LAGOS, NIGERIA APRIL 2025

Events & Celebration in Lagos Nigeria
Dear Esteemed Colleagues, Friends and Family,

On this Easter Monday, April 21, 2025, It is with great joy and gratitude to God that I write you from 34,000 feet in the sky en route back to Los Angeles from Nigeria, after a very successful ANPA@30 events. A success story which you helped create despite all the negative attacks, pushbacks, and doubts aimed at our organization, in attempt to prevent us from going to Lagos! But na God win o!

The character of your Association of Nigerian Physicians in the Americas (ANPA), its members and leaders were questioned and challenged, but we rose up to, and exceeded that challenge by being resilient, working together, and sticking to our core values of CARES: Collaboration, Accountability, Respect, Excellence, and Service. As I said in my acceptance speech last June, ANPA is very special to all of us. It is the largest diaspora professional health organization of Nigerian heritage in the world. It is also one of the few impactful multiethnic and multicultural organizations of Nigerians that has lasted 30 years without breaking up. Although we may have differences, we must put them aside and come together to embrace our diversity and work towards our common Mission and Vision. ANPA better together, the slogan I introduced last year, was the main motivator for me to run for this office as your servant President.

We once again, but in a bigger way and on a larger stage, showed Nigerians and the world our real character and values during our ANPA@30 activities, that included our Annual ANPA Medical Week plus our 31st Annual Convention and Scientific Conference, our Annual General Meeting (AGM), and Gala celebration. Each of these activities was the largest ever and yielded many “Firsts” in our history! I will briefly elaborate on each here but full reports will be provided at a later date by the different committees chairs.
The ANPA week included medical, surgical, dental, and eye care, as well as multiple capacity-building training workshops (HBS, BLS, STB, Post-Partum Hemorrhage, Glaucoma, Dental Implants, Endoscopy, ERCP, minimal invasive general and Gyn surgeries, Sentinel Lymph Nodes Biopsy, CKD day, Ultrasound guided procedures including dialysis access, Mental Health Wellness & Happiness, 500 free screening Mammograms, Menstrual education and reusable hygiene products, etc). At the same time we extended our medical services to another state (Oyo) for the first time in ANPA history.
Overall we attended to over 5,000 people, did over 500 operations, 387 cataract surgeries, 30 glaucoma surgeries, trained over 300 healthcare workers and first responders, to highlight a few.

Our 31st Scientific Conference themed Advancing Patient Care through Leadership, Research and Strategic Investments, was a hit with a fully packed hall and exciting topics that aligned diaspora and local healthcare professionals towards improving healthcare in Nigeria. In fact, many practitioners that attended and some that couldn’t attend have since reached out to me with appreciation and requesting records of the lectures for the review and continued education. Our Program committee will share such links when available. Both the Prof. Ajovi Scott-Emuakpor lecture and the 25th Dr. Dan Nwankwo Memorial lecture were outstanding and special. The various Alumni met independently as usual and I attended each with Dr. Lanre Jimoh sharing goodwill messages.

Our AGM went smoothly and some actions taken included changing the name of our Annual ANPA Board Retreat to Annual ANPA Winter Meeting (to encourage more inclusiveness/members attendance and increase sponsorship). Remember this meeting occurs in first weekend of November.
Also, members chose the site for our 2027 convention to be New Orleans, LA (remember that our 2026 June 3-7 convention will be in Chicago, IL). Dr. Obayuwana donated the newly revised 12th Edition of Robert’s Rules of Order book to ANPA at the AGM.

On one of the nights ANPA was treated to a royal birthday party of HRM Oba Saheed Elegushi, Kunsela III, where we presented him with gifts. We also had a great time at the mission closing ceremony and convention welcome ceremony hosted by the Kpaduwas.
Our Golf, Soccer, and Ladies Hat and Tea events were fantastic and raised some funds. Everything culminated during our grand 30th Anniversary Gala night celebration that attracted about 1,000 people in the Convention center at Eko Hotel. The hallways and halls were nicely decorated with colorful ANPA historical items and posters with semblance to an Oscar event! This was the largest ANPA gala in history! We had a well deserved great fun after working so hard beforehand. You can judge by the numerous pictures and videos already posted.

We appeared on several Podcasts and TV shows like Channels, Arise, TVC, etc to share our stories and impacts to help make ANPA a household name in Nigeria. More to come. We launched a new project called Safety in your Pocket Emergency Tips with ATM-sized cards, stickers bearing QR Code that when scanned takes one to our website (ANPA.org) where pictorial instructions on BLS, STB and choking are available. This program can allow people to apply lifesaving emergency measures even in our absence. We plan to expand it further when we get a funding partner (great opportunity for anyone or organization interested, contact me). We also launched our Pearl Endowment Fund (PEF), initiated by Treasurer Dr. Lanre Jimoh, that will be linked to the Emergency Tips program, and to help secure an office in Nigeria for coordinating our numerous programs, even when we’re not physically on the ground.
You should know that ANPA now has a business arm called Global Health Standard Care (GHSC), headed by President-elect, Dr. Gertie Anyanwoke, who will be sharing more information so people can get engaged in the business aspect of health.

Here’s a list of some notable “Firsts” in ANPA:

First time combining ANPA week and convention. ANPA@30
Largest ANPA week in history with 130 volunteers from the diaspora and largest number of Partners
1st time North American Taiwanese Medical Association (NATMA) partnered with ANPA and sent 17 volunteers to Nigeria
1st multi state ANPA medical outreach
1st Glaucoma surgery training by ANPA and Largest number of glaucoma surgeries/ophthalmologists training in Nigeria history!
•⁠ ⁠1st intra-operative cholangiogram at FMC April 4th
•⁠ ⁠⁠1st ERCP at LUTH April 4th
•⁠ ⁠⁠1st ERCP done at FMC April 9th
•⁠ ⁠⁠1st laparoscopic nephrectomy at LUTH April 8th
1st Podiatry surgeries
1st CKD Day in ANPA history and dialysis AV fistula vascular access
1st Menstruation education and workshop in ANPA
1st free screening Mammography in ANPA history
1st combination of Mental Health Awareness and Happiness workshop
1st time hiring PR firms, and appearing on multiple media outlets
Launching of “Safety in your Pocket” Emergency Tips and PEF
Production of “ANPA a brief history” book by Repository Taskforce (to be released soon)
Largest ANPA convention and Gala (1,000 attendees) in history

Thanks to our many partners that included Federal Ministry of Health, NIDCOM, LUTH, FMC EbuteMeta, Indo Eye Clinic Foundation, Ophthalmology Society of Nigeria, Rotary District 9111 & 9112, Oba Elegushi, Lagos State Ministry of Health, The Ihe Nkiri Foundation, Lakeshore Cancer Center, NATMA, African Menstrual Health Initiative, Doctors Health Initiative, NeoPed Foundation, JNCI, MDCN, ANPA Foundation, M. Kukoyi Foundation, Georgia Plastics Foundation, Dagomo Foundation, UgoSunday Foundation, Chima Medical Missions INT’L, Oyo State, and all sponsors- individuals, private and public entities.

Special thanks to our hardworking EXCO (Drs. Anyanwoke, Jimoh, and Anyaogu), BOD, LOC chaired by Dr. Deji Adefuye, Medical Mission committee co-chaired by Drs. Philip Osehobo and Stanley Okoro, Program committee chaired by Dr. Chiadi Onyike, ANPA Chapters that donated, Drs. Julius and Stella Kpaduwa and their inlaw COSCHARIS, Dr. Chine Logan, Logan Challenge donors, Dr. Johnson Adeyanju, Mr. Magnus Ihemedu (Visas), Dr. Borowa Azabi (Licenses), Bar. George Etomi, Channels TV, Arise TV, TVC, our Event Planner Chisom of Tachira, my wife Ada and family, and so many of you that I may not have mentioned but were very instrumental in making this a success. Please pardon me for any omissions.

If you’re a doctor or dentist of Nigeria heritage please join ANPA , pay your dues and freely donate to enable us to build on this successful ANPA@30 and beyond. Be engaged in your local chapters and let’s create more to fulfill our goal of 30 chapters by the end of 2025 (#ANPA30@30)!

Looking forward to seeing you all soon at our ANPA Winter Meeting in November 6-9, 2025 (venue TBD).

God bless you.