Whosoever dares a king will be penalised, and any animal that challenges the authority of the lion will pay for insubordination with its dear life. Dr Leke Oshunniyi stands-out among his peers. He is a king in his area of calling - and his life testifies to the fact that, ‘The Creator had completed His work before the destroyer came, and when the destroyer came, he is already in the hands of the Redeemer.’ No wonder he keeps flying high to the top while his antagonists stay glued to the ground.
Dr. Leke Oshunniyi is a seasoned Private Medical Practitioner and Health Administrator. He is a 1982 graduate of University of Ibadan Medical School and holds a Diploma in Finance from Harvard. He has been a Director of the Royal Cross Medical Centre, Ikoyi, Lagos, from 1990 to date. Between 1988 and 1996, he was the Social Secretary and General Secretary of the Lagos State Branch of the Association of General and Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria (AGPMPN), and was the Secretary-General of the National body of the AGPMPN from 1996-2000. A founding Director of Multishield Ltd. since 1997. In 2000, he was honoured with the Distinguished Service Merit Award and Associate Membership of the Institute of Corporate Administration of Nigeria and the Fellowship (FAGP) of the AGPMPN. He has been a member of the American College of Physician Executives and National Association of Managed Care Physicians (USA). He became the substantive Managing Director of Multishield in July, 2012, and is currently the Chairman of the Health and Managed Care Association of Nigeria (HMCAN) and he is a Fellow of the Institute of Health Insurance and Managed Care of Nigeria (FIHIMN).
What motivated Oshunniyi to study medicine and how did he dabble into insurance industry? He replied, “Well, my grandmother had an ailment which required daily testing, and I was conducting this test at less than 10 years old. People began to see me as doctor and I began to think of myself as a doctor from that early age and I am grateful to God that I was able to achieve my dream.”
“My interest in health insurance began when I was working at the Royal Cross Hospital owned by the trio of Dr. Doyin Okupe, Dr. Seyi Roberts and Dr. Ladi Okuboyejo. My bosses agreed to a deal with an American company, requested an advanced sum of N50,000 ... enormous to treat 200 staff of a company for one year at the time. I was keeping the record of attendance for the members of this company - and at the end of the year, we made good profit from the deal. This deal coincided with Babangida’s coup d’etat of 1985, which brought in the legendary Professor Olikoye Ransom-Kuti as Health Minister. Dr. Doyin Okupe being the Chairman of the Association of General Medical Practitioners of Nigeria at the time visited the minister with the executive board of AGMPN - and proposed the Health Insurance Scheme using our hospital record as yardstick. Professor Olikoye Ransome-Kuti then set-up a committee to look into it - but it took another 14 years, at the time General Abdulsalam Abubakar became Nigerian Head of States to pass it into law, and brought the industry to life in Nigeria.”
“Our metaphysics as Nigerians generally assumes that good health is a gift. Nobody plans for ill-health and when it strikes, our compatriots view it as an unfortunate divine incident and tackle it by prayer but the reality is that human beings are not made to last forever by the Almighty and just as cars and equipment have built-in obsolescence so do human beings. The aim of health insurance is to ensure that when health risk crystallizes, there is no requirement for an out-of-pocket payment because it's been prepaid. That strengthened my resolve to ensure that we have health insurance.” Added Dr. Leke Oshunniyi.
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