Igbo Wikimedia User Group Decries Absence of Dental Hospitals, Products in Wikipedia

By Praise Chinecherem

Igbo Wikimedia User Group has expressed worry over absence of Nigerian dental clinics, products in Wikipedia.

Event Management Officer Igbo Wikimedia User Group, Okoloneli Chekwube Anselm stated this in Awka, Anambra State during an event to commemorate 2025 World Oral Health Day Celebration with Igbo Wikimedia User Group.

The event held at Kenneth Dike Library, Awka, Anambra State, was themed, “Enhancing Oral Health Information Accessibility in Nigeria through Wikidata Expansion and Igbo Language Localization”

According to Okoloneli, the event was an opportunity to create awareness and sensitize community members on importance of having quality good oral hygiene to live longer and healthier lives.

He said, “For us in Wikipedia, part of our mission is to promote and preserve Igbo culture, heritage and language.

“It’s quite disappointing that no Nigerian dental clinic can be found in Wikipedia. Our dental products like toothpaste and brushes as well as our dentists are missing in the platform.

“We want to document our dental hospitals, products and other data on wikidata. That’s exactly the duty of Wikipedia Igbo user group.
“By documenting these data, we’re assisting dentists and other stakeholders in the industry have online presence for the outside world to access.

“Remember, Wikipedia is the third most viewed sites globally. Just imagine when you have your company on Wikipedia and number of persons that will view it and patronize them.”

Okoloneli added, “Oral health is an essential component of overall well-being that is often overlooked.

“This project aims to leverage World Oral Health Day to significantly expand the representation of Nigerian dental professionals and facilities on Wikidata.

“Through a focused edit-a-thon, we will create new Wikidata items, enriching existing data, and translate item descriptions into the Igbo language.

“This initiative directly addresses the critical need for improved access to health information in Nigeria while simultaneously supporting the Wikimedia 2030 strategic direction of knowledge equity and language diversity.”

While identifying ignorance as one of the major challenges of an average Nigerian citizen, Okoloneli said the event is targeted at bridging health knowledge and language gap through the data upload which would be both in English and Ibo.

He urged residents to take proper care of their oral health and hygiene, just as he enjoined them to keep on editing with Wikipedia, stressing that, “knowledge is power.”

“t’s a bad thing for an adult for people to be pissed off by the odour oozing out of your mouth. Today, we had up to ten new editors who we’ve trained and they were happy to have identified with us.”