Dr Tunde Ajayi: For the Love of Humanity

Dr. Tunde Ajayi is described as a selfless humanitarian and public health expert. As the Special Assistant on Health to the Lagos State Government, he continues to carve a niche in the nation’s health space, adding values to systems and organisations with the assailable vision of making a revolutionary global impact.

Undoubtedly, it is hard to come to terms with the fact that Ajayi seems to have it all including a heavy profile, admirable qualities, and delightful attributes. One of his features is being an astute and result-driven public health physician with extensive experience and training in primary health care delivery, occupational health, healthcare financing, reproductive health, epidemiology and research.

Enthusiastic about mitigating primary health care and public health challenges, Ajayi steers a team to strategically design frameworks and systems that addresses health efficiencies in Lagos State. He also led the establishment and installation of oxygen plants and construction of 10 oxygen centres across the state as a key member of the Lagos State COVID-19 response team.

He also coordinates the oxygen delivery strategy among government owned hospitals in Lagos State, collaborates effectively with donors through the Grants Management Office at the Ministry of Health and developed a framework for managing morgues across secondary health facilities in Lagos.

Today, his plethora of certificates includes a public health fellow of Erasmus Mundus. He obtained his Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBBS) degree from the Lagos State University (LASU). He then proceeded to the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium where he bagged a Master’s in Public Health and subsequently a Master’s in Business Administration at Warwick Business School.

As the Special Assistant to the Commissioner for Health, Ajayi’s research publications include: Reaching health facilities in situations of emergency; Qualitative Study Capturing Experiences of Pregnant Women in Africa’s Largest Megacity; Multi-stakeholder perspectives on access, availability and utilisation of emergency obstetric care services in Lagos, Nigeria: A mixed-methods study among others.

Prior to taking on his current role, Ajayi worked as a research associate at the World Health Organisation (WHO), Project Manager at the Centre for Reproductive Health Research and Innovation among a handful of roles across his areas of expertise.

With this, there is no gainsaying the that Ajayi is not your regular public servant; he is a man of many brilliant colours, appealing skills, and active competencies.