Promasidor director thinks differently, deploys birthday to community benefit
If Kachi Onubogu, commercial director, Promasidor Nigeria, was a politician, his 40 years anniversary, which was dedicated to raising fund for a neglected hospital in his home town Ogidi, Anambra State, would have taken another coloration. Some people would have viewed his gesture as a political campaign strategy while other politicians would use the platform for lobbying purposes.
But on July 27, 2013, Onubogu invited his friends and indigents of Ogidi, the home town of Chinua Achebe, famous international writer who remain respected even after his death, to make a social impact that some would incorrectly consider as a responsibility reserved for only corporates.
All over the world, celebration of birthdays usually is to mark how old a person is, which normally brings friends and well-wishers together to celebrate and shower all sorts of gifts on the celebrants, but Kachi thought differently and rather than wait for such gifts he developed the passion to call on his friends to support him in making social impact by assisting in equipping Iyi-enu Hospital, a missionary hospital, in Ogidi. He understands that social impact is not exclusively reserved for organisations.
Iyi-Enu Hospital had its early beginning in the Church Missionary Society’s (CMS) Niger Medical Mission at Ozalla, Onitsha, where the mission carried out a ministry of healing through tending the sick, the suffering and the dying.
The hospital has grown in leaps and bounds since it was established in 1907. In spite of the proliferation of hospitals and clinics in and around Ogidi, Nkpor and Onitsha, Iyi-Enu Hospital is still putting more smiles on the faces of patients and people living in the area.
Kachi’s idea to raise N15 million to buy some equipment to support the cardio unit of the hospital was to make a huge difference in the lives of many in his community and its environs.
His gesture is understandable as cardiovascular disease (CVD), an ailment that attacks the heart and the blood vessel, has assumed a major threat to human existence in the 21st Century across the world, including developing countries like Nigeria, claiming about 17.3 million lives annually.
Cardiovascular disease includes a number of conditions affecting the structures or function of the heart such as coronary artery disease (narrowing of the arteries), heart attack, abnormal heart rhythms or arrhythmia’s, high blood pressure, heart failure, heart valve disease, congenital heart disease, heart muscle disease (cardiomyopathy), aorta disease and marfan syndrome, among other related diseases.
For instance, hypertension, one of the diseases associated with CVD has shown to form the bulk of admissions in Nigerian hospitals, with the age of Nigerians that come down with hypertension said to be less than 50 years.
More worrisome is the fact that about 30 million Nigerians (or 20%) of the adult population suffer from hypertension and other heart related diseases with only about 30 percent of this number aware they suffer from it, according to reports.
Deliberate efforts have continued to be put in place by governments, corporates and other kind spirited individuals to abate the scourge of this hydra-headed monster called cardiovascular disease in Nigeria.
Kachi noted that 40 years of his sojourn on earth had been a roller coaster, adding that together with God’s grace and favour he can still make a greater impact in society, saying “what inspires me is the ability to touch the lives of other people. I derive joy in making people happy, which was the reason I choose my profession. I want to render services that people could look back in future and said this man has improved their position in lives, either for the wealthy or those who don’t have enough.
“In my life, I like to give back to the society, I want to leave a footprint on the sands of time so that those who will come even 300 years after will look back and said there once lived a man called Kachi Onubogu.
“I want to be remembered for one thing, that I was able to bring a change in my environment; I was able to make a difference in my environment. It is a sterling memorial that I would like to ascribe to my tombstone that I was able to make change.”
Some of those who attended the fund-raising event were touched by the exemplary life demonstrated by Kachi to touch lives. CEO of a firm who prefers anonymity said everyone could impact life and wished more Nigerians emulate Kachi’s gesture.
It is gathered that before Kachi came to the scene, the hospital had made several unsuccessful appeals to well-meaning Nigerians for financial assistance towards equipping the cardio unit.