- As Alkali, Ehimen win other categories of Pharmalliance Awards
In recognition of his selfless service to growth of pharmacy practice, Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi, chairman of Juli Plc has bagged the 2017 edition of Pharmalliance retail pharmacy legend award.
The award ceremony which was part of the 9th edition of The Panel, an annual retail pharmacy business summit organised by Pharmalliance at Classique Event Centre, Lagos on August 16, 2017.
Eulogising his virtue, Pharm. Adeshina Opanubi, convener of The Panel described the 77-year-old patriarch as a beacon of hope for young pharmacists going by his antecedents in the last 35 years.
Adelusi-Adeluyi (fondly called Juli by friends and close associate) is the first and only pharmacist in Nigeria to become minister of health. Born into a royal family in Ado Ekiti, he is one of the pioneer set of pharmacy students at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU) where he bagged a number of scholarships.
When he floated the first indigenous company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (his Juli PLC), military president Ibrahim Babangida sent him a letter of commendation. A man of vast travels, he has been to over 142 nations and speaks Yoruba (his Ekiti dialect), Igbo, English, Portuguese, French, Dutch and Spanish fluently.
After all his spectacular success, he went back to school to study law and later emerged the overall best graduating student at the law school. After that, he became one of the Senior Partners at Adelusi-Adeluyi & Co. where he offers free legal services to the underprivileged and prisoners. Honoured with the national honour of the Officer of the Federal Republic (OFR), many know him as the owner of Juli Pharmacy.
He is also an alumnus (mni) of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) and was a former president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN). In 1993, he was appointed the Nigerian Minister of Health and Human Resources under the Ernest Shonekan government, becoming the first pharmacist to achieve such feat.
Other notable awardees at the two-day summit were Pharm. Josephine Ehimen, executive director of NETT Pharmacy (Pharmalliance Inspiration Award) and Dr. Albert Alkali, ACPN national chairman (Pharmalliance Leadership Award).
Midway through the programme, both Prince Juli Adelusi-Adeluyi and Dr. Cosmas Maduka, chairman, Coscharis Group were both presented with a larger-than-life size painting of themselves as a show of appreciation.
What however got the audience talking was the youthful picture used for the giant painting. It was the face of young Prince Juli taken in 1965 during one of his student union activities in Athens, Greece.
Earlier in his keynote address themed “Game Changer,” Maduka admonished the audience to endeavour to aim high, adding that only those who go the extra mile would be favoured.
“The death of my father at age 4 denied me the benefit of formal education. But with N200 as investment capital, I succeeded in building a conglomerate with interest spanning the globe,” he said.
Speaking further, the business mogul revealed that the saddest day of his life was when one of my apprentices defrauded about 56 traders dealing with him of N48 billion when his business was just flourishing. The tension between him and the aggrieved party was so intense that it eventually resulted in litigation.
“But I thank God for seeing me through it all. Whenever I recall that incident, I see it as a victory. This is because I strongly believe that success ignites like wild fire. I encourage young pharmacists like you to creativity to what you do,” he charges.
In attendance at the 9th edition of The Panel were Pharm. Ike Onyechi, managing director of Alpha Pharmacy; Chief Kenny Martins, chairman, Greenspring Limited; Pharm. Chris Ehimen, chairman of NETT Pharmacy; Pharm. Ismail Adebayo, immediate past national chairman of Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN) and Femi Soremekun, chairman, Biofem Pharmaceuticals Limited.
Pharmalliance, which put the retail business summit together, is an informal network of retail pharmacies that access a common pool of shared resources. These resources include Financial Services, Legal Services, Insurance Services and Business Development services.
According to the organisers, Pharmalliance is for retail pharmacies registered by the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria. It is an alliance of Pharmacy businesses and non-Pharmacy professionals.
