Nigerian receives highest Finland award
From right: Ambassador Jyrki Pulkkinen Ambassador of Finland, Dr Kingsley Akinroye, and Johanna Antila, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Finland, Abuja at the presentation of Knight First Class of the Lion of Finland Award to Dr Akinroye at the event marking the 103rd Independence Anniversary of the Republic of Finland in Abuja on Sunday, 6th December 2020.
The President of Finland has conferred on a Nigerian, Dr. Kingsley Akinroye Knight, the First Class of the Order of the Lion of Finland.
The award was presented to Akinroye by the Ambassador of Finland, Dr. Jyrki Pulkkinen, in Abuja recently as part of its activities to mark its103rd independence.
Akinroye said the award was the result of the contributions he made in the Finish health and education sectors in the last 25 years.
Akinroye is an experienced physician and global health leader with over two decades of work focused on cardiovascular health and non-communicable diseases.
He said: “I got to know Finland through health. Finland is a country that has done the most experiment on heart disease. They did experiment to see all the risk factors of non-communicable diseases like hypertension, diabetes among others.
“They found out that smoking cigarettes, too much fat in their diet, low physical activities, and high salt intake were responsible for the NCDs. That was the attraction that got me to Finland. I came back to Nigeria and found out that the same experiment can be done in Nigeria and the partnership has increased since then.”
The cardiologist disclosed that the award signifies integrity, transparency, and hard work.
According to him, Nigeria as a nation can learn integrity, transparency, and prudence from Finland.
He disclosed that more were still being expected from all levels of government in Nigeria to ensure quality healthcare delivery for citizens, especially Nigerians living with communicable and non-communicable diseases.
The medical expert urged Nigerians to desist from smoking, eating unhealthy food, too much salt, and not exercising to protect their hearts.
