It has been fourteen years since High Chief Olu Benson Lulu-Briggs, (a k a O. B. Lulu-Briggs), a native of Kalabari Kingdom, an Island of the Niger Delta, established a foundation to carter for the poor.
The multi-faceted foundation “O.B.Lulu-Briggs Foundation” operates five different programmes. Its Care for Life is exclusively for the aged who are poor ). The Free Medical Mission is for all, irrespective of age, class or gender. Under the free medical mission is also the foundation’s annual free eye test and free children de-worming programmes and rural water purification programme.
The foundation also has a robust scholarship (local and oversea) programme as well as Law School Scholarship award. This is to ensure no strata of the society is left out.
The foundation has transversed communities in the Niger Delta, including Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River and almost all the 23 local government areas of Rivers State.
But in all its mission trips, the core Island dwellers of the region (those behind the River banks) have been the least of the beneficiaries.
The reason is not unconnected with the difficult terrain of the core river-rine community and the obvious lack of health care facility in such communities to host the team for the five-day long medical treatment.
But beyond all odds, the foundation recently broke the jinx when it ferried over 70 medical and none medical personnel on a free medical outreach to Minama community of Asari-Toru.
It was a huge success, as health seekers came from neighbouring river-rine communities, to benefit from the gesture. The joy of both the beneficiaries and their benefactor at the success of the exercise knew no bound.
To the beneficiaries, it was like wonders in dreamland. They were happy they were remembered for such kindness. Their benefactor was happy that such exercise is possible in an Island community. Pa Lulu-Briggs’ long-time desire to also reach out to his own kith and kin behind the ocean has finally come through. He urged other island communities to wait for him.
Despite the inability of the team to carry out surgery in the outreach for lack of operation theatre in the facility the exercise was held, about 2,500 patients, including paediatrics, were treated in the outreach.
The joy of the community at the event cannot be over-emphasized. This was clearly demonstrated in the reception they accorded the Executive Director of the foundation, Mrs. Sienye O.B. Lulu-Briggs, who is also the wife of the founder of the foundation on arrival to the community.
Old and young, including National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members serving in the community rolled out their drums to welcome the August visitor. They sang, danced and gyrated at the community’s water front for hours waiting for her arrival.
Mrs. Lulu-Briggs was visibly amazed at the kind of reception given her and members of her entourage. She described it as overwhelming and the best reception the team had received from any community since the inception of the foundation.
“The people of Minama are the most hospitable so far in our fourteen years of going out for the five-day free medical mission. We’ve been to almost all the 23 local government areas of the state, as well as Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom states for this programme but Minama has been the most hospitable of them all.
“This is the only community that has, apart from providing accommodation to all our over 70 resident medical and non-medical personnel for the period, but also fed us.
“Normally, we go with our food, but in this case they provided food for every one of us. Minama people are indeed the true example of the hospitality of a Rivers’ man.”
The chairman of the community, Chief Probyn Herbert Grans-Ege, had extolled the rare virtues of the High Chief at assisting the governments to carter for its citizens, especially in the areas of health care delivery and care for the poor.
Ege, who spoke through Diepreye Granville, said O. B. lulu-Briggs had used his foundation to lift the health burden of the country, and state in particular by, offsetting the high cost of accessing healthcare treatment by the indigent poor of the society mostly in rural areas like theirs.
“The foundation dared our difficult geographical terrain, which makes transportation cumbersome to bring its free medical mission to us; we are indeed grateful.
“ It is a common knowledge that health is wealth and also that a healthy nation is a wealthy nation, the health needs of any nation are of top priority all over the globe. Health care services remain one of the basic necessities of man, so long as man’s existence on this planet earth is concerned.
It is also incontrovertible fact that health services are very expensive and consequent upon this, many people could not afford their medical bills and have been sent to their early graves.
“We commend all your efforts in making life very meaningful to the down-trodden and the less privileged of the society. Your Foundation coming to Minama is a blessing to us and the communities.”
The people sought the inclusion of their indigent elders into the foundation’s Care For Life programme and scholarship scheme.
Sienye Lulu-Briggs recalled: “Since the inception of the free medical mission outreach of the foundation, this is the first time the foundation has taken the outreach to the Island dwellers.
“This is a breakthrough to O.B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation. We have been working, going to places, but we have not gone across the river to a community that is not accessible otherwise.
“When we came here the first time to check out the venue for the programme, we discovered that they are a people that are so separate, they are not the only one, none of the villages in the Niger Delta(core river-rine communities), has a hospital.
“If the present government of the state would consider and reintroduce the former Governor Peter Odili’s days of mobile hospital to villages in the across the river to take care of the sick among them.
“Although the foundation has a fully equipped mobile theatre and clinic but it is not for the riverine terrain but for communities on land.”
She expressed deep concern over the plight of the people living without any health facility.
“From our records or medical professionals and volunteers treated close to 2,500 patients consists mainly, 481 persons that consulted our general practitioners, 430 children were seen by the paediatric doctors, 143 were treated for dental problem, 326 for the eye treatment, while 1, 012 for the laboratory tests while 62 persons were attended to at the Physiotherapy section.
“However, the surgery section of this programme is not in session in this outreach, the reason being that the health facility we are using here for this outreach has no facility to carry out any form of surgery.
“This is the fate of not just Minama Communities but the entire 33 Island communities and villages of Kalagbari Kingdom, that spread across three Local Government areas(LGAs), of Akuku-Toru, Asari-Toru and Degema.
“While we note the predicament of Minama community, the World Health Organization (WHO) in its statistics of health care system ranks Nigeria 187 out of 190 member countries.”
The event also featured prostate cancer disease awareness workshop with advice to men to form the habit of going for routine blood test from the age of 40 for early dictation and cure of the disease. The disease does not present with any serious sign and symptom unless in its advance and incurable stage.
The Deputy Governor , Dr. Ipalibo Banigo- Harry, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Somieari Isaac-Harry, said: “Prostate cancer awareness session of this outreach in a hard to reach community as this is very commendable.
“This foundation has been into free medical treatment to indigent rural dwellers in the past 14 years, it is not easy task, considering the cost of accessing medical treatment is generally high, the decline in the price of crude oil in the International market has even made it more difficult, because access to funds to purchase the drugs and other consumable for the treatment is not easily come by.
“O.B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation’s free medical programme is indeed a very big support to the Rivers State Government; for us to achieve a healthy society and closeness to medicare.”
He acknowledged the efforts of the immediate past Chibuike Amaechi-led administration in achieving easy and effective medical care by his massive construction of health care facilities across the state, but noted that the present administration would do much better by improving on what is on ground.
He urged residents of the community to adopt the habit of accessing health care facilities in their communities for routine checks and also endeavour to eat right to avoid preventable ailments and deaths.
