Kogi Govt. charges residents on healthy eyes maintenance

On Oct 13, 2023

The Kogi state Government on Thursday charged residents to inculcate the habit of protection and maintenance of healthy eyes to contribute meaningfully to the development of the state and Nigeria. Dr Usman Zakari, the state’s Commissioner for Health, gave the advice during a news conference in his office in Lokoja, in celebration of the World Sight Day.

He said measures were being taken by the Gov. Yahaya Bello’s administration to arrest the increasing cases of blindness in the state.

“Eye health is about more than just sight – it’s about a vision of the future. Good eye health has a ripple effect, improving economic and health outcomes. If the world’s eye care needs were met, the impact would be astounding. We discovered that diabetes, hypertension and Cataract are the major causes of blindness in humans, therefore, citizens need to guard against these diseases so as not go blind, ” he said.

Zakari said that blindness was prevalence among those aged 40 years and above and that an estimated 42 per cent of eye problems was being caused by cataract.

He added: “There are also over 105,000 visually impaired persons among the over 40-year age group with refractive error accounting for nearly 37 per cent.” Translating this into numbers, this means there are over 26,000 blind persons in the state out of which over 11,000 are due to cataract. Our ministry, in conjunction with SightSavers, have established a comprehensive, accessible, and affordable eye care services to the people of the state, across the three senatorial zones. We have offered free eye sight services to commercial motorcycle riders known as okada riders, welders and others, who are vulnerable to blindness due to the nature of their works. Already, more than 500 free eye glasses have been distracted to these set of people to help address their eye challenges,” he said.

He said that the Kogi Eye Care Project would focus on demonstrating scalable approach towards the establishment of health system strengthening by establishing well co-ordinated eye care services and linkages with Primary Health Care (PHC) system in Kogi.

According to him, eye care services are being implemented in four local government areas: Ankpa, Kabba, Okene and Idah, all in an effort to help residents maintain healthy eye sights for their day-to-day activities.

He further disclosed that as part of the activity lined up for this year’s celebration, the Kogi Eye Care Steering Committee identified some non-formal sectors such as welders, Okada riders, and sawmillers whose eye health were endangered by their occupation for free eyes service.Zakari Commended SightSavers, an NGO for humanitarian services to the people of Kogi

Represented by the Permanent Secretary of HOS, Mr Akpam Obadiah, Odiyo said the eye was the window of the body and if carelessly handled, could result to situations beyond imagination.

“Some of the eye problems come silently, so whatever the ministry and SightSavers can do to sensitise the public, should be done for good of our citizens.”

NAN/Wumi