Humanity in True Form, Lest I forget My Encounter with the Ojoras in Lagos Chief Adekunle Ojora’s Call to Glory on the 28th of January. (1932-2026) By Dr Olayiwola Ajileye

 Humanity in True Form, Lest  I forget

My Encounter with the Ojoras in Lagos

Chief Adekunle Ojora’s Call to Glory on the 28th of January. 

(1932-2026)

By Dr Olayiwola Ajileye

In 1998, as a young doctor freshly out of housemanship at First Consultants Hospital and awaiting NYSC posting, I took a leap of faith that would change the entire trajectory of my life.

At the time, doctors’ salaries were painfully low — barely a fraction of what entry-level staff earned in the oil industry. With little to lose but hope to gain, I wrote an unsolicited letter to Erelu Ojuolape Ojora, explaining that I was a young doctor seeking an opportunity to work in the oil sector. I had no prior connection to the family. They did not know me from Adam.

To my utter surprise, I was invited to their Orsborn Foreshore mansion in Lagos.

I arrived at their gate on a motorbike. I was welcomed in, received warmly, entertained, and given an audience with Chief Adekunle Ojora and Erelu Ojuolape Ojora themselves. They sat with me, asked thoughtful questions, and listened attentively as I explained my motivations and aspirations.

That very day, Chief Ojora offered me an opportunity to serve with AGIP Oil, where he was Chairman.

Because I had not yet been posted for NYSC, they asked what I planned to do in the intervening six to eight months before service commencement — a period they also offered to help regularise by facilitating my posting to Lagos. I told them I would simply wait.

Erelu Ojora gently but firmly disagreed.

“You are a doctor,” she said. “You cannot just wait. You must be doing something.”

Immediately, she wrote a handwritten letter introducing me to Royal Cross Medical Centre, Obalende, Ikoyi Lagos addressed to Dr Seyi Roberts, Dr Doyin Okupe, and Dr Leke Oshunniyi.

With that letter in hand — and with pride and disbelief in my heart — I took another motorbike straight to Royal Cross Hospital. When Dr Seyi Roberts heard that someone sent by the Ojoras was waiting to see him, he adjourned his meeting and received me immediately.

He was stunned.

Before him stood a young, slim doctor, unknown, holding a handwritten note from one of Nigeria’s most respected families. He questioned me extensively — who I was, how I knew the Ojoras, and what my connection to them was. Naively and truthfully, I explained that I had simply written to them seeking help, and they had met with me and offered assistance without hesitation.

Dr Roberts had to call Erelu Ojora personally to confirm the authenticity of the letter. She confirmed everything and instructed him to place me in the hospital until my AGIP appointment commenced.

That was how I secured my second job as a young doctor in Lagos.

Erelu Ojora continued to check on me periodically, ensuring I was comfortable. She invited me to her office on Lagos Island, offered motherly counsel, and on several occasions quietly gave me financial support. At the time, it all felt surreal — almost like a dream.

It was also during my time at Royal Cross Hospital that fate intervened again. A young lady came to visit her niece who was admitted. Her family lived in Ikoyi and used Royal Cross Hospital regularly. She had travelled from Yola, where she was studying at the Federal University of Technology.

By a stroke of divine coincidence, we met.

That young lady became my wife — Adebisi Ajileye (née Ayoade) — now mother of our three wonderful children. She is today a Global Health, Public Health, Biomedical and Genomic Scientist, and Technical Lead at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), overseeing international health-strengthening work across Africa and the Caribbean.

I never resumed my role at AGIP Oil. Instead, I left Nigeria to pursue postgraduate training and medical specialisation in the United Kingdom. Today, I serve as a Consultant Psychiatrist and Clinical Director in the NHS, Birmingham, an Independent Forensic Physician to UK Police Constabularies, and a Medico-Legal Expert Witness to His Majesty’s Criminal, Family, and Coroners’ Courts.

Looking back, I see clearly that none of this was accidental.

It all began with the uncommon kindness, humility, and humanity of Chief Adekunle Ojora and Erelu Ojuolape Ojora — people who helped a stranger simply because they could.

As Chief Adekunle Ojora answers the call to glory, I pray that God grants his gentle soul eternal rest, and I wish Erelu Ojuolape Ojora, the matriarch of the family, and the entire Ojora family the strength and comfort to bear this profound loss.

Some lives do not just succeed — they lift others into success.

Chief Adekunle Ojora lived such a life.

Dr Olayiwola Ajileye, MD

Birmingham, United Kingdom