Ekiti spends N59m on 7,000 eye-glasses for people with impaired sight

Ekiti state Governor Ayo Fayose said the state government is spending N59m to procure 7, 000 eye glasses for indigent people with bad eye-sight in the state. Fayose also criticised the federal government for its intention to borrow to finance the 2017 budget saying borrowing to finance the budget signals doom for the nation’s economy. […]

Ekiti state Governor Ayo Fayose said the state government is spending N59m to procure 7, 000 eye glasses for indigent people with bad eye-sight in the state.

Fayose also criticised the federal government for its intention to borrow to finance the 2017 budget saying borrowing to finance the budget signals doom for the nation’s economy.

The governor spoke in Ado-Ekiti during the distribution of the eye-glasses to people with impaired eyesight,  said: " If we borrow this much to finance 2017 budget, it means we will continue to borrow even till 2019 and the rate at which this government is borrowing money, I hope they will not plunge Nigeria into eternal debt, enslavement and misery. This has been the fear of many who are against borrowing of $30 billion loan."

 Fayose said the scheme was meant to benefit poor and visually impaired people who cannot afford eye-glasses and whose bad eye-sight has affected their performance at work or handiwork. 

He said: "We have done this before and these are the benefits that can get to the common people. The benefits is for those with impaired sight for a long time and couldn’t get solution. We have taken this to them tested them and diagonised the recommended glasses. And today we are giving the glasses to them. You cannot imagine that people can wake up without a N100 in their pockets, not to talk of affording a eyeglass of N7000.

The project is targeted at 7000 people and is costing government about N59 million. This project continues and we’ve already included it in next year budget. 

The eye-glasses programme had been carried out by the management of the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH), The representative of the hospital, Mrs. Teniloa Oso, who spoke about the efforts of the her team, said: " the Oju Ayo programme is a form of poverty alleviation programme directed at the poorly poor in our communities who out of poor vision and near blindness has lost all means of survival resulting into poverty and its associated challenges.