Bolaji Abdullahi
By Dele Momodu
You see this guy, Bolaji Abdullahi, former Deputy Editor of Thisday , Minister of Sports and now the Acting Publicity Secretary of ADC is a man with a good heart
About 15 years ago or thereabout , there was a young female journalist based in Abuja, Laura Ndioyo ( May God rest her soul) who developed a life threatening illness ..
After several efforts to save her life and all seems lost , someone brought her plight to my attention ( then my NGO was into raising money for people with serious ailments )
I moved into action and within two weeks , I was able to raise over 100 times what her friends couldn’t raise in over one year
During the course of the fund raising , one of the aides of Bolaji Abdullahi who was then the Minister of Sports and Youths Development brought Laura’s plight to his attention .
He invited me to his office..Within 24 hours , he rallied round $30,000 cash ( N44m by current rate ) and handed it over to me
He warned me strictly not to mention his name to anyone , or make it a media issue , that of I need more funds , I should let him know
Unbelievably, I didn’t even meet him in person, he passed the message though his media aide Julius Ogunro
Till date I’ve not met him one on one
With this and other funds I raised, we were able to fly the journalist to Indian where she was successfully operated upon
Before then , the doctors in Nigeria told us Laura had just three months to live , but I never gave up on her.
After her operation, she came back to Nigeria, worked and lived for over 10 years but she passed on
So , when you talk of good men in office and politics , Bolaji is one
I’ve not seen him , but if anyone knows him , kindly tell him , we are still grateful for that life saving effort
I am sure , he must have even forgotten this gesture
If we empower people like Bolaji Abdullahi, life may be better for us
God bless you sir
Chris Kehinde Nwandu is the Executive Editor, CKNNews…”
