For those who have eyes, let them see

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For those who have eyes, let them see

Written by Dipo Laleye Thursday, 29 July 2010

A cross section of beneficiaries of the free eye surgery in Minna The onset of old age in an individual comes with a lot of changes, some good, some bad one of the bad ones is the loss of sight. In this report, Northern Bureau Chief, Dipo Laleye, discloses how Gen Ibrahim Babangida is restoring sight to some people of Minna in Niger State.

Seventy-year-old Maigari Gangwa lives in Katcha town of Niger state. For seven out of his 70-year-sojourn on earth, he had battled with cataract which made him unable to fend for himself.

As a peasant farmer, the octogenarian stopped going to the farm, neither was he able to fish, being professions common among the Nupes in that part of Niger state where he came from.

Consequently, Maigari depended on his children who were also incapacitated to assist their father regain his sight because of their poor economic base.

Gangwa said when he first went to the general hospital at Katcha for treatment he was asked to bring N20,000 for the surgery and even then he still had to wait for the cataract to mature.

While he waited for the cataract to mature, Maigari and his children began the struggle to raise the N20,000, all to no avail.

One fateful day, an official of the hospital invited him to Katcha for screening, and that invitation became the turning point in the life of the old man because he was among the 500 persons picked for surgery in Minna.

Mr Adeleru Fabunmi’s case is similar to that of Alhaji Katcha. Mr Fabunmi is a motor mechanic based in Suleja town in Niger state and had been battling with cataract which impaired his vision for over three years.

He told the Nigerian Tribune that his case became so serious that he could no longer do any work in his mechanic workshop apart from supervising his artisans. Like Katcha, Mr Fabunmi was asked to pay N20,000 for surgery which he could not afford.

He was, however, lucky when he was picked along with several others in Suleja for surgery in Minna.
Sixty-year-old Aishatu Mohammed from Mokwa town had also been battling with the same eye disease for three years, resulting in her abandoning her business.

Since she became incapacitated, Hajiya Aishatu said her children had been taking care of her. 5,500 others with similar ailment could give the same or similar account of their plights.

Cataract, according to Mr Yussuf Chedi, the International Coordinator of the Federation of Islamic Medical Association, FIMA, which General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, former Military President, is using to bring hope to cataract patients in parts of the country ‘is a disease that is very common among the aged’, though some children are born with the disease.

Mr Chedi also said that cataract disease is normally caused by what he called the socio-economic conditions of the patient, and can also be traced to the major diseases of diabetes and hypertension.

The International Coordinator corroborated the claims of some of the patients when he said that the cost for cataract surgery in public health institutions in the northern part of the country was between N10,000 and N15,000, while in the South, some hospitals are charging as high as N150,000 for each operation.

To facilitate the free cataract surgery, General Babangida, through FIMA, brought into the country 6 experts from Pakistan, Jordan and Saudi Arabia . These experts are also working together with Nigerian doctors and other health personnel to carry out the surgery which is taking place in public hospitals, though General Babangida is said to have purchased enough equipment and drugs for use by these health practitioners.

Apart from Minna, there was another camp in Kontagora where another 500 patients had undergone surgery.

Chedi said that each surgery lasts a maximum of 15 minutes but in those involving children and more serious cases which had to take place in the environment of standard hospitals because Anastasia must be applied, it could last between 20 and 30 minutes for each surgery.

He said General Babangida had been in the business for three years, while a Maiduguri based businessman, Mohammed Ndimi, and the First Ecological Consultants, were funding the scheme in Maiduguri and Katsina respectively.

Alhaji Dattijo Aliyu, a cousin and aide of General Babangida, dispelled insinuations that the exercise, this time round, was being given publicity because of the presidential ambition of the former military president. ‘This is purely a humanitarian gesture nobody should read any political meaning into it,’ he said.

Commenting on the exercise, the emir of Minna, Dr Umar Farouk Bahago, said he was not surprised that General Ibrahim Babangida was embarking on the free eye surgery because ,‘he has been doing a lot for our people in this state and in the country as a whole’.

Bahago, who received the medical practitioners who called on him in his palace, assured them of the safety of their lives saying, ‘we are very peaceful in this place’.

General Babangida was at the IBB Specialist Hospital to see the patients. He also physically witnessed the surgery of two patients, an exercise which lasted for a total 15 minutes.

Babangida said that he embarked on the project to complement government efforts and ‘to bring hope to the ordinary people who cannot afford the cost of surgery.’

He noted that cataract ‘is a common occurrence among the people in the rural areas of the country, saying he had found out that ‘because of elementary things, people lose their sights’. General Babangida said he plans to make the scheme go nationwide because ‘we have the staff and the equipment’.

Three days after the surgeries and fixing of silicon lenses in their eyes, all the patients had started seeing normally. Alhaji Katcha who, before now, saw with only one of his eyes was able to recognise the reporters notebook held by a reporter on the left hand and a pencil (biro) in the other hand.

‘I thank God, I thank General Babangida for what he has done for me, May Allah reward him,’ Alhaji Ndagi Shaba, one of those that benefited from the free eye surgery said. Each of the patients, before being discharged from the hospital, was given drugs prescribed for his use and a pair of dark sunglasses.

One of the officials who counselled the patients before they left the hospital charged them not to engage in any hard work in the next one week. He also told them not to expose the eyes to direct sunrays or do welding work for the time being.

Going by the number of people that were operated upon and the number the Niger state government had assisted, there is no doubt that the prevalence rate of cataract in the state is very high.

Between 2007 and this year, the Government, in partnership with some organisations carried out surgeries for more than 7000 people. When this figure is added to the intervention by General Babangida, about 13,000 people have been assisted to regain their sights. A number of others must, one way or the other, carry out the surgery on their own.

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