Staff Profile: Samson Bamidele

When talking with Samson Bamidele about his work at MEASURE Evaluation, it soon becomes apparent that he views his role to be a small part of something much bigger than a single person or organization.

“I think posterity will tell of the work we are doing here,” Bamidele said. He is the Resident M&E/Technical Advisor for MEASURE Evaluation’s project in Nigeria. “Some of our work has never been done before in the history of the nation.”

When asked of any project he is particularly proud of, he rattles off a list without hesitation. The list includes the building of a functional National Response Information Management System, the national adoption of the RDQA tool and providing technical guidance that has led to the first national assessment of the HIV M&E system.

“My goal is to influence my generation; to ensure that systems work,” he said. “I see some of the things we are doing as laying a solid foundation for our health system in Nigeria.”

Bamidele lives with his wife and five children in Abuja, but he grew up in Iyah-Gbede, a village in Nigeria’s Kogi state. He speaks fondly of his home village, which is located near the meeting point of the Niger and Benue rivers: “It is the real heart of Nigeria.”

He has a degree in statistics, a postgraduate diploma in computer science and an M.B.A. He began doing M&E work with the World Bank in 1989. Three years later, he left to start a Management Information System unit for the Christian Health Association of Nigeria. In 2006, he became the Senior M&E Advisor for Family Health International's (FHI) Global HIV/AIDS Initiative Nigeria (GHAIN): Funded by the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief through USAID, it was the largest comprehensive HIV/AIDS project ever implemented in a single developing country.

Bamidele joined MEASURE Evaluation in 2009, a decision he is clearly happy with. “I feel good at MEASURE Evaluation because I am doing what I think is right in the right place and at the right time,” he said. “For me, it is a privilege and an opportunity to do what I am doing now.