INFLUENTIAL medical practitioner and chairman of the popular St. Nicholas Hospital in Lagos, Dr. Moses Adekoyejo Majekodunmi died on Wednesday, aged 96.
The late Majekodunmi, a respected chief with titles both in Egbaland and his base in Lagos, was a former administrator of the defunct Western Region during the emergency rule of 1962, was also a Senator and a Federal Minister of State, Army and Health at various points in Nigeria’s history.
Dr. Majekodunmi was the founder St. Nicholas Hospital in Lagos, and he once served as personal physician to the late Prime Minister of Nigeria, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.
The late Majekodunmi attended Abeokuta Grammar School and St Gregory’s College, Lagos before enrolling at the University of Dublin, where he bagged a 2nd Class Honours in Anatomy and Physiology in 1936, and later, a 1st Class Honors in Bacteriology and Clinical Medicine.
While in Dublin, he worked as a house physician at the National Children’s Hospital in 1941 and the Rotunda Hospital (1941-1942). He returned to the country in 1943 and became a medical officer in the Nigerian Medical Service. From 1949 to 1960, he worked with the Nigerian and Federal Medical Services as a gynecologist and obstetrician, and was also a consulting doctor with Massey Street Maternity Hospital, Lagos, General Hospital, Lagos and Creek Hospital, also in Lagos.
In the 1960s, he was a member of the Nigerian Senate and later held board membership with Westminster Dredging Company and Union Bank.
He founded St Nicholas Hospital and once served as secretary of the Nigerian branch of the British Medical Association. He was also chairman of the Egba Maternity Clinic.