An Ebonyi State’s Okposi-born youth
corper, Dr. Nnanna Agwu has defied the advocates for the abolition of the
National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme in the country with his good works
at Umaisha community in Nasarawa State.
Speaking to DigitalSENSE News
exclusively, he said that what inspired him was the need he saw to assist the
rural poor villagers to improve their healthcare, thus depicting the sustenance
of NYSC scheme.
It was also gathered that the
medical initiative was recently endorsed by the traditional institution in the
community led by Alhaji Usman Abdulahi, who noted that youths are the uniting
force and change agents for the nation.
DSN further gathered that through
Dr. Agwu’s recent medical mission, he has flawed the advocates calling on the
nation to get rid of the scheme, because he has demonstrated the philosophy of
promoting unity among Nigerians at a time the Boko Haram insurgency is gaining
momentum.
Trained at the Ebonyi State
University, Abakaliki in Ebonyi State, Dr. Agwu said that the mere thought of
going to Nasarawa for his youth service was frightening both for himself and
the family, but the will of God took over.
As gathered by DigitalSENSE News,
Umaisha is a small remote community with population of about 10,000 is a 187
kilometers from Lafia, the capital city of Nasarawa State, sharing boundaries
with Kogi, Benue and Plateau States.
Agwu, a native of Okposi in
Ohaozara local government council of Ebonyi, equally said that literarily he
lost appetite temporarily when the information came to him on his posting to
Umaisha, a rural community in Nasarawa.
According to him, however, doubts
gave way to hope when on arrival at the Umaisha for assumption, just to learnt,
he was the only doctor at the general hospital in Umaisha and it dawn on him
that this challenge must be surmounted, mostly as the community seem to be far
away from the Nigeria of his dream.
What he saw further encouraged him,
instead of demoralizing, to wear his thinking cap and come up with a
community-based initiative to solve some of the health challenges facing his
people in Umaisha.
“Their love made every apprehension
to disappear and I discovered that most health issues in Nigeria, border mostly
on preventive measures,” he said, stressing that based on the challenges, he
proposed a community health sensitization and de-worming project.
This, he said, was focused on all
and sundry living in the community across every age group and mainly the
youths, elderly, women and children.
Beginning with the donation of
First Aid materials to three government-owned secondary schools in Umaisha, ,
Dr. Agwu hosted free blood pressure check and counseling for the elderly, which
saw the project helping out to discover that some of the beneficiaries were
hypertensive and who were subsequently advised to seek treatment early to avoid
complications of hypertensions.
Of course, he said, these efforts
were made possible with the support of the traditional ruler of the community,
Alhaji Usman Abdullahi, the Ohimege Opanda Umaisha.
For
the founding fathers of NYSC, the likes of Dr. Nnanna Agwu was what they have
in mind when the scheme was berthed and now that insecurity seems to be tearing
the nation apart, more of these courageous youths with foresight are needed to
deliver Nigeria and save their future.
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