FCTA Kicks Off ‘Project 10m’

By: Badaru Yakassai & Wisdom Acka

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has kicked off a week long aggressive campaign and screening of people with non-communicable diseases in the Federal Capital Territory, code named ‘Project 10 million’.

The campaign is aimed at screening and treatment of these non-communicable diseases targeting not less than 250,000 residents in the Abuja metropolis and 200 rural communities across the Territory.

Speaking at the kick off ceremony in Area 11, Garki, Abuja, the Mandate Secretary, Health Services and Environment Secretariat, FCTA, Dr. Adedolapo Fasawe, explained that it was an initiative of commissioners of health in the 36 States of the Federation and the FCT.

The Mandate Secretary further explained that they (health experts) started noticing that people were slumping and dying, and the rate of non-communicable diseases was on the increase, as attention was focused more on HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis.

She stressed that a disease, which was initially thought to be associated with only the elderly was increasingly affecting children also, as many kept dying of undiagnosed heart related diseases – a complication of undiagnosed hypertension.

Fasawe said: “Hypertension is a very treatable disease, if caught early. Diabetes is a very treatable disease, if caught early. Treatable in the sense that if you adhere to your doctor’s instructions, and take your medication, you will live a normal life”.

The Mandate Secretary dosclosed that the aim of the project was to educate those who are hypertensive and give them medication; revealing that “out of every 27 Nigerians, one person is hypertensive.”

She continued: “This is recorded. now, we are trying to look for all these people, educate them, and give them medication, so that your quality of life, your output at work, and in the end, the GDP of the nation would be improved.”

“Because with this ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’, we constantly look for ways to reach the people and touch them. And the essence of this programme also is that people find it hard to leave their workplace where they get money, their markets, and their farms, to go to the hospital to check,” she said.

“We are taking this ‘Project 10 million’ to the doorstep of people, where they live, where they work, where they play. We will be in every Area Council, we will be in most Chiefdoms and Palaces, we will be in markets, we will be in places like this where most people aggregate, and the good news is, it will run for one week,” the Mandate Secretary restated.

“If you can’t make it today, you will make it tomorrow. And I believe at the end of this, the saying ‘health is wealth’ will truly be understood. Without good health, we cannot enjoy the beautiful infrastructure that the FCT is putting up daily,” Fasawe emphasized.

Responding to a question on why most of the readings monitored from the FCTA Secretariat were normal, the Mandate Secretary said: ‘If you work for Barrister Nyesom Wike, it is not likely that you will have a sedentary lifestyle.”

She reiterated: “This programme is not only for those who are suffering from hypertension or diabetes. It is also for people whom we find their results to be normal. When we find their results to be normal, our screening tool has some questions; do you smoke? Do you exercise? What is your diet like, what is your lifestyle like?

She said that if the result is normal, we will encourage you and teach you how to keep it normal, because that means that the person has been doing something good.

“And if indeed within this Secretariat (FCTA), we are finding normal readings, the risk factors for high blood pressure include stress, sleeplessness, obesity, family history, and sedentary lifestyle. What it then means is that most of us here, do not fall into that”, she said.

The Mandate Secretary expressed delight that the Administration has already had “several similar programmes”, including medical palliative where people were given free medicines for all kinds ailments for one month.

She added that the FCT Administration also registered vulnerable persons in Abuja for free 12-month health insurance to improve their health.