Dr. Josef Onoh, a prominent supporter of President Bola Tinubu, has congratulated Dr. Uchechi Iweala, the Nigerian-American orthopaedic surgeon who recently made history by becoming the first person to perform a robotic spinal surgery in the state of Maryland, USA.
At 37, Dr. Iweala successfully carried out a navigated lumbar spinal fusion using robotic technology — a groundbreaking procedure that marks a significant milestone in the evolution of modern spine surgery in the United States.
A highly accomplished orthopaedic spine surgeon, Dr. Iweala is a graduate of Harvard College and holds a dual MD/MBA from Harvard Medical School and Harvard Business School. He completed his orthopaedic surgery residency at George Washington University and went on to a spine surgery fellowship at NYU Langone Medical Centre. He is board-certified by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery and is a member of both the Lumbar Spine Research Society and the North American Spine Society.
Dr. Iweala currently practices at Metro Orthopaedics & Sports Therapy in Potomac, Maryland, and is affiliated with top medical institutions, including Johns Hopkins Howard County Medical Centre, Holy Cross Germantown Hospital, and Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Centre.
Born into a family of notable achievers, Dr. Iweala is the son of Nigerian-American neurosurgeon Dr. Ikemba Iweala of Ohuhu-Umuahia in Abia State, and Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s former Minister of Finance and the current Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO)..
Born to Nigerian-American neurosurgeon Ikemba, from Ohuhu-Umuahia in Abia State, his mother is Nigeria’s former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Director-General of the World Trade Organization.
Onoh said, regrettably, that since Nigeria’s independence, the youth were told they would become the leaders of tomorrow and that education was the greatest asset, but those golden words never came to pass.
“The youth never became the leaders of tomorrow, education lost its value, we lost our hope, and the youth of Nigeria became the lost hope of a great nation. We celebrated and honoured looters and despised achievers. We created a new generation of aggressive, entitled youths without hope for a better tomorrow, stained with tribal sentiments, quick to temper, without vision beyond the ownership of the latest iPhone and the number of social media followers for validation.
“Until young, extraordinarily talented individuals like Dr. Uchechi Iweala—and very few others like him—became a beacon of hope. These are the calibre of people who deserve national honour awards from our nation, rather than looters and politicians who are awarded national honours that become a medal of shame,” Onoh said.
He stated that these young, talented individuals have achieved greater heights, higher than becoming presidents of a nation, and have become the new messiahs of humanity.
“I’m glad to be alive to see the new John the Baptist of medical science and humanity. I urge the President to bestow upon him our highest national honour. It’s time to change the narratives. It’s time to positively inspire the young generation, telling them that hard work pays. If we truly want to make Nigeria great again, it’s time to collectively rebuild our nation.”.
