Posted on: Sun 12-11-2017

Like the popular saying that a golden fish has no hiding place, so it is for Dr Olofinbiyi Babatunde, a Senior Lecturer and Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at  Ekiti State University College of Medicine, Ado Ekiti, Nigeria. This is as a result of a well researched collaborative academic book that was co-written and published on adolescent prostitution. The research paper was adapted to a book and published by Lambert Academic Publishing; arguably the biggest and widely read German academic publishing house. The book has been made available for sale on online platforms like amazon.com, morebooks.de, bookbutler.de and barnesandnobles.com. The German Educational System has incorporated the book as part of the texts for their higher institutions of learning. Its availability online has made the book accessible worldwide for purchase; this has added more scholastic value to the book and academic prowess of Dr Babatunde Olofinbiyi and his co-authors. Accompanied with the publication of the book is a lifetime royalty on each copy of the book that is sold.

The book with the title “Drug use & criminal behaviour of adolescent girls in prostitution”, centres on the influence of drug use on criminal activities among adolescent prostitutes in Lagos, Nigeria. Highlighting this rising global societal menace in Nigeria, a section of the book read,” The adolescent sex industry in Nigeria points to a fundamental injustice in the current materialistic world order. It is an indication of a global willingness to sacrifice society’s most vulnerable members for the sake of socio-economic and sexual gratifications. The truth is that with the involvement of adolescents in prostitution, their future is being mortgaged. Unless there is a change in the economic situation of Nigeria, prostitution and other related offences will continue to thrive across posterities”.  

While speaking with our correspondent, Dr Olofinbiyi expressed his profound appreciation to the management of Ekiti State University and Ekiti State Government for the enabling environment created to achieve this feat; as  Ekiti State Government was so kind and liberal to have granted him in-service training and sponsored him through a five- year residency training programme in obstetrics and gynaecology. Furthermore, he thanked the community of Ekiti State Teaching Hospital under the leadership of the Chief Medical Director, Dr Kolawole Ogundipe, for his unprecedented action and result- oriented wisdom and initiatives which have appreciably uplifted the image of the hospital especially in the area of capacity building and infrastructures.  Dr. Olofinbiyi said that the inspiration for the collaborative research which led to the publishing of the book came as a result of his passion for adolescent reproductive health. He said, “Adolescence comes with its attending challenges and it becomes a devil’s tripod having adolescent prostitution, criminality and drug abuse as an entity”.

The book is a scholastic collaborative work between an adolescent reproductive clinician (Dr Olofinbiyi Babatunde), a criminologist/forensic expert (Olofinbiyi Sogo Angel) and an erudite leading social scientist in Africa (John Lekan Oyefara). Sogo Angel Olofinbiyi is a lecturer and PhD candidate in the Department of Criminology and Forensic Studies at the University of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. He is an active member of Canadian Criminal Justice Association, with research interests focused on terrorism, counter-terrorism, radicalization, peace and conflict studies, forensic investigation (Crime and Intelligence Analysis), victim studies, political crimes and related offences. John Lekan Oyefara, PhD, teaches demography, social statistics and social research methods at the University of Lagos, Akoka, Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria. He is an erudite scholar and recipient of various research grants and fellowships within and outside Nigeria. He has authored over 50 articles in local and international learned journals and books. Rooted and grounded in ontological, epistemological and other philosophical ideologies that guide pedagogical discourses and debates in the behavioural sciences globally, he is one of the leading social scientists in the African continent.

Dr Babatunde Olofinbiyi is a Senior Lecturer/Consultant Obstetrician, Gynaecologist and Minimal Access Surgeon at  Ekiti State University College of Medicine, Nigeria. He is a life member of World Laparoscopic Surgeons and active member of International Association of Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Groups (IADSG). His main field of study is Materno-Fetal medicine with special interest in Adolescent Reproductive Health. He has a strong passion for collaborative work. He is an active reviewer for many learned local and international journals and an interesting teacher/motivational speaker in events and media. His deep-hearted commitment to Adolescent Health led to the floating of a non-profit organization tagged, “Adolescent Friendly Research Initiative and Care (AFRICA)”, that focuses majorly on adolescent reproductive health research, aiming at preventive, curative and rehabilitative care for the vulnerable adolescent boys and girls. Many adolescents, especially girls in Ekiti, South Western Nigeria, have benefited from this noble gesture through almost free healthcare services and socio-economic reintegration and rehabilitation after adverse physical, mental and social life events. His ultimate goal is to help liberate the adolescent world.

Ekiti State has again demonstrated her leadership in the academic world among other states in Nigeria with this international recognition of this young erudite scholar in far away Germany. 

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