The Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC Foundation, Mrs. Emmanuella Arukwe, has said that cataracts are capable of impeding national development.
Mrs. Arukwe stated this in Umuahia on the occasion of the NNPC Foundation’s 1,000 Free Cataract Extraction Surgery, stating, “Cataract is capable of impeding national development because we need everyone to see. Once you are blind, there is little or nothing you are going to help to progress people, rather you have to have people to take care of you.
“We have over 200 million Nigerians and cataract is already something impeding people and is the cause of blindness and the major thing about cataracts is that about 43 per cent of blindness in Nigeria is caused by cataracts and it is preventable. Once you remove a cataract, you begin to see and will be able to give your quota towards national development. That is why it is delicate.
“Once you have a cataract, you become a burden. Apart from not contributing to the national economy, you are a burden and anywhere you want to go, people will take care of you. Some of the people who have cataracts are people who were walking before, contributing and suddenly become dull because of preventable cataracts.
“That is why we are passionate about and it is something that once you take it out, people can see, restore their sight and contribute their quota towards Nigeria.”
She added that about three children were involved in Umuahia.
Mrs. Arukwe expressed her satisfaction over the exercise, stating, “I am very satisfied with what I saw in Abia, particularly the commitment from the governor and everyone and the centres are top-notch hospitals.
She enthused, “What is amazing is the mobility, where people mobilized from all the local governments were here today. A lot of mobilization was done to make sure that we galvanized a lot of people, having over 2,000 people screened. This is quite impressive for Abia State.”
She disclosed that the foundation is looking towards making the exercise an annual event depending on the resources available to the foundation, adding, “One of our focus areas is health and one of the critical focus areas NNPC Foundation deals with. We do a lot of health initiatives apart from cataracts, glaucoma and all that but, it is something we are considering based on the number of resources available to us”.
She said that if more than 1,000 people are penciled down, they will benefit and be attended to, disclosing that in the South-West of the country, the foundation had four children between the ages of two and 9 who were “congenitally blind,” who had cataract and now all of them could see after the operations.
Earlier, the governor of Abia State, Alex Otti, who was represented by his Commissioner for Health, Prof. Enoch Ogbonnaya Uche described the exercise as “not a mistake, but intentional,” stating that it is in line with his vision for Abians.
He added that the state government is matching words with action, hence the governor’s various infra developments in the area of health in the state.
He added that so far, 2,116 have presented themselves for screening in Aba and Umuahia areas out of which 1,399 have been screened and 477 booked for surgery, adding, “The roadmap of Governor Otti towards qualitative life is well on course.”
Senior Special Assistant to the governor on Special Duties and Administration, Abia State Eye Health Management Bureau, Dr. Betty Emeka-Obasi explained that people can go blind because of cataracts, “hence the need to do the surgeries so that sufferers can see again.”
The Special Adviser to the governor on Health, Dr. Ngozi Azodo extolled the state governor’s ability to bring the programme down to the state through the help of the NNPC Foundation.
Responding on behalf of others, some beneficiaries, including Mrs. Ngozika Emeka from Ihie Ndume in Umuahia North, David Ikpa from Umuahia Ezechi in Bende, Chukwudi Ariwa from Okaiuga Nkwoegwu Ohuhu in Umuahia North and Njoku Anaba from Isialangwa thanked the NNPC Foundation and the state government for the gesture and pleaded for the exercise to be held annually.