The Nation Newspaper

Tag: cancer centres

  • Our Girls; Cancer centres; Road probes; Guesstimated census

    Our girls from Chibok were kidnapped on April 15, 2014. Inexplicably Our Dapchi girl-child, 15, Leah Sharibu is not released. Why?

    Both Aretha Franklin and John McCain had magnificent but beautifully different funeral events, after the best cancer care. Nigerian cancer patients suffer deprivations though Nigerian politicians shamelessly pay themselves the highest salaries and perks worldwide but rarely offer world class medical facilities to the citizens on whom they prey.

    Life is serious for citizens. This week alone I have seen three 20 year olds with breast, colon and ovarian cancer and far too many other patients in need of care that eludes them because they have insufficient funds or face inadequate government medical facilities due to corrupt reduction in health budgets, theft or misplaced unchallenged developmental priorities!

    Politicians selfishly forget their responsibility until one is afflicted by a disease that affects thousands with no funding! Then the politicians approve flying the fellow politician abroad at the people’s expense. Citizens are not pebbles to be trodden under politicians’ feet or dogs waiting for crumbs from the National Assembly (NASS) table. They are real desperate humans maliciously denied their right to good medical services by kleptomaniacal theft of trillions since pre-1999 by a wretchedly selfish ruling class refusing to have a powerful watchdog financial system, supervised banking, civil servant and contractor classes now steeped in bribes and 10-70% kickback sleaze pathology! Instead of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) investing directly in medical and cancer facilities, it put N150b in non-medical banks and shady fund-managers. Could this be for corruption-driven ‘finder’s fees’?

    Vote only for politicians in 2019 who present concrete development plans to decentralise health care and particularly cancer care to states!

    Please search www for ‘Attorney General dies’. The AG of Gombe State died at 58, Spain’s AG died at 66, Tasmanian AG died at 48, and now the AG of Rivers State died in London of cancer of the colon. In a typical knee jerk reaction, some governors have ‘magnanimously’ proposed an ‘Immediate Effect’ ‘Cancer Centre’. A Cancer Centre in UK where Nigerian politicians, and Nigeria patients, jet to for cancer treatment, can cost the British £25to £160m.

    Nigeria can only establish such cancer centres with a major government mind-set change, prioritizing cancer care and if Nigeria stops corruption dead, doing like Prof Ishaq Oloyede did with N14,000,000,000 ‘Excess of JAMB Fees Over Examination Expenses Revenue’. A corruption-free government will then use the un-stolen money for the people generally and medical cancer tourism. The governors’ cancer centre may never materialise. Remember Prof WoleSoyinka reported the frustration NASS and the Ministry of Health visited on late Professor Femi Williams who died aged 81 years spearheading a cancer centre in Lekki Lagos. Hardly any serious professional idea passes through the corrupt political/civil service/contractor approval system without crippling compromise destroying its goals and any development outcome and killing patients.

    For more than 40 years, the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, has demanded decentralization from the traditional sixregional teaching hospitals of the specialized ‘Cervical PAP smears, Ultrasound, Mammography, MRI, CT Scan, PET Scan and the Laboratory Histopathology and Cancer Screening Bloodwork Investigation’ and also the ‘Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy Treatments, the Monitoring and Terminal Care of Cancer Survivors’.

    Every one of the 36 state capitals need cancer care facilities ‘within easy reach of the state citizens’ – a right which when denied force so many to die prematurely or find money to go to India for medial tourism –a very sick word for a patient traveling with a cancer!!! Imagine if the senators, three per state, planned a senatorial cancer centre instead of the fake ‘Constituency Projects’ amounting to N100+b annually, which since 1999 have left no trace in 2018 – 19 years later!!! Shame!! Such cancer centres would ease access, minimise life and family disruption and emotional upheaval, aid early cancer diagnosis and ensure quick and easy access to treatment. It is agony witnessing patients travelling 600km to receive ‘lonely cancer care’ with few relations in 2018 or are told to come back or the heart-breaking news to never return because the cancer is too advanced or the machine has broken down!! True stories!!!

    You have no idea the job disruption and financial cost to the family member[s] accompanying a cancer victim to a regional centres. Governors preside over 2-12million people, bigger than 20 countries, and do not provide state-based cancer services. This is a total dereliction of duty and abandoned responsibility. Is it not just because a friend/AG died of cancer that governors suddenly think of a cancer centre? We in medicine pray for such centres, but only politicians and governors have arrogated financial power to authorize them. Mr Governors, your people have been dying from cancer and you did nothing. Any hope?

    A Channels TV picture showing a DamaturuYobe State eroded road reveals that only laterite, no stones, were used as underlay- faulty design, faulty supervision, corruption and collusion with the contractor?  The Nigerian Society of Engineers’ investigation committee and EFCC should investigate collapsed roads as they should collapsed bridges, building and crashed planes.

    Who believes the population figures? Guesstimated census! We parrot ‘fake’ census figures. Our National Population Commission, NPC, has failed to pass the integrity test and will not be believed. ECN, PHCN and successors invented the corrupt ‘Guesstimated Bill’, a hyper-inflated imagined amount designed to destabilise and force the meter owner to pay a bribe. Reduce figure by 30%.

    Uncover ‘I LOVE NIGERIA’ KNOWLEDGEABLE CANDIDATES for 2019 -SDG 16.

  • Ambode raises fund to establish three cancer centres in Lagos

    Ambode raises fund to establish three cancer centres in Lagos

    Lagos State Governor Akinwumi Ambode has urged residents to donate funds towards the establishment of three mobile cancer centres.

    The governor made the appeal yesterday at an event to mark his 53rd birthday and investiture as the first state patron of the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy, Nigeria (CECP) at Lagos House, Ikeja.

    He said the war against cancer would be addressed in phases, adding that the first phase of the war involves raising funds to procure the 37 mobile cancer centres for the 36 states, including the FCT.

    “I am glad to throw my weight behind this initiative, particularly due to the impact the initiative will have on the society. I believe that we can all work together to advance the big war against cancer in the country,” the governor said.

    He explained that the initiative would focus on raising funds to procure one MCC in Lagos.

    Ambode called for more support from residents to raise funds for three of the centres that will be established in the state’s three senatorial districts.

    “I must commend those philanthropists, who have donated to ensure the purchase of the first 10 MCC. I am delighted to support this initiative.

    “The purpose of this day is to raise funds to procure one MCC for Lagos. I must challenge us not only to donate to the procurement of one MCC but towards the procurement of three MCC for the three senatorial districts in Lagos. This will help us save millions of Nigerians from the cancer scourge.”

    He urged everyone to support the initiative by donating saying without donation, the war against cancer would not be achieved.

    He expressed the readiness of his administration to mobilise philanthropists and corporate organisations towards establishing a comprehensive cancer centre in Lagos within the next three years.

    The governor added that he would make available a piece of land in any part of the state as well as facilitate speedy paper work.

    “This is not really a celebration but a call to service. Against all odds; against all the things happening to the economy in the country; against the numbers; against the anxieties and the panic, we are still able to stand up and gather ourselves together and say we want to give back to humanity. That is symbolic and key for me and I think we must commend ourselves that all hope is not lost. There is more value to us and humanity in championing this course,” he said.

    Dr. Christopher Kolade, anchor of CECP-Nigeria, hailed the governor for accepting the request that his birthday be dedicated towards raising funds to fight cancer as well as accepting to be the first governor to be inducted as the state patron of CECP.

    A board member of CECP, Mrs. Maiden Ibru, stated that combating the cancer scourge should be a concern to all, including private and corporate individuals.

    Ambode was later decorated as the state patron of CECP by the organisation’s convener, Mrs. Adetutu Adeleke.

  • Cancer centres and cancer machines

    It was good news. A November 26 report said: “There is hope for cancer patients at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi Araba, as its Linear Accelerator (LINAC) machine will soon be repaired.”

    This information followed: “The machine broke down in the first week of July because of adulterated diesel. Also damaged were two generators in the cancer department and the one at K Block.”  This means the LINAC has been of no use in the last four months.

    The report quoted a source who said: “Our worry here at LUTH is that nothing has been done to the supplier of the diesel either by the management or the Federal Government. The Federal Government should unmask him before further damage is done.”

    If “adulterated diesel” is responsible for the disruption, it should be possible to find out who supplied the contaminated product, shouldn’t it?

    So, who did?  Is it true that “nothing has been done to the supplier”? The relevant authorities need to clear the air.

    The Managing Director of JNCI, which is handling the repair, Mrs. Clare Omatseye, was quoted as saying: “Our priority now is to get the LINAC working straight away because we use it for a minimum of 82 to 100 patients daily. The Federal Government and LUTH community are concerned about the damaged machine.”  It is worth noting the number of patients said to benefit from the LINAC daily, under normal circumstances. In reverse, it could be said that the same number of patients have not benefited from the LINAC in the last four months, given the abnormal circumstances.

    The report said: “Of the eight cancer machines in the country, only the ones in Abuja and Sokoto are functional. A source at LUTH said many cancer patients have died because they could not go to Abuja or Sokoto.”

    This lamentable picture reflects official neglect.  It is condemnable. It suggests that the country’s public health system is in poor health. The report quoted Head of Department Prof. Remi Ajekigbe:  “We have recommended to the government that no cancer centre should have less than two cancer machines.” In that case, Hardball may ask: what is the government waiting for?

  • Nigeria Stock Exchange, CECP mobilise for mobile cancer centres

    Nigeria Stock Exchange, CECP mobilise for mobile cancer centres

    In a bid to help reduce the cancer rate in the country, The Nigeria Stock Exchange in collaboration with The Committee Encouraging Corporate Philantrophy (CECP) Nigeria, has pledged to purchase mobile cancer centres, across the 36 states of the federation. Disclosing this in Lagos recently at a press briefing as part of the count down to the National Cancer Week, Mr. Bola Adeeko, the Head, Corporate Affairs, NSE, stated that as a good corporate citizen, it was necessary to join forces with CECP and other stakeholders in the fight against cancer, as health ‘is part of their corporate social responsibility.’

    Also speaking, Dr Abia Nzelu, the executive secretary, CECP, who enjoined every Nigerian to unite in the fight against cancer, noted that the mobile cancer centres will help to reach out to every Nigerian, especially those in the rural areas. She added that the mobile centres which will be well equipped, will provide facilities for screening, that will help to detect cancer earlier. And early detection she said, is the key to  prevention and cure of cancer. She said about 8.2 million people die of cancer yearly and there are 100,000 new cases of cancer every year in Nigeria. “But with mobile cancer centres, there will be a drastic change, and reduction of cancer cases, since Nigeria does not have a comprehensive cancer centre,”Nzelu noted.

    The chairman of CECP, Prof Pat Utomi also in his remarks emphasised the need for every one to put hands together to fight cancer to bring it under control. “As a community, we are gifts to one another, hence the need to help each other,” he said. He also noted that with mobile cancer centre, the cost of the burden of Nigerians living with cancer will drop. “It will also reduce the amount we spend in other countries in getting treatment, and that will also help our economy to grow,” he said.

    Meanwhile, as part of activities marking the National Cancer Week, the Nigerian Stock Exchange in collaboration with CECP is organizing a corporate challenge for listed companies and the capital market community. This annual event is a 5 km race which is designed to raise funds for the Big War Vs Cancer in Nigeria. The proceeds will be donated towards the national drive aimed at providing Mobile Cancer Centers across Nigeria.