Dear Esteemed ANPA Members and Colleagues,

I am deeply honored and humbled to accept the prestigious role as your new ANPA President. This is not a role I take lightly, but on the contrary, I will devote my time, energy, skills, and resources to discharge the duties of this high office as prescribed by our Constitution, to the best of my ability, with God’s guidance. Shortly, I will share my goals for the organization, which will be aligned with our newly revised vision of “A Healthier Nigeria and Americas in a Healthier World.” Our noble, ambitious vision that guided us until today was “A Healthier Nigeria in a Healthier World”, but the new one stated above that includes the Americas, where we live and serve, more accurately captures what we do and broadens the opportunity to engage our growing population of younger physicians of Nigerian heritage born here, that I believe will be a large part of the future of ANPA. In fact, I am one of those physicians who came to the USA at a very young age and completed college, medical school, and all my postgraduate trainings here.

I completed a Doctor of Medicine Degree at Loma Linda University School of Medicine (LLUSM), CA, finished as the best General Surgery Resident at Loma Linda University Medical Center, followed by a Fellowship in General Thoracic Surgery at Kaiser Permanente Hospital, Fontana, CA. I am currently an Attending Surgeon at three Kaiser Hospitals, Assistant Clinical Professor of Surgery at LLUSM, and past President of the American Cancer Society California Division. I am a Fellow of both the American College of Surgeons and the International College of Surgeons. And today, I am the 16th ANPA President!

ANPA is very special to all of us. As you know, it is the largest diaspora professional health organization of Nigerian heritage in the world. It is also one of the few multiethnic and multicultural organizations of Nigerians that has lasted almost 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 is better together, which was the main motivator for me to run for this office two years ago. In that spirit of togetherness, my goals and vision for ANPA include People Value and Respect, Partnerships and Meaningful Relationships, Prevention focused programs with emphasis on Education and Mentorship, harnessed by Teamwork and Collaboration, shared by Publicity and Media visibility. Financial buoyancy and a strong Secretariat are also essential for our success.

People Value and Respect – We must value each other and treat everyone with respect in all our activities, engagements, and communications, even when we disagree on issues! When we do this routinely, we create an environment of comfort and happiness, where free self-expression and dedication can flourish to keep ANPA together and move us forward. Our biggest asset is people; thus, we must respect our Founders and older members as well as our new younger ones and find ways to keep all engaged and bridge the generation gap. We will be guided by our newly formalized core values of Collaboration, Accountability, Respect, and Excellence (“CARE”). Let me use this opportunity to suggest a value proposition for us that says “ANPA, we care for people,” or simply “ANPA cares.”

Partnerships and Meaningful Relationships – We believe in relationships and collaborative partnerships with both private and public agencies. ANPA must maintain old and cultivate new meaningful relationships with stakeholders willing to work with us toward a common goal of improving healthcare for our people both here and in Nigeria.

Prevention Focused Programs with emphasis on Education and Mentorship – Given the ever-decreasing funds available for healthcare, we must devote most of our efforts to preventative measures. It will give us the biggest return on investment. As the saying goes “prevention is better than cure.” This is very true for Nigeria and its booming population of mostly young people. I will establish an ANPA Prevention Taskforce, that will oversee all our prevention efforts with underlying subcommittees (infant mortality, malaria, tobacco, and chronic diseases).

Education – “Knowledge is power”. ANPA is already engaged in multiple educational activities, including our annual scientific convention for CME, CPD program in Nigeria, various health education programs during medical missions, Residency preparatory program, Interdisciplinary Grand Rounds (with NAPPSA and NANNA), Webinars, ECHO program and many others. I would like us to focus more on educating our communities here and in Nigeria about preventative healthy behaviors and screening tests. We don’t have to do it all physically, in person, but can leverage technology.

Mentorship – The importance of mentoring in personal and professional life cannot be overemphasized, especially given the low representation of African Americans comprising about 5% of physicians despite being about 13% of the US population. I propose we start the mentorship early in Elementary and High Schools, encouraging our people to get into STEM programs, then continuing into college, medical school (DNPT), and Residency. This can be a pipeline to increase our workforce in the community and membership in ANPA.

Teamwork – Collaboration should be a vital component to everything we do in ANPA. Naturally, we were made to work together as emphasized by the saying that “no man is an island.” Even the book of Ecclesiastes 4:9 says, “two people are better than one, because they get more done by working together.” TEAM stands for Together Each Achieves More! A good example is from Track and Field. Usain Bolt was the fastest man on earth with 9.58 seconds 100-meter sprint. The fastest 4 men 4×100 meter relay team was Jamaica men that included Usain Bolt (Nesta Carter, Michael Frater, Yohan Blake), that still holds the world record set in 2012 of 36.84 seconds. If you divide 36.84 by 4 = 9.21 which is faster than the 9.58 seconds! ANPA is better together, and I plan to emphasize this practice by increasing ongoing collaborations with our partners and the sister organizations you created for ANPA, ANPA Foundation and NPAG, in what I will refer to as “The ANPA Tripod.”

Publicity and Media visibility – ANPA does great works worldwide but unfortunately, we do not publicize it well, or maximize on the opportunity to use it as a marketing tool for fund raising and Grant writing to generate more money for our missions. Like one of my friends says, “the mission is not about money, but without money there is no mission.” We must invest time, energy, and resources to support our IT team and to engage outside experts that can help optimize and market the ANPA brand and reputation here and in Nigeria.

ANPA@30 – We plan to celebrate this monumental achievement in April 4-14, 2025, in Lagos, Nigeria, in collaboration with the state. We will be doing something never attempted before in the history of ANPA: our ANPA week medical/surgical/dental mission immediately followed by our annual convention and scientific assembly plus the ANPA@30 birthday bash! We need all hands-on deck both here and in Nigeria. We need a strong Secretariat with offices here and in Nigeria. We need volunteers. We need sponsors. We need your network and connections and especially you, to make it successful and memorable!

I would like to leave us with two challenges for ANPA@30. First, is the “Eke Membership challenge:” each of us to recruit at least three new members to ANPA before the end of this year. Second is the ongoing “Logan Challenge,” to raise funds: each of us is to donate at least $1,000 (some of us already have), while Dr. Chine Logan, the challenger, donated $10,000! Please commit now and remember that donations are tax deductible.

I thank my friends, colleagues, and entire extended family for their unwavering support.

NEW SLOGAN: When I say ANPA you say Better Together! ANPA, BETTER TOGETHER X 3!

Long Live ANPA!!