Dr. (Mrs.) Eniola Ajayi, optometrist and president of the Lagos branch of the Nigerian Optometrist Association, told ADESUWA OMORUAN that there is more than meets the eye on lenses and price differentials
Q: When did you decide to be an optician?
A: As a child, I suffered serious eye problems of “vernal conjunctivitis” (an allergic type of reaction in children usually in tropical regions like Nigeria). So I decided I was going to help people with eye defects when I grow up.
Q: How good is the Nigerian sight?
A: According to statistics, it is the same all over the world but the problem is that Nigerians do not take care of their eyes like they should. They prefer to patronise the quacks for solution. It is pathetic to know that Nigerians will spend so much money on clothes, cars etc. and spend little on their eye which is responsible for their continuity as functional individuals.
Q: Many people believe that there is no need spending so much money for an optometrist when they can go to the eye technicians and achieve the same results. What is your response to that?
A: First, they are not eye technicians, they are quacks. The real technicians are in our field; they are the ones that cut the lenses into frames. The quacks are self-trained people who just fix lenses into frames from the test results we give out.
Secondly, people are not informed; we are not expensive. When quality is the watchword, we have to forgo profit. Since I started the clinic I have always done free eye test and even issue free cards. To say we get the same results as the quacks is an insult on the profession and it is not acceptable. If you get a prescription and give it to them, there are chances that they will not get it right because there are so many eye problems that people don’t know about.
When somebody who has glaucoma growing behind his eyes goes to the quack that knows nothing about glaucoma, he will give him glasses for him to see better. But then, he will start having a disease that could blind him within two years. Is that kind of service comparable with ours? It is not fair to compare quacks with people who spend six, seven, eight years or more to get a degree in this field.
Q: How profitable is this business?
A: I will not like to give amounts or turnover for a lot of reasons but like I said when quality is the watchword, you don’t calculate profits. Since I started out on my own 12 years ago, I still don’t have a house to call mine. The good thing is that it provides daily bread.
OLUWATONI AJAYI
18 November 2008 13:53hi aunty what are you going to give me for my birthday gift if you don’t know i want a bick a scooter and a rollerblader choose one and thk you for the choclate