Oluchi Chibuzor
The head of National Association of Seadogs (NAS) Mr. Abiola Owoaje has said that their medical mission outreaches across the country is a source to generate the nation’s Primary Health Centres (PHC) database for policy development.
Owoaje, who stated this yesterday, at the pyrates confraternity medical outreach in Abule Ado community, Lagos, explained that with the programme they generate key vital signs statistics that influences their advocacy engagement with government.
He stated that they recognised that the government cannot alone provide all the needs of the communities, hence the intervention in the community in conjunction with the Lagos State Primary Health Care Board.
According to him, they would continue to do this and will continue to improve on the services that we bring to the people as we provide these services.
According to him, “Now, in the course of providing these services we have data of the kind of services that we provide and also the kind of instances of the issues that we meet on the field.”
“With this, we build up to the advocacy that we do by speaking to the government; trying to challenge the government on why they are not providing these services and see how we can improve things both in suggesting best practices for the government and also how the community can benefit from the elective representative that they have.
“Their vital services are taken within a quarter or a year. We can see how many people we have treated for eye issues, high blood pressures, HIV; we have all this information with us and we can see what prevailing issues are within communities and we can advise the government based on that. You can concentrate a little more in these areas because that is what we see that is prevalent in this community.”
However, for the Area Mate in charge of NAS Lagos Chapter, and Director, Printing Production, THISDAY Newspapers, Chuks Onwudinjo, acknowledged that recent change within the organisation over the years has seen the pyrates confraternity evolved from campus fraternity to a not-for-profit association.
According to him, ““We have been engaged basically in charities and mostly in advocacies; we have what we call the rollover projects with which we want to affect our immediate society and of course the essence is a society where nobody is oppressed because of his job, gender, race, creed, etc. The focus for us is to create an egalitarian society.
“Since then every thing we do is towards affecting the society, and the organisation has embraced change; bringing a difference to Nigerians who could not afford things like medical services and that is our drive.
“We carried it out where people cannot afford medical services and that is why you see us here in Abule Ado. That is why we see different sections like optical services, lab tests and when cases are very severe we refer them to medical centres.”
Commenting on the outreach which involves free eye examination, consultation, medical checks and routine drugs, the Medical Pyrates, NAS, Dr. Uche Nwachukwu, they would continue to advocate the need to create PHC centers that are closer to people.
According to him, “part of why we are doing what we are doing here is that we reached out to them to understand their plight.”
For the officer-in-charge, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, PHC, Abule Ado, Mohammed Asiat, implore more notable organisation to support the centre in providing adequate and prompt care delivery to the community.
“The PHC in this community is very important to all the villages within the Abule Ado community, we appreciated the drugs and other medical items provided today. But we equally ask other organisation to support what the government is doing here too.”
On their side, the Baale of Soba, Amuwo Odofin, Chief Jimoh Raheem, “appreciated and commended NAS in coming to the aid of the poor in the society who cannot afford medical care cost.”
