The Lagos State Government says it remains committed to providing a world class health care delivery to the residents with more health infrastructure.
The State Governor Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu gave the assurance at the ‘JigiBola Re-launch,’ a free sight and hearing aid programme which according to the Governor would reduce the negative effect of preventable visual and hearing impairment of the residents.
At the ceremony coordinated by the Ministry of Local Government and Community Affairs, the Governor said the move to resuscitate Jigi Bola, which means Bola Glasses, an initiative of the former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu, would strengthen the state’s capacity for efficient eye care delivery at the grassroots.
Represented by his Deputy, Dr Obafemi Hamzat, Sanwo-Olu maintained that the initiative would cut across the 20 local government and 37 local Council Development areas of Lagos.
‘’About 250,000 residents will benefit from this scheme named “Jigi Bola” which was under the Blindness Prevention Programme to offer services such as free eye screening, free eye glasses and free surgical operations. Thousands of Lagosians who would have lost their sight as a result of inadequate awareness and lack of financial means benefitted from this programme.
“Today, we are relaunching the Jigi-Bola initiative in celebration of one of the many legacy grassroot outreach programmes of the administration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and to restate our commitment to improving the wellbeing and welfare of Lagosians,” Sanwo-Olu said.
The Governor explained that the re-launch is in celebration of one of the legacy grassroots outreach initiatives of the former Lagos State Governor, which was aimed at improving the wellbeing and welfare of the people of Lagos.
Hearing Aid Programme
He said his administration has taken a step further with the Jigi-Bola initiative by broadening its scope to include hearing aid programme, which would cater for the needs of Lagosians with hearing difficulty through the provision of hearing aids and other medical support.’
Sanwo-Olu added that his administration understood that vision and hearing impairment could make life difficult, saying it could be prevented with early care and intervention.
Celebration of legacy
In her welcome address, the Wife of the Governor, Dr. Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu who corroborated Deputy Governor’s assertion said that the Jigi-Bola re-launch is a celebration of one of the legacy grassroots outreach programmes of the former Governor of Lagos, Bola Ahmed Tinubu which commenced twenty years ago.
According to her: “In the year 2001, jigi-Bola was launched and during this programme, free eye screening was administered while free eye glasses were to given beneficiaries. At certain times patients with eye conditions requiring surgical operations were attended to at no cost by the Lagos State Government.”
“According to WHO, globally, at least 2.2 billion people have a near or distant visual impairment. In at least 1 billion or almost half of these cases, visual impairment could have been prevented. Hearing impairment is also a silent or invisible disability which makes it hard to notice a person with such disability.”
Mrs Sanwo-Olu stated that in Nigeria today, according to International Centre for Eye Health, it is estimated that 2.7 million adults aged 40 years and above have moderate visual impairment and an additional 400,000 adults are severely visually impaired.
She said prior to the flag-off ceremony, team of medical professionals have been engaged to screen eligible patients for the prescription glasses and hearing aids.
Stakeholders involvement
The Commissioner for Health in Lagos, Professor Akin Abayomi, called for continuous partnership with the stakeholders to drive more initiatives like the re-launch of the Jigi-Bola initiative.
He said the initiative would help in bringing relief and awareness to Lagosians that suffer visual impairment and hearing loss.
Others who spoke at the event commended the initiative by the government to bring back the old outreach idea geared towards alleviating poverty and improve wellness.
They also called for proper enlightenment campaign to let the people know the benefit of the Jigi-Bola initiative so that they could benefit maximally.
Confidence Okwuchi
