She’s a very beautiful, exceptionally brilliant, highly educated, very confident and accomplished woman. This beautiful woman called Dr. Obianma Onya is a popular medical doctor in Port Harcourt. She is the Chief Consultant Family Physician at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital. She is also very stylish. In fact for many years running. She has been one of the best-dressed ladies in Port Harcourt, if not Rivers State. Let’s tell you more about this first-class brain who is a great combination of Beauty and Brains. Dr. (Mrs) Obianma Nneka Onya was born in Moscow, Rosie 47 years ago, to the family of the late Dr. Herbert Ozokwo (MD, PhD) and the late Dr. (Mrs) Deborah Ozokwo (First Class Hons, PHD) She had her formal education partly in Russia, Zambia and Nigeria and had-on-several occasions been the recipient of awards of Excellence from her secondary school days even up till now. She graduated Top 10% of her class from the prestigious University of Nigeria and later got married to her heartthrob, Dr Reason Onya (PhD) who is currently the immediate past Rivers State commissioner for Urban Development and Planning, he is a political economist and entrepreneur.
She went on to specialize in Family Medicine and became the first in the Department of Family Medicine, UPTH to pass all her exams at the first attempt. In April 2008, she became a Consultant Family Physician and by May 2014, she became the youngest and first female Head of Family Medicine Department, UPTH. During her tenure, she spearheaded several positive restructuring processes that have spurred, the growth of the department in a positive direction and further ensured the visibility of the department in the hospital community.
She became the First Chairman of the Rivers State SOFPON Zone and was inundated with the herculean task of building the association from scratch at the zonal level and increasing it’s visibility to the general public. The WONCA World Family Doctor Day (WFDD) celebrations held in collaboration with Association of General and Private Practitioners of Nigeria (AGPMAN), were well organized with the support of members of the EXCO especially that of the indefatigable SOFPON Rivers Zonal Secretary. Dr. Edward Ikpae (the current SOFPON Rivers State Zonal Chairman).
Family Medicine as a speciality witnessed a ray of hope in the protracted struggle to establish an Academic Department of Family Medicine in UPTH, as the proposal she drafted in her capacity as HOD, was able to scale through the Faculty of Clinical Sciences, the College of Health Sciences (CHS) and the Senate Committee for Academic Policies and Programme (SCAPP). It was during her tenure on SOFPON Chairman, that the quest to commence undergraduate Family/Medicine was actualized in the Rivers State University class that was facilitated by the efforts of her beloved husband, Dr. Reason Onya who was at the time an influential member of the Rivers State University Governing Council.
She is currently the Deputy Chairman Medicine Advisory Committee (DCWAC) in charge of SERVICOM and NHS in UPTH, appointed by the progressive and visionary new Chief Medical Director, Professor Henry Ugboma. So far, she has made landmark achievements such as building a viable SERMCOM Unit, a CENTRAL LABORATION SAMPLE COLLECTION UNIT, Introduction of STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES (SOPs) and SERMCOM Service Charter both of which were unprecedented not only in UPTH but almost at the federal health institutions.
She has been a Trainer (of residents) and has published quite a few scientific articles in republic local and international journals. She has attended various local and international conferences (including WONCA, ACLM & WACP) at which she had made both and poster presentations.
She is a caring wife and dutiful mother of 4 children. When she’s not practicing or teaching medicine, she designs fashionable outfits via her position as the sole Creative Director of a viable fashion designing outfit she named NNEKA’s TOGG. After weeks back, she wrote about how to survive the COVID 19 Scourge in Africa: The Way Forward. Below are excerpts of her write up.
It is crystal clear that Covid-19 is defying the unsavoury predictions of the WHO that Africa would in a short while be holding a requiem for hundreds of thousands of its inhabitants…
It is, indeed, a no brainer that the disease is not as severe in Africa as it is in other climes and therefore, should not take centre stage as we have more serious conditions ravaging the continent.
The point being made here is that there are several hundreds of thousands of folks who probably have Covid-19 with the vast majority being asymptomatic.
Agreed, asymptomatic carriers are important sources of infection spread, but even well over 80% of those who get infected become asymptomatic with very few having mild symptoms and even fewer (with underlying illnesses), having the severe form of the disease and/or eventually dying from it (less than 3%).
It’s therefore, clear from the foregoing that Covid-19 is overrated especially in our clime possibly because:
•The strains affecting us are less virulent, or
•We’re more immune to it, or
•We have a relatively “young” population (population pyramid) or
•The hot weather dries up the droplets rapidly
•Our local preventive measures are effective •Or simply a combination of some of (or all) these factors.
This implies that Covid-19 is overrated and therefore, continuing to put in place extreme measures that were used in the “more affected” climes with healthier economies and more advanced health systems, may not be a great idea because it will yield very little benefit (as evidenced by the insignificant difference in the statistics pre and post lockdown) and all at the expense of our ailing, impoverished and fragile people & economy, respectively.
The world is opening up the economy and easing lockdowns globally because the latter are neither sustainable nor sufficiently effective…
“Social distancing” is not compatible with human existence and is especially abhorred by African culture and, therefore, is also not sustainable.
WHAT THEN IS SUSTAINABLE?
• Strict enforcement of the use of face masks/face shields(or any invention that covers the mouth, nose and eyes without compromising breathing and recognition/identification of faces and facial expressions for obvious reasons)
•Healthy lifestyle practices
•Hand and respiratory hygiene
•“Strict border control”
•Provision of portable pipe-borne water in every nook and cranny.
• Research on plausible local remedies, their efficacy, dosages, side effect profiles and contraindications.
•Intensifying efforts at reopening and stimulating the economy by easing out lockdowns across the board.
Diversification of the economy in the post-Covid-19 era should be topmost on our minds individually and collectively as a country and we must all prepare ourselves for the bumpy ride ahead.
We must learn to live with our new reality and take our individual and collective destinies into our own hands as it’s clear that no one has all the answers…
We must find our own.
Dr. Obianma Onya
