Nigeria’s Shinkafi-Bagudu Set to Emerge UICC President Today

•Flaunts intimidating resume

Martins Ifijeh

Kebbi State First Lady and Chief Executive Officer of Medicaid Cancer Foundation, Dr. Zainab Shinkafi-Bagudu, looks good to emerge president of the Union of International Cancer Control (UICC), as 1200 member-organisations go to election today to choose from three global health leaders, including a Swedish top brass and a Chinese oncologist.

UICC is the global body championing cancer advocacy with over 1200 member-organisations in 174 countries.

Aligning with the United Nations and the World Health Organisation’s goal, its aim is to unite and support the cancer community to reduce the global cancer burden, to promote greater equity, and to ensure that cancer control continues to be a priority in the world health and development agenda.

Stakeholders, however, believe that Shinkafi-Bagudu’s well-off resume in healthcare and outstanding record in cancer advocacy were enough to win her the election holding today in Geneva, Switzerland.

Although many people believe it is not going to a walkover for Shinkafi-Bagudu with the Secretary General of the Swedish Cancer Society, Ulrika Arehed Kagstrom and the President of China’s Anti-Cancer Association, Daiming Fan – two healthcare top brasses – in the race, she is believed to have paid her dues and fit for the office.

Shinkafi-Bagudu, who is also a serving board member with the UICC since 2018, has remained one of Africa’s most authoritative cancer policy experts for close to two decades.

Today’s election, which would be done virtually by the over 1200 member-organisations would see 23 outstanding global cancer advocacy leaders slug it out for different positions, including Board of Directorship, and then the presidency, which has generated interests among countries of the nominees.

In Shinkafi-Bagudu’s four year stint at the Board of UICC, she had expanded the organisation’s network in Nigeria and other African countries, has pushed for equality in cancer between high income countries and low income countries as is the case with African nations, and had lobbied Nigeria’s national and state assemblies for better policies and funding to support cancer care.

As a serving UICC board member, working closely with the present President and other board members, she played a role in UICC flagship activities such as the Access to Oncology Medicines (ATOM), Metastatic Breast Cancers and the Cervical Cancer elimination programme.

She was of the opinion that, Cervical Cancer Elimination in the Commonwealth presented an enviable opportunity for UICC to be a driver in the elimination agenda.

During a question and answer session with UICC in the build-up to today’s election, Shinkafi-Bagudu told the organisation that one of her reasons for vying for the top job was to use her experience, proven track record and with the support of member-organisations, drive a change that would eliminate global cancer inequities as well as dwarf the growing cancer incidents world over.

She further promised to focus on accessibility, affordability, and availability of the tools needed to fight the diseases if elected president of the union.