Nigeria’s robotics surgeon, Iweala, makes history with robotic spinal surgery

Tony Okoh, Uyo

President Bola Tinubu’s supporter, Dr Josef Onoh has embraced Dr Uchechi Iweala, the Nigerian-America Surgeon, who was the first to break records for being the first surgeon to perform a robotic spinal surgery in Maryland, USA.

The 37-year-old Dr Iweala successfully performed a navigated lumbar spinal fusion using a robot, the first in the history of mankind in the USA.

Dr Iweala is a renowned orthopedic surgeon specializing in spine surgery who graduated from Harvard College, earning an MD/MBA from Harvard Medical School and Harvard Business School. He had residency training in orthopedic surgery at George Washington University and Fellowship-trained in spine surgery at New York University/NYU Langone Medical Center.

He was Board-certified by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery and a Member of the Lumbar Spine Research Society and North American Spine Society. He currently practices at Metro Orthopedics & Sports Therapy in Potomac, Maryland and is affiliated with hospitals including Johns Hopkins Howard County Medical Center, Holy Cross Germantown Hospital, and Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center.

Born to Nigerian-America Neurosurgeon, Ikemba, from Ohuhu-Umuahia 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, sadly, that since the independence of Nigeria, the youths were told how the young would be the leaders of tomorrow, how education was the greatest asset, but that the golden words never came true.

“The young 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 honored looters and despised achievers. We created a new generation of aggressive youths without hope of a better tomorrow, stained with tribal sentiment and without vision beyond the electoral ballot box.

“Until young men like Dr. Ikemba Iweala and very few others like him became a beacon of hope and achieved greater heights that are higher than becoming a president of a nation, but rather becoming the new messiah of humanity. I’m glad to be alive to see the new John the Baptist of medical science and humanity.”