached 26 million students with education access and resources, and has helped unlock 7 billion dollars for girls’ education since 2013, yet each girl still excluded represents a future leader, thinker, and builder the world has yet to meet.

At the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation, we have always understood that a girl’s education and her health are inseparable, which is why our WBFA Adolescent Skills and Drills Programme sees frontline midwives and nurses deliver personal, social, health and economic education across Nigeria, equipping girls with the knowledge and life skills to stay in school and in good health.

Education makes economies stronger, communities healthier, and nations more resilient. On this day, I join @MalalaFund in recommitting to a future where every girl can learn and choose what comes next for her, and I call upon governments and partners across Africa to invest in the policies, teachers, healthcare workers and safe schools that will carry every girl through twelve years of free, safe, and quality education.

#MalalaDay2026
#WellbeingForAll ...

On World Population Day 2026, under the theme “Realizing the hopes and aspirations of young people – today and for the future," I welcome @UNFPA`s landmark report, Lives, Choices and Futures: What Young People Want and What Shapes Their Decisions about Relationships and Parenthood, drawn from the Demographic Futures Survey of more than 108,000 young adults aged 18 to 39 across 73 countries, one of the most geographically diverse bodies of evidence on how young people envision their futures.

The findings speak clearly, with more than two thirds of respondents wishing to marry or live with a partner and two children remaining the most desired family size across five of seven regions, while economic precarity, housing insecurity and constrained access to reproductive healthcare remain the most cited barriers to these aspirations, confirming that the defining demographic challenge of our era is the gap between reproductive aspiration and reproductive agency, the very gap the ICPD Programme of Action, on whose Nairobi Summit International Steering Committee I have been privileged to serve, seeks to close.

I congratulate the laureates of the forty-first @UnitedNations Population Award, Professor Serigne Magueye Gueye of Senegal, honoured for decades of surgery restoring dignity to women living with obstetric fistula and for training surgeons across 45 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and H.E. Mrs Angeline Ndayishimiye, First Lady of Burundi, honoured for the Fondation Bonne Action Umugiraneza and its polyclinic serving rural Gitega Province.

This day resonates personally through my role as a Mentor to Young Leaders within UNFPA`s Youth Programming and through our Wellbeing for Women Africa Youth Voices Initiative @WBWVoices, elevating young advocates into the rooms where policy is made. Realising these aspirations now requires investment in housing, decent work and rights-based reproductive healthcare at a scale worthy of what young voices have told the world they want.

@WellbeingAfrica
#WorldPopulationDay
#LivesChoicesFutures
#WellbeingForAll ...

It was a distinguished privilege to be received yesterday by the Commonwealth Secretary-General, Hon. Shirley Botchwey, at Marlborough House in London @Commonwealth_Sec, our first official meeting since her appointment as the first woman from Africa to hold this office, and a conversation grounded in a shared commitment to a Commonwealth that works for its youngest citizens as much as its oldest institutions.

More than 60% of the Commonwealth`s 2.7 billion people are under the age of 30, and the majority of its 56 member states are classified as low- and middle-income countries, 14 of them among the world`s Least Developed Countries. It was this demographic and economic reality, together with the urgent priorities of youth mental health and youth entrepreneurship, that shaped much of our discussion.

As Global Honorary Patron of Lifeline International, a civil society organisation accredited to the @CommonwealthOrg Foundation, and as Co-Chair of the @AfricaREACH1 Leadership Council advancing Africa`s HIV response and health systems in line with the @AfricanUnion_Official’s Agenda 2063, I was glad to bring both platforms directly into the room, work that sits close to the mandate of the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation and the Wellbeing Africa Institute for Research and Development #WAIRD, and to my own conviction and advocacy that no young person`s wellbeing should depend on where in the Commonwealth they happen to be born.

I look forward to continuing this dialogue with the Office of the Secretary-General in the months ahead, as the Commonwealth prepares for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting #CHOGM in St John`s, Antigua and Barbuda this November, and to seeing these priorities placed firmly on that agenda.

#CommonwealthYouth
#WellbeingForAll ...

It was a privilege to spend the afternoon with Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub OM and his distinguished colleagues, learning about the Rwanda–Egypt Heart Centre as it approaches completion in Kigali @RwandaEgyptHeartCentre.

For me, this meeting reflected a journey of more than three decades in children’s heart health, from supporting @SaveAChildsHeart Nigeria through the Lifestream Charity since 1995 to championing rheumatic heart disease as a maternal, newborn and child health priority through global RHD Action, and now advancing equitable cardiovascular care for women, children and families through my @WellbeingAfrica Foundation.

Conceived as Rwanda’s first dedicated cardiac hospital, the centre will provide free diagnosis and treatment for congenital and acquired heart disease while strengthening specialist care, training, education and research across the region, a powerful example of African led excellence in healthcare delivery.

Professor Yacoub’s pioneering work in heart transplantation and paediatric cardiac surgery has transformed generations of care. Through the Magdi Yacoub Heart Foundation @Magdi_Yacoub_Foundation and as Vice Chair of the Rwanda Heart Care and Research Foundation, he has built a remarkable network of philanthropic cardiac centres spanning Aswan, Addis Ababa and now Kigali.

I commend the South-South partnership behind this endeavour, with the Governments of Rwanda and Egypt, the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development, @ChainofHopeUK and many clinical and philanthropic partners advancing a truly African owned model of healthcare.

This vision closely aligns with the Wellbeing Foundation Africa’s belief that lasting progress depends on specialist infrastructure, trained frontline professionals and cross-border collaboration rooted in local leadership.

I look forward to seeing this institution open its doors to families across Rwanda and sub-Saharan Africa, bringing world-class cardiac care closer to home and mending little hearts for generations to come.

#RwandaEgyptHeartCentre
#MendingLittleHearts
#RheumaticHeartDisease
#LifestreamCharity
#WellbeingForAll ...

It is an honour to congratulate Rotarian Olutoyin Mobisola Odulate upon her Installation Ceremony as the 66th President of the @RotaryClubofLagos, and the induction of the 2026 to 2027 Board of Directors at The Metropolitan Club, Victoria Island.

Founded in 1961 under Charter President Chief S. L. Edu, the Rotary Club of Lagos remains the oldest active Rotary club in Nigeria, a heritage that lends real weight to this installation. Rotarian Odulate brings sixteen years of senior leadership at L`Oréal and Danone, and the entrepreneurial resolve behind Olori Beauty Enterprise, to a role that calls for exactly that calibre of judgement.

I am delighted that the club`s four priorities for the year ahead, cervical cancer vaccination, feminine hygiene provision, classroom and sanitation renovation, and the scaling of microcredit, form a programme of real coherence, treating health, education and economic opportunity as one continuum. It is a vision that speaks directly to the work of @WellbeingAfrica across maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health, and I look forward to the ways our paths may cross in the year ahead.

Warmest congratulations to Rotarian Odulate, the incoming Board, and the entire Rotary family in Lagos, every good wish for a productive and impactful year of service!

#RotaryClubOfLagos
#ServiceAboveSelf
#WellbeingForAll ...

It was a privilege to join the @WTA Foundation and the @GatesFoundation, at their kind invitation, for a high-level private discussion on improving maternal health and nutrition in the world`s most vulnerable communities, held ahead of an afternoon at @Wimbledon yesterday, in support of the WTA Foundation`s Women Change the Game campaign for their Global Women’s Health Fund and @UNICEF`s Child Nutrition Fund, and its work to scale up maternal and child nutrition delivery worldwide.

Nearly four in five Nigerian women are affected by anaemia, and nine in ten women across low and middle income countries still lack access to prenatal vitamins, a gap that continues to cost mothers and children their lives and their futures, and one that is not an abstraction to me but a description of the women @WellbeingAfrica serves every day, through our WBFA midwife led antenatal and postnatal care under our #MamaCare360 platform, where nutrition counselling, breastfeeding support and respectful maternity care are delivered alongside one another as a single continuum of care.

Conversations of this kind, uniting philanthropic capital, corporate partnership and civil society delivery, are how the promise made to mothers and children is finally kept.

I urged CNF donors to consider integrating private sector institutional health providers access within the Fund’s wider scaling implementation, extending coverage into its reach and turning these important commitments into universal nutrition care.

My thanks to the WTA Foundation, the Gates Foundation and UNICEF for the invitation, and for a shared commitment to closing this gap together.

#MaternalHealth
#ChildNutrition
#WimbledonForGood
#WellbeingForAll ...

Every new month is a merciful grace. What we do with it is our gift back to God, and a gift we give ourselves.

Happy New Month, and a warm welcome to July! As we begin the second half of the year and step into Q3, this chapter meets us mid-stride, with much ground still to cover. Every new month is simply another chance to move that work forward, with gratitude, confidence and hope for all that lies ahead.

As we bid June farewell, we also celebrate our June birthday stars at the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation, Zainab Jimoh, Aminat Akingbade and Prince Ariwodo. Happy Birthday, and thank you for your dedication and service.

Happy New Month, and welcome to this new chapter. ✨

#HelloJuly #Q3
#HappyNewMonth
#PurposeInAction
#WellbeingForAll ...

Over the weekend, we were delighted to celebrate the 40th birthday of our beloved son-in-law, Niyi.

We honour not only this significant milestone, but the exceptional man you are—kind-hearted, principled, and steadfast in your devotion to your family. Your love, strength, and generosity of spirit are a blessing to all who know you.

As you enter this new decade, may it bring renewed purpose, abundant joy, excellent health, and fulfilment in every endeavour. May God continue to guide your path, prosper your work, and surround you with His grace, favour, and protection.

On this #MaternalMonday, we give thanks for the families we nurture, the generations we cherish, and the bonds of love that sustain us. We are proud to celebrate you today and always, and grateful for the care, commitment, and integrity you bring to our family.

Wishing you a truly wonderful birthday and many happy, healthy, and blessed years ahead. Amen. ...

I welcome the report released yesterday by the World Health Organization, Strengthening Capacity for Newborn Screening, Diagnosis and Management of Birth Defects, which urges every country to expand newborn screening so that early detection and timely treatment prevent avoidable death and lifelong disability among millions of children, a position that aligns closely with the work the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation has undertaken in Nigeria and advocated for globally, with the understanding that the first days of life are where so much of a child’s developmental trajectory is determined.

The data the @WHO sets out are instructive, with an estimated 8 million infants born with a birth defect each year and such conditions now accounting for almost 8% of all deaths among children under 5, while roughly 90% of those born with serious birth defects live in low- and middle-income countries where screening, diagnosis and treatment remain least available. The same report records that between 2000 and 2023 the proportion of under-five deaths attributable to birth defects rose from 1% to 4% across sub-Saharan Africa and from 3% to 11% across South Asia, an epidemiological shift that reflects measurable gains against infectious disease alongside the unfinished task of addressing congenital and neonatal conditions.

The significance of this report lies in what it asks of every health system, that screening become a routine entitlement of every newborn, available as a matter of course rather than as a privilege reserved for a fortunate few, and it is precisely this principle that has guided our own #WBFA programmes in Nigeria. 

#NewbornScreening
#NewbornHealth
#WellbeingForAll ...

On today’s International Widows’ Day, observed by the @UnitedNations under resolution A/RES/65/189, I welcome the renewed normative attention to the rights and visibility of widows under the theme Invisible Women, Invisible Problems, a population systematically uncounted in the very systems that determine their survival.

Widowhood is a health emergency as much as an economic one. Of an estimated 258 million widows worldwide, one in ten lives in extreme poverty, the burden concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa, with Nigeria carrying over 21 million. When a spouse dies, women lose income, land and, too often, access to care itself, while harmful widowhood and inheritance practices drive up exposure to infection. Across crises, @UNFPA records twice the rate of gender-based violence and the concentration of some 60% of preventable maternal deaths, and @UNHCR counts over 120 million forcibly displaced, around half of them women and girls, many widowed and now heading households alone. 

At the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation, in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the UN, our frontline midwifery, mental health and social care programming reaches these women at the thresholds where grief, isolation and bereavement convert into ill health and hardship. Nigeria already has the instruments, including the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act, which criminalises harmful widowhood practices, and we at #WBFA are advocates for accountable implementation, enforcement, and disaggregated data as we align national commitment with measurable outcomes. 

As we work towards Sustainable Development Goal 5, the direction is clear, to secure health coverage, inheritance and financial rights, and social protection grounded in fundamentals rather than marital status, converting long-stated commitment into evidence for every widow, everywhere.

#InternationalWidowsDay 
#GenderEquality
#WellbeingForAll ...

I am pleased to share my appointment to the Board of NCR (Nigeria) Plc as a Non-Executive Director, effective 11 June 2026.

This appointment holds a particular meaning for me. NCR (Nigeria) Plc, the first multinational technology company quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the pioneer of our country’s ATM revolution, was chaired for many years by my beloved late father, Otunba Adekunle Ojora, the Otunba of Lagos and Lisa of Ife, whose stewardship of Nigerian enterprise shaped generations of business and public life. To take my place on the Board he served with such distinction is an honour I receive with gratitude and a sense of continuity.

Technology equity now sits at the centre of how families across Nigeria and globally reach services, opportunity, and care; principled corporate leadership has much to contribute to widening that access with integrity. I look forward to bringing my experience to NCR’s continued work in connecting businesses and communities across the country.

My sincere thanks go to the Board and Management of NCR (Nigeria) Plc for the confidence placed in me, and I look forward to serving alongside my fellow Directors as the Company advances its purpose in a dynamic and fast-changing environment. ...