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Tayo Olanipekun
The First Lady of Ondo State, Arabirin Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu, has again called for the establishment of a National Policy on Cancer Control in Nigeria.
Speaking in Abuja at the International CSOs Cancer Conference (ICCC) 2017, an event by Civil Society for Cancer Eradication in Nigeria, Mrs. Akeredolu stressed the need for medical practitioners to adopt global best practices when it comes to the management and control of cancer.
She said Nigerians are left without help when it comes to surviving cancer and it is important to push government to take the lead in cancer control through advocacy as obtainable in many other parts of the world where government through policy plays critical role in reducing cancer incidence and deaths.
The conference was themed Bridging the Gap between medical practitioner and CSOs in the global fight against cancer.
Mrs. Akeredolu said to address the situation, there should be budget appropriation for cancer control at the federal and state level as well as the establishment of state owned comprehensive cancer centers. She stressed that though the incidence of cancer appears low,many Nigerians are bound to die more than those in western countries where cancer incidence is higher.
Her words: “Many of you must have had the opportunity to interact or network or even attend conferences of some of these international organization and you know we have a continuum on cancer control which starts with awareness, prevention, early detection, diagnosis, palliative care and so on.
“According to WHO, every year there are about 100,000 new cases of cancer in Nigeria and it is estimated that by year 2020 the incidence rates will be 100.9/100,000 for women and 90.7/100.000 for men, If you look at the incidence rate and compare those figures with what obtains in western world, you may say well the incidence is quite low but we are more likely to die from cancer than those in the western country where the incidence is higher if you look at our death rate”, she lamented while questioning why the pattern has not changed over the years since her winning her own battle against cancer 20 years ago.
“I have been in this fight for over 20 years now – what are we all doing? Why is it that the pattern hasn’t changed? These are some of the questions we should begin to ask ourselves. We have been told to be serious about cancer control. I don’t think we have been doing really well when it comes to the area of prevention – if we are honest with ourselves. And that could be linked to paucity of funds. Another thing is logistics- it might sound simple but how are we going to get to these rural area to create these awareness.”
