In Imo and Enugu states, soldiers are proving that they can diagnose and treat ailments with as much ease as they can take down the enemy. OKODILI NDIDI, ROSEMARY OGBODO and CHERECHUKWU OKOYE report
Do they not only lift their weapons, take aim and fire? That was why the ailing residents were just as curious as they were anxious to be well again when fully kitted army personnel showed up in their communities clutching stethoscopes and medicaments rather than guns.
That was the atmosphere in Mgbirichi community in Owerri West Council Area of Imo State, and also in Iji-Nike in Enugu East Local Government Area of Enugu State.
Are soldiers also doctors, and if they are, do they treat civilians?
Their curiosity was resolved as soon as the trained combatants started asking them questions that doctors usually ask, taking their blood pressures and checking for signs of malaria among other things.
Residents of Mgbichiri and Iji-Nike indeed felt the humanitarian side of the Nigerian Army when the ailing ones among them were given free medical treatment during a medical outreach organised by the 34 Brigade Obinze as part of activities to mark Nigeria’s 55 independence anniversary.
The impression that soldiers are only for battle fields was corrected as the sick were professionally and tenderly taken care of by the military doctors to the amazement of the people who had thought it impossible to have a close relationship with the soldiers.
At the end of the two-day exercise, over 500 villagers were treated for various ailments including dental and optical infections, high blood pressure and diabetes while other diseases were diagnosed.
The Brigade Commander, Brigadier General K.A.Y. Isiyaku, said it is necessary to reach out to the locals through quick-impact projects like the medical outreach to foster a cordial relationship with communities.
He said that the medical outreach was part of the social responsibility of the Brigade as a corporate body, adding that it was designed to correct the impression that the Army is hostile.
The Commander said, “We all know the security challenge the country is going through, so we need the support and cooperation of the populace. If you stay close to the people, they will stay close to you.
“We decided to take the medical outreach to our host community to show them that we also care about their health and that we are all one. They always see the military as hostile but it should not be so. We will continue to strive to live up to our social responsibilities to our hosts. We can also undertake other quick impact projects like cleaning the gutters, providing boreholes, among others”.
He however urged the people to be law abiding and live peacefully with each other, adding that, “the Army like the Police is your friend when you are law abiding. People should not engage in any form of criminality that will put them on collision course with the law, because if you are caught the law will certainly take its course”.
Meanwhile beneficiaries of the medical outreach have described it as unprecedented, especially as coming from their armed neighbours, who they had thought were only trained for warfare.
Grace Amaizuzu, 67, said she has been suffering from arthritis in the last three years, but was relieved after she was diagnosed and treated by the soldiers.
She said, “I thank God for the soldiers. I never knew they were this kind and their medicine is more original than the ones we buy from the chemist shops. In my own case I have been suffering from very painful arthritis for some time now I can hardly walk on my own but today I am relieved”.
Another beneficiary, Johnson Uzoma, who was treated of eye infection, commended the soldiers for the gesture, “before I can hardly see clearly with my right eyes and I had no money to go to the hospital. So when I heard about the medical outreach I rushed down to the venue and I was attended to free of charge and given enough drugs that will last me for a long time.”
At Iji-Nike, the military outreach was tagged “Know Your Blood Pressure: Avoid Silent Killer”, military medical personnel from the 82 Division hospital tested for HIV, sugar and blood levels and malaria, among others. They also diagnosed and prescribed drugs to patients suffering various ailments.
The turnout at the Holy Cross Primary School Iji-Nike was impressive as ailing residents surged forward to be treated.
The GOC 82 Division, Brig. General Ibrahim Attahiru supervised the outreach, ensuring that it succeeded. Other top officers of the Division accompanied him.
Also with the GOC at the venue was the traditional ruler of Nike, Igwe Julius Nnaji who had earlier received the GOC and his entourage in his palace.
Both Attahiru and Igwe Nnaji also submitted themselves for the checkup.
The GOC later told reporters that the health outreach was part of the army civil work to keep in touch with their host communities.
He said such community outreach programmes include construction of roads and bridges and provision of other necessary services deemed important to the common man.
He explained that the main idea behind the medical outreach was to “enlighten people about lifestyle diseases such as high blood pressure, HIV, malaria etc.”
Attahiru enjoined residents of the area to avail themselves of the opportunity and come out to be tested and treated of their various ailments.
Igwe Nnaji on his own expressed gratitude to the 82 division for the gesture and prayed for God’s protection for men and officers of the Division.
He said: “I can tell you that this is not the first time the army is giving to my subjects these
free medical services. I cannot say much but all I can say is that God will continue to protect them in all their endeavours.”
At the outreach were dentists, doctors, nurses and a team from the ministry of defence.
A member of the community, Onuh Nnaemeka expressed delight in the exercise, saying: “This is one of the ways we benefit from the army as Nigerians. I am saying a very big thanks to the Nigerian Army and 82 Division in particular for remembering us always”.
