LOSING EYE SIGHT IS A TERRIFYING PROSPECT

                   

When last did you have a medical check up? Or to be precise and relate the question to the above topic, when last did you have an eye test? I trust many of us have never undertaken any in the last one or even two decades and many more of us have never at all. Ok, here is the thing:

Very early this year, one of my friends was hit with a tennis ball on his right eye during one of our evening trainings. Quite a platitude for this accident to happen during Fives trainings. But I tell you, it is not a good experience for one to find him self in this position as it is always very discomforting. To moderate the pain by making it easier to bear one is expected not to touch or wipe away the impending tears from the effected eye but to bear the pain to subside for about 30 minutes to an hour. If this is observed, then you are good for tomorrow’s game otherwise you will have to bear the consequences of not applying those palliative measures. As I write this piece, I feel sorry for my friend who is now confined to his house and in complete darkness for not showing restrain and adherence to the basics.

Barely 3 months ago, I had to go for eye test on the advice from many of my friends who noticed that at my age and with the way I use the screens I still do not use medicated eye glasses. This, they were pleasantly surprised.  You see, I have been on computers for more than a decade now and had my first machine in 2005. I have never been so glued to the computers like I was in the last 10 months putting in the average 5+ hours each day. When I am not looking at my screen designs I am typing letters or engaged on these social sites surrounding me on all sides constantly refocusing and repositioning my eyes on different text at different distances which always leave my eyes very tired by the end of the day. I didn’t realise this was having a great devastating effect on my eyes. The tests results indicate that I had to go for reading and travelling glasses. That was not any surprise to me as I was expecting that, in fact, I had already in mind the type of frame I would use for the glasses even before I went to the clinic. But the surprising aspect of the results was the fact that the Ophthalmologist indicated that he had noticed an ailment with my central vision which requires a more sophisticated equipment to diagnose. Sophisticated what? I quarried almost immediately. It is a certain thing I noticed within the retina that … That what?  I quickly interjected him again. In annoyance but professionally he told me that ‘the central vision helps you to see details, colours and shapes with clarity and all actions for the central vision take place in a spot on the retina called the macula which is one of the areas to weaken as we grow in age. The statement made my ‘body weak’. You mean I am going blind? I asked, rhetorically. He didn’t answer and I left the clinic without even collecting the referral. I was dumbfounded, totally confused and began to wonder in consternation. It is apparent that my left eye is defective since I could not even read the alphabets at the clinic with my right eye closed. As I drove out of the vicinity and to convince my self of my predicament  I would closed my left eye to see with the right eye and vice versa but each time I did so the difference became so glaring, so clear (7up), just like chalk and cheese.

The following morning I drove to Makka Medina Eye Hospital Kano where my left eye was diagnosed to have about 40% devastated by glaucoma. The Chief Consultant congratulated me for coming to the hospital. He said further delay could have escalated the problem and that would have caused me the whole eye and eventually it will go on to the right eye and within a short time I will be rendered blind. I would have become just like my friend who did not realise glaucoma had consumed his eyes and with the tennis ball accident he is now a complete blind man.

The import of this rhapsody is to strike awareness and to ensure that we attend medical check regularly. I know none of us has ever thought about the possibility of going blind but the chances are very high now as statistics on blindness in Nigeria stated that 41 out of every 100 Nigerian adults over 40 years have a sight impediment while 41 out of every 1000 are completely blind. It also stated that 1 out of 3 of these blindness cases are caused by avoidable conditions like cataract and glaucoma. It is therefore advisable for us to visit an eye clinic to determine how healthy our eyes are to avoid being in my position and that of my friend. More elementary, DO THIS NOW: cover your right eye with your hand to see how bad your left eye has really gone. Do the same for the other eye and that will determine if you really need to see an ophalmologist.

IN SUPPORT OF PROFESSIONALISM

                                   

More than two decades ago an interesting episode took place at the GRA Katsina where the owner of one beautiful house, in fact it was the best constructed house in Katsina then, both in terms of the architectural designs and the serene environment on which the house was constructed complained to my brother how the landscape of the house was a source of concern to him. He told my brother how he wasted so much money and time on landscaping the house but to no avail. He was advised by one Julius Berger expatriate staff to see my brother for technical advice. His grouse was that on three occasions he planted different exotic flowers to beautify his house and for the same occasions the flowers were destroyed by yet to know who. The following morning he would ask the top soil of the whole area to be removed and new one brought in and another set of followers would be planted and this continued for about six months or more. My brother then set out for a reconnaissance of the area to determine how the work would start. After about 30 minutes in the area he did not see anything unusual that will prevent flowers and other plants from growing. He then thought of taking sample of the soil to test its quality and determine if it is good for landscaping purposes but after packing some quantities he noticed some dead black insects and decided to take both the sand and dead insects along. The following morning he drove to Bayero University Kano where he went to the botanical laboratory of the University to have the soil test. Meanwhile, as the soil test was going on he decided to go to the library with the dead insects and after about 30 minutes on an insect’s encyclopaedia he found out the name of the insect and immediately formed an impression that it was the insects that were responsible for the destruction of the flowers. He further found out that the insects stay right inside the ground about 18 inches from the top soil but only come out at midnight and would eat up the flowers for about one hour then return back to their base and they would return the following night to eat up what was left. After getting this information he left the botanical garden without even minding the results of the soil test. Immediately he came back to the house he asked the labourers around to start to dig through the soil profile into about 20 inches deep and in the course of that they met several hundreds of dead insects until they finally met hundreds of the live insects living in cluster and unionism. Insecticide and insectifuge were immediately applied to kill the insects and after about two days new sand was brought in to fill all the trenches made after removing all the fossils and residues of the insects. The result of that professionalism is the lush green flowers you always see when ever you go to Alhaji Labo Tarka’s house near the Commissioner of Police’s house at the GRA.

I think professionalism is not just being good at what you do but it has a lot to do with how you do it and the result you get from that. If you want to be successful in your business or any chosen career you will have to get used to being a professional. In which case you must have passed through some level of education and in the course of that have acquired some certification. One of the greatest problems we encounter these days is the fact that we have more pseudo professionals (gyara samun sa’a) in our midst than the actual professionals.  We have them as teachers, nurses, contractors, mechanics and others that you will not even know until you require their services. In order to move our state forward in this time of Internet technology we surely need professionals in teaching (forget the debate whether teaching is a profession or not), nurses, architects, Surveyors, builders (not of Idi Kwado’s brand) to propel us to break the glass ceiling.