After eight years in office as Director-General, Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), Prof. Babatunde Lawal Salako will be bowing out of office on Tuesday, July 23, 2024 with a remarkable chain of glittering achievements. When he was appointed in 2016, little did the pundits know that his appointment was for a mission: a mission of destiny, reconstruction, infrastructural development, reformation, and global visibility of the institute.

Today, the imposing modern administrative edifice, with the state-of-the-art facilities situated within the serene environment of NIMR is to say the least, a visible testimony to the sagaciousness of Prof. Salako’s leadership qualities. The building which had been abandoned for many years before Prof. Salako’s appointment, attracted the attention of the DG who mobilized men and materials towards the completion of the edifice. Prof. Salako, like present-day mythical king Midas soon turned around waste to wealth and transformed rubbles to bubbles. The edifice is now a cynosure of all eyes, with many wondering if it is government establishment or foreign building.

United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken stepped into the edifice and applauded Prof. Salako’s innovativeness and taste.

Awaken from trances of limitation, Prof. Salako who was the Provost, College of Medicine of University of Ibadan before he was appointed decided to change the hitherto extreme drone of dreariness of NIMR with a lot of creativity, leveraging on his experience and exposure as a UI Professor of Medicine. The NIMR staff members bought into vision and supported him. Today, the staff members are luxuriating in the comforts provided by the ingenuity and enterprises of their cosmopolitan leader.

Indeed, for years to come, ripples will remain to  remind the nation that Prof. Salako was once in NIMR with an uncommon records of creative leadership fecundity which renewed the workers’ world and reconstructed their career paths. They really appreciate what he has been able to do for them. They are thus celebrating the graciousness of his manner and appreciating the generosity of his feeling. They see him as a transcendental icon who deserves to be celebrated. Consequently, arrangements have been made to really celebrate him next Tuesday in NIMR before he finally takes leave of them.

But what does Prof. Salako himself consider as the highlight of his achievements in the last eight years? Hear him in an interview conducted by this writer: “One of my major achievements is the people-oriented policy that I executed. I established linkage and collaboration with universities nationally and internationally. We made arrangements in which those who have PhDs and MDs in the Institute can function or act as adjunct lecturers in those universities. And those universities, within their system can promote them along the academic ladder, such that they can become professors in those universities. And, this is quite encouraging to the academics here. They now know that they have a career and they can become professors in the university even while working in NIMR. So far, we have had the first set of appointed professors. With this, research environment came alive, and everybody became more  interested in their works with this arrangement.

“Hitherto, they were all moving to universities. Even people we trained to get Ph.D while working here. Once they got their Ph.D, they left because there was no career progression. But now, they know that they can stay here, they can have linkage with the universities, they can become Professors. Before those in the universities used to look down on them. That has practically disappeared. Research institutes in Nigeria are beginning to look at our arrangement and are interested in copying it. The beauty of it is that the professors are not appointed by NIMR. They are appointed by the universities. They are in no way lower in quality. This is one of reasons the academic staff here have remained, because their academic ambition can be realized.

“For the non-academic staff, a majority of them have now started to  do Ph.D because the environment is conducive. People want to change career and also stay within the system. Currently, we have many people running Ph.D programme, both within and abroad. We also support them financially. With this arrangement, 10 to 12 people have got their Ph.D while many other people are on their Ph.D programme.

“We have recreated the system and the institute. This arrangement has come to stay. It must be kept in perpetuity. It does not just boost the image of the NIMR, it helps the capacity of the institute as well as boosting the contribution of the NIMR to national development.”

Still reflecting on his achievements in the last eight years, Prof. Salako hinted that he would never forget the day NIMR carried out genetic sequencing of the index COVID-19 case that earned the country international commendation. “It was the first in Nigeria and by extension in Africa. This institution was the first to do that in Africa.

“It went viral. We got recognized. We got phone calls from BBC, I attended BBC interview, the Voice of America, many foreign journalists called in, sent in mails, they wanted to know about it and how we were fairing with it. This is a kind of contribution a research institute should be making. Our laboratory got listed as HIV drug resistant testing laboratory, recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO). Our laboratory got listed as 8th in the world that does testing for the WHO Diagnostic Kit testing.”

Prof. Salako is indeed a legendary leader who in 21st century world takes charge of the right value paradigm for transformation, sustainability, effective and relevant partnerships, as well as processes and procedures that ensure and preserve best practices. His strength has been tested and his performances have been proven. What he met on ground when he was appointed ignited within him, a consuming passion to make a difference in the world.
As a medical wonk, he grounds his policies in philosophical, yet, pragmatic contexts in order to achieve desired results. Clearly, his achievements have raised public profile of NIMR, giving it a global visibility.
According to him, “When I got here, I knew how this place was. My office as Provost of College of Medicine, UI, was very beautiful. I got here, I found myself in one ramshackle office. It was not even up to 25 per cent quality of where I was coming from.

“One of my uncles came to see me and shouted “what type of dungeon do they give you here as office?” I told myself, “I have been appointed to come and make a change. If I meet it in a bad shape, my duty is to make it better. That was how I set out to complete this edifice. In the last two and a half years, when people enter here, they say “wow, this is befitting. People say, thank you for doing this for Nigeria.

“When people from outside the country come to see me and they enter this office, they marvel. You can see a foreigner, Oyinbo man, bowing at the entrance, because of the quality of this environment and the ambience of the office. The environment we have created has impacted on our image.

“The way students flood the Institute on a daily basis is amazing. I get request on a daily basis from people who want to come and spend three or four months here for research. They want to use our lab and facilities. We have created an environment where they will get the knowledge they require. The ambience here is scientific and university-like. Before, it was only the DG who was a Professor, today, we have professors virtually in all our departments. No professor comes from outside and looks down on us again. This building was abandoned for 12years. I picked it up from internal finishing. They had already roofed it and plastered it. I started with ties, electricity, ceiling, equipment, painting, furniture. It is one building I love to enter myself. When you enter this building, you probably forget that you are in Nigeria. It doesn’t look like government establishment. It is made possible by the contribution of the staff.”

But where did Prof. Salako get money to do all these? He stated, “Covid was one of our saving graces. Covid benefitted the health system in a way. Now, every state has molecular lab. If there is an outbreak and how to cope, we should be able to do it better than we had done before. At least, there are four or five sequencing centres  in Nigeria that were supported by government or by development partner during Covid. They are still functioning.

“For us, we got about N3billion from government and that practically changed the face of NIMR. We had hundreds of equipment that we hadn’t had before. In the next 15 years, NIMR is unlikely to be in want of important equipment for research or outbreak response. We used that opportunity to do so many things. We built labs, renovated some, we bought field vehicles. Departments didn’t have vehicles when I got here.Whereas research is done in the communities, they used to use their private vehicle or rent buses. Covid gave us the opportunity to get research field vehicles. All departments are now independent of the pool. They don’t have to go to the pool and be begging for vehicle. We built a clinical trial. We have bio-banking. We helped country to test over 60,000 individuals.”

• Sunday Saanu is Media Relations Officer, University of Ibadan. He can be reached through 08034073427.