Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu

By Steve Dada

Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, Wednesday said the Federal Government had completed plans to upgrade about 10 cancer centres in the country to meet the challenges posed by the scourge of the disease that had claimed several lives in the past few years.

The minister, who spoke at the first annual lecture of the African Cancer Centre (ACC), noted that the problem posed by cancer to the health of Nigerians had become an issue of concern to the government.

Chukwu, who was represented by the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Prof. Akin Osibogun, said government alone cannot meet the healthcare needs of the people, stressing that this informed the need for government to go into partnership with any concerned group, which might be willing to assist government achieve its objectives.

He hinted that this was the reason why government decided to support ACC in its bid to tackle cancer scourge in the country.

Chukwu, who revealed that, both  President Goodluck Jonathan and the minister would have wish to be present at the lecture, explained that they couldn’t make it due to the Executive Council meeting  which took place yesterday, adding that the upgrading of cancer centres has been incorporated into this year’s budget.

Speaking earlier, the guest lecturer and nobel leaurate, Professor Wole Soyinka, recalled that cancer would enter into the body and attack an organ from which it would go into other organs such as the liver, the breast and lungs, and from there spread to other parts of the body and take over it. He likened cancer to corruption which according to him, had eaten deep into the fabric of the country’s political system.

According to the nobel laureate for Literature, traditional medicine could be potent in the cure of many diseases, but expressed worry that the alternative medicine is no more as potent as it was during the primordial times of our ancestors and wonder that it may not get to that level because medical doctors are business minded and may not have time for research into serious medical issues.

The Initiator of the ACC project, Professor Femi Williams, had said the cancer centre to be built “will be the first comprehensive cancer centre in Sub-Saharan black Africa dedicated to State-of-the-art cancer care and treatment, prevention and early detection, education and training and community outreach programmes for cancer patients and persons at risk for developing cancer.”

He further stated that the ACC will be an international centre of excellence and will be the premier regional centre for cancer treatment, management, training, education and research in Nigeria, which will be dedicated to improving the quality of cancer care for Nigerians and other Africans.