Title: Mimiko Odyssey
Author: Olu Obafemi
Publisher: Ajon Creator Series, Ilorin, Nigeria
Year: 2016
Pages: 435
Reviewer: Wale Okediran
History is replete with an array of medical doctors who have also been politicians. Some of the famous ones are the Latin American revolutionary leader, Che Guevara; Hastings Kamuzu Banda of Malawi, Agostinho Neto of Angola, Salvador Allende of Chile, Francois Duvalier (Papa Doc) of Haiti, Gor Harlem Brundtland, first Norwegian female PM; Houphoet Boigny of Ivory Coast, Nain Ramgoolan, PM of Mauritius; as well as the great Mahathir Bin Mohammed of Malaysia, who before his voluntary retirement from politics, led his country to one of the greatest economic renaissances of the century. While some of these doctors were highly successful politicians, some were not that good and in the cases of President Banda and Papa Doc, went on to become full blown dictators.
No other form of employment is as quite consuming as that of a politician. Apart from the daily demands of your political office, the demands on your time by your political party and constituents are enough to drain the best out of any politician. With all these problems and uncertainties, it then becomes a puzzle why a medical doctor will want to leave the peace and certainty of his medical practice for the murky and uncertain, and especially in Nigeria, violent world of politics.
Rudolf Virchow, the famous German Pathologist had, in 1847, made that great observation that medicine and politics were both social sciences in the sense that they are involved in the socio-economic good and advancement of man and society. Judging from his ability to successfully marry medicine and politics, it is obvious that, in addition to Awolowo, Mimiko was also a disciple of Virchow. In narrating on his personal life, the book discusses how, for many years, a hectic schedule, as well as an obsession with medicine and politics, almost made Dr Mimiko to forget to get married.
The successful doctor-politician career of Dr. Mimiko can also be attributed to his spouse, Olukemi, who doesn’t object to long separations, to coming second, to being admired and petted, but sometimes ignored. As the book, Mimiko’s Odyssey, aptly reveals, being a medical doctor and politician has several challenges. The first challenge for Rahman Mimiko was that of getting parental and sibling supports to wade into the topsy-turvy political climate of Nigeria.
As a student, Mimiko experienced the challenges of combining medical studies with political activism. As he informs in the book: “I must confess, then I was spending more time with politics and less with my medical education. I got away with this until the third year when I flunked a class.”
However, in accordance with the Hippocratic Oath, which doctors are sworn to, Mimiko brought dignity and nobility to his political performance. Judging from the copious accounts in the book of the Health and Welfare policies and programmes he initiated and implemented with international acknowledgements, one can say with all certainty that Olusegun Mimiko has greatly succeeded in this respect.
Prof Olu Obafemi concludes Mimiko’s Odyssey by summarising the thrust of Olusegun Mimiko’s political ideology: “This career duality of medicine and politics was a progressivist tradition cultivated from home and nurtured at school. In addition to being a means of rendering service to the people in later life, it has enabled Olusegun to chart a path as a courageous politician and kind-hearted Statesman.”
Mimiko’s political ideological stand to my mind seemed to be a blend of those of two of his professional seniors, the revolutionary Che Guevera and the socialistic Mahathir bin Mohammed. As can be recalled, Guevara just like Mimiko, was radicalised as a young medical student by the poverty, hunger, and disease he saw all around him as a youth. Also, like Mimiko, Mahathir’s experience from his busy and successful medical practice which catered for the poor and downtrodden enriched his tenure as Prime Minister with Malaysia experiencing a period of rapid modernisation, in addition to a tremendous economic growth and a series of bold infrastructure projects.
Olu Obafemi’s Mimiko’s Odyssey is well researched and beautifully written. What makes the book exceptional is the author’s ability to maintain a suspenseful narrative in the midst of a gamut of facts, interviews and personal anecdotes. Just like Pa Mimiko, not everybody likes politics and politicians, but the book has succeeded in provoking, delighting and impressing. It is a fascinating documentation of a landscape readers will surely want to wander in again and again!
You can overcome death
Title: Death is not the Destiny of Man
Author: Chris Christian
Publisher: Shekinah Media House, Lagos
Year: 2015
Pages: 81
Reviewer: Henry Akubuiro
If you are scared of death, please, get it off your whimsical mind. Death is nothing but an enemy of man that kills only those who are ready to die, affirms Chris Christian, the author of Death is not the Destiny of Man. It is as simple as that: The spirit of death basically receives power from men to kill them.
Christian’s book is instructive that you can choose not to die, and there is power in the choices we make. Adam died because he chose to die: “There is power in the choices we make. Those who don’t want to be humiliated by the spirit of death must abide in the path of life” (p.3).
Because Satan, the cherub who is the harbinger of death, isn’t superior to man, we can resist untimely death. The key to overcome death, says the book, is to lead a sinless life. If you get yourself entangled in sins, you easily make yourself a prey to the stranglehold of death.
Yes, you can live above sin, because the man God created is imbued with the power over life and death. For Adam was spiritually and mentally fortified to withstand the subtlety of sin, Satan uses his wife, Eve.
It is only those who know who they are that can make the right choices, says Christian, and there abounds revelations that must guide any life that must not be subjected to death. This book echoes that wrong choices can destroy our lives.
If you wish to learn how you can have power over your life, Christian offers a quick answer: “Your life is a gift of God to you. It belongs to you. Its value is determined in what you make out of it. It is what you make out of it that protects you” (p.12).
One of the reasons why we should rise above death, as we find in the second chapter, is because submitting to death is being dehumanised, for Satan superintends over the realm of death and hell.
We live in a world where deception is increasing. Death is not the Destiny of Man guides against lending ourselves to destructive deceptions. We are told that there are certain corrupt knowledge that we don’t need to have. If death is introduced through fellow, Christians says we must learn the omnipotence of fellowship.
Life and death, we learn, in the third chapter, are governed by laws. It is our submission to the law of life that shields us from death. People determine whether to live or die when they choose how to relate with the law of life, he tells us. It is important, therefore, to discover the law of your life.
Do you know that the tongue is so powerful that you can depend on it to live? Christian writes: “The tongue is a powerful tool in our lives. It has the power of life and death. The law depends on our tongue to fulfil its purposes in our lives. Make the law of your life your friend, and it will protect you. If you have a destiny to live forever, you must establish it through your tongue” (p. 22).
While Chapter 4 opens our eyes to everything you need to know about the law of sin and death, the fifth chapter enlightens us on how to understand the power of confession. In the latter, you are taught that men reap the reward of whatever they say with their mouth.
Note that whatever must rule our lives must be accepted by us through our words before it can be established. According to this author, death kills men when it is enthroned in their lives through confession. People of God, he echoes, are people of confession, and you can talk yourself out of every situation.
What is the righteousness of eternal life? It is the nature of God which He shares with man. Because God isn’t associated with death, the author makes us realise in the sixth chapter that we are not subject to death. Thus, whatever kills a man comes from him.
Why the seventh chapter echoes the message: Death is only for the Naked, the eight chapter dwells on the abolishing of death. This stems from the fact that when Christ defeated the guardian angel of grave, He abolished death. Hence, He brought life and immortality to light. So, you should learn how to ignite the light of your life.
Death is the enemy of man, he tells us in the ninth chapter, and not a part of individual destiny as erroneously believed. Here, he stresses that death only kills those who submit to it. Grave, he reiterates, is the dominion of darkness.
As the book winds up on the tenth chapter, the author enjoins all to end the opening of graves, for the price of death has been paid. If death is a pit of manipulation, then you should be wary of its gates. Grab this book, and get acquainted how not to fret and die needlessly.