OMOLOLU FALOBI (1971 – 2006): A Legacy of Creativity, Excellence, Integrity and Accountability on how to run an NGO without stealing donor funds  By Kingsley Obom-Egbulem 

 was speaking with some Gen Z journalists at News Central TV early this year and told them we’ve always had Internet influencers.

Indeed, before the advent of social media and influencer culture, we had guys who led communities and conversations and gave people something to think about as major issues unfolded in our world.

Omololu Falobi was that guy. Or one of them. 

By the age of 33 or so, he had been to all the continents of the world, met world leaders including Kofi Annan, the then UN Secretary-General, and spoken at major international conferences on AIDS, global health and sustainable development. That was how sound, big and powerful this young “little man” was.

The Nigerian-AIDS e-forum, which he founded while still working as features editor with The Punch, moved from becoming the hub for News on AIDS out of Nigeria to being the most authentic voice in global response to the pandemic. At one time, the eforum, which I had the honour of co-moderating with him, had close to 20,000 subscribers comprising renowned AIDS researchers, scientists, clinicians, heads of bilateral and multilateral donor organisations, government agencies responding to AIDS, journalists, activists and people living with HIV from across the globe.

Everybody waited daily for information from the eforum, with the opinions of sex workers or teenagers living with HIV as important as those of the DG of UNFPA.

That was how powerful the #eforum was, and indeed, the man who created it.

I’m not going to assume you are an OG, so it might help to let you know who this man “is”. Yes, he’s still around. Omololu Falobi and the values and principles he demonstrated live in many of us who worked with him or encountered his world while he walked the earth. Four of those principles were #creativity, #excellence, #integrity and #accountability.

Journalists Against AIDS (JAAIDS), the organisation he founded in 1997(incorporated in 2000), was the true definition of the creative use of new media to amplify an issue nobody was willing to confront.

JAAIDS was a small, star-studded but audacious team that could poach journalists from the newsrooms of major mainstream media organisations. That small team (about 6 at some point) impacted the world from our little office in Ogba, Lagos. 

Reminds me of 4 people tweeting in a room. Lol! That’s what we were actually, and Omololu functioned as our chief ideas and creative officer. 

He was perfect on two legs. He wasn’t generous with praise. If you caught his attention, then you did something excellently well. But to survive around him, excellence wasn’t enough. You must be able to account for monies spent, and you can’t cut corners. Omololu never spoke in tongues. I can’t recall seeing him study the Bible, but boy! When it came to giving an account of grants spent, give it to him. He was far above many pastors, general overseers and “miracle workers” in terms of integrity.

Omololu’s meticulous spending and accountability pissed off many of the people we worked with, including founders of NGOs. You can’t “share the money” when he’s involved. 

One of the reasons I wasn’t in a hurry to set up an NGO after leaving JAAIDS was because I was certain I wouldn’t be able to keep up with Omololu’s level of financial accountability and integrity.

Our records were straight and clean.

 “Kingsley, you think these funders don’t have sense; they know those who are stealing their money, and that’s why they will always fund us”, he said to me one afternoon while we were discussing what was beginning to look like a fad then. 

He had stated in one of the reports to a donor organisation that JAAIDS’ staff were the resource persons we engaged during the project being reported and that the facilitator’s fees that ought to have been paid to the staff were used for other expenses needed to keep the organisation going.

“There’s no point hiding it; let them see it and know exactly what we did with the money, and if they refuse to fund us because we told them the truth, so be it”, he said. 

Interestingly, this particular funder never stopped funding JAAIDS. 

At a time when many NGO founders were cooking their books, lining their pockets, going on vacation, building houses (some even built hotels) with funds meant for HIV/AIDS intervention, Omololu had to borrow money from JAAIDS to buy and change his old car.

That’s “ridiculous”.

Here was a young man who sat on top (as at that time a $ 250,000- $ 300,000 grant) but never touched a dime. Omololu declares everything earned by the organisation and separates it from what is his. We often owed him money too, which we either don’t refund or Sade (our accountant) would say, “Don’t worry, we will pay you soon.”

We once spoke about an NGO founder who built an office complex with grants invested in the money market, and made the organisation rent the office and paid rent to this founder. 

Omololu would never do that.

That was why the AIDS accountability project that JAAIDS implemented with grants from the Ford Foundation became his most audacious move. You want people to account for grants received? Who the heck are you? 

And many still believe that project cost him his life. The police said it was a robbery attack. But what manner of armed robbers would attack a man, shoot him and not tamper with his phone, laptop or even his car?

The Accountability project that JAAIDS was implementing was meant to build the capacity of everyone involved in the national AIDS response to ask tough questions and follow the money. Only Omololu could do that. Because he ensured JAAIDS kept a clean sheet and had nothing to hide.

Not sure what is happening today in Nigeria’s response to AIDS, as well as civil society mobilisation to address social issues. But I can tell that the gap Omololu left hasn’t been filled. 

Rest well… Aluta Master.

Kingsley Obom-Egbulem is a Nigerian journalist, life coach, mentor, and youths development advocate.