A former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, has called on the federal and state governments to deploy resources in the fight against cervical cancer as being done in the COVID-19 battle.
He also called for a national policy on the prevention and eradication of cervical cancer in Nigeria.
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Obasanjo spoke on Wednesday at his Penthouse located within the premises of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, shortly after he was decorated as the presidential ambassador by the Cervical Cancer-Free Nigeria (CCFN) led by Senator Lanre Tejuoso.
The CCFN, which is co-led by Global Oncology (GO), a non-profit foundation, and the Legislative Initiative for Sustainable Development (LISDEL) is a grassroots initiative to eliminate cervical cancer in Nigeria.
The top personalities in the team were – Commissioners for Health in Ogun and Lagos States, Dr Tomi Coker and Prof Akin Abayomi respectively as well as the President of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Abimbola Ogunbanjo.
In his remarks, Obasanjo said both the federal and state governments must deploy all available resources to fight cervical cancer as they had fought polio, COVID-19 and other diseases.
He also urged the federal government to invest in national-scale procurement and distribution of HPV vaccine to fight Human PapillomaVirus (HPV) the virus responsible for cervical cancer.
Obasanjo said the HPV vaccine must be available for every Nigerian girl child to prevent the spread of cervical cancer in the country.
He said, “What gladdens my heart initially is that cervical cancer is not like malaria and the reason we haven’t made much success in the fight against malaria, is that it is something that affects the temperate zones of the world.
“But this one (cervical cancer), it affects black and white, so they will make sure that whatever research they are making, is focused on women all over the world.
“But our own scientists have their own role to play because there may be variants of the virus that are particular to our own people. And if that is the case, we have to get the vaccine that will deal with our own variants of this virus.
“We should make it clear that the vaccine is free of any adverse effect and in fact, rather than stop children production, it encourages it.
“Wherever I go now, I will talk cervical cancer,” Obasanjo said.
In his remarks, Tejuoso disclosed that 8,000 women die yearly of Cervical cancer.
He noted that the NGO rallied Obasanjo’s support to lead the cervical cancer advocacy in Nigeria and at the global scene.
Ogunbanjo also vowed to mobilise the support of the private sector in the fight against the virus.
He also insisted that there was a need for “bold and decisive decisions” by policymakers to eradicate the cancer.
