Boniface Okoro in Umuahia
Immediate past Minister of Labour and Employment, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, has said her 19th free medical and surgery outreach aligns with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda in Health, even as she sponsored the treatment of a baby born without anus estimated to cost about N5 million.
Onyejeocha, who conducted the outreach at the Mbalano General Hospital in Isuikwuato and Madam Suzanna Mba Health Centre, Isuochi in Umunneochi, from July 23 to 30, said the initiative was aimed at assisting patients who cannot afford cost of treating their ailments.
“What I am doing today is in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda in Health, though I had started it 19 years earlier. It has emboldened me to do more and that is why I was able to make sure that the people who are not able to access primary health here, we are taking them to tertiary level where we will sponsor their treatment. That is the spirit of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” she said.
Speaking during the outreach, the former lawmaker who represented Isuikwuato/Umunneochi Federal Constituency said the programme was a family tradition and had nothing to do with politics.
“I started it before I entered politics and it’s a tradition in my family. My grandmother was taking care of people and taking them to hospital when they are sick; even taking care of women when they delivered their babies. So I grew up watching her. It’s hereditary,” she said.
Onyejeocha said the outreach was prepared to attend to about 5,000 patients across both venues, noting that the continuity of the outreach was driven by the rising number of cases and the inability of many to afford hospital bills.
She cited the case of a young mother whose baby was born without anus. “They said they will charge as much as between N3 million and N5 million. And the girl that has that baby cannot even afford N50,000. So I decided that God will enable me to help her take care of it. If you don’t help her, nobody will help her,” she said.
The former minister added that other beneficiaries included patients referred from Anambra and Umuahia, as well as a young man with eye problems whom she also referred for spiritual counselling. “Apart from medical, we still counsel people and make sure that they realize you have to take care of yourself and receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and personal Saviour,” she said.
Onyejeocha said the Madam Suzanna Memorial Hospital, which she owns, has a full complement of wards and facilities and was being used free of charge for the outreach. She lamented that thieves had previously vandalised the facility, carting away nine air conditioners and electrical wires, but that they had been replaced.
On suggestions for improving public healthcare if she returns to the National Assembly, she said she would interrogate government policies on the floor of the House before deciding whether to support or amend them.
“Dr. Mohamme Ali Pate, the Minister of Health and Social Welfare, is doing very well because he has added social welfare to health and he is getting many accolades across the globe,” she said.
Onyejeocha assured the huge number of patients for the exercise would increase to twice yearly, urging beneficiaries to pray to God for healing.
“The ultimate healer is God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Jesus Christ our Lord who assured us that by his stripes we are healed,” she said.