NOA director worries over Nigeria’s poor life expectancy rating
[FILE] Roadside vendors display yam and fruits for sale in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, on March 14, 2022. – From Nigerian airlines to Malawi bakers, African countries are feeling the pain of Ukraine’s crisis as supply disruptions hike inflation and oil prices push up fuel costs. Global oil prices touched ten-year highs of more than $100 a barrel soon after Russia invaded Ukraine, doubling diesel prices for African countries like Nigeria. Ukraine and Russia are both major suppliers of wheat and grains to Africa and Western sanctions and disruptions are already hiking costs across the continent. (Photo by PIUS UTOMI EKPEI / AFP)
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State Director of the National Orientation Agency (NOA) in Abia State, Dr. Ngozi Okechukwu, has expressed worry over Nigeria’s poor life expectancy rating among some African countries, as well as in the world, in Influenza and Pneumonia, which, are reported as leading causes of deaths.
Okechukwu spoke, yesterday, during the one-day health education and medical outreach NOA organised for Abia men, women, and children in collaboration with a medical team from the U.S. based ‘Inspire Hope Foundation’ (IHF) led by Nigerian U.S. based physician, Dr. Chinyere Anyaogu.
Okechukwu said: “In 2021, life expectancy at birth in Nigeria was about 60:87 years and, more specifically, this figure translates to 59 years for males and 63 for females.”
She described this as an unacceptable scenario, which all stakeholders must synergise to reduce the indices. The event featured medical sensitisation, health talks on Diabetes, Asthma, High Blood Pressure, diagnosis and treatment, educating the public on how to prevent, cure diseases, build heath confidence, improve brain health, reduce stress, among others.
Anyaogu, who is the president-elect, Association of Nigeria Physicians in America (ANPA), said that the mission was targeted to benefit people in need of medicare but cannot afford the cost.
She noted that some of the persons, attended to, had undisclosed high blood pressure, among others, noting that her team planed to liaise with NOA on sustainability of the mission; hence this pilot one was privately sponsored due to the commitment to improving the people’s healthcare.
The medical team and NOA, in collaboration with the Office of Abia State Diaspora Commission and the state Primary Healthcare Development Agency, organised and conducted a “Train the Trainer Workshop,” tagged: ‘Helping Babies Breathe,’ for selected health workers from the state’s 17 local councils at the state Women Development Centre, Umuahia.
The NOA director, however, noted that the training was to equip the trainees/health workers with the necessary skills towards reducing infant mortality and improve life expectancy.
