The Minister of Health, Dr Onyebuchi? Chukwu, has announced plans by the Federal Government to build 10 Cancer Care Centres in the country's six geo-political zones.
Chukwu made the announcement on Wednesday at a lecture, in Lagos, organised by the African Cancer Centre.
He was represented by the Chief Medical Director of the? Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Prof. Akin Oshibogun.
The minister said that the Federal Government was willing to collaborate with civil society groups, NGOs and well-meaning individuals to reduce the burden of cancer on Nigerians.
He said that the Ministry of Health would be delighted to work with the African Cancer Centre to adequately look after persons living with cancer, as well as offer preventive measures against the disease.
“The Ministry will be delighted to work with the African Cancer Centre to reduce the burden of cancer in Nigeria, while the Federal Government will establish Cancer Centres across the country.
“This is part of the Federal Government's efforts in strengthening the diagnosis and treatment of cancer in Nigeria,’’ he said.
In his opening address, Gov. Babatunde Fashola, said that the Lagos State Government was committed to fighting cancer and other related diseases.
Fashola said that to partly demonstrate its commitment, the state government planned to construct a medical village in Eti-Osa local government to handle complex diseases, one of which is cancer.
He said that the state government would attract more than 20,000 Nigerian doctors in the diaspora to the project, to ensure its efficiency and effectiveness.
“We hope to attract some of the 20,000 Nigerian doctors in the diaspora to be part of this project.
“We will give them the land to build medical facilities at subsidised costs and partner with them in such a way that complex ailments such as cancer are effectively taken care of,’’ he said.
The Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, who delivered the lecture, entitled “Cancerous lifestyles: Between Dogmatism and Fatalism,’’ urged the adoption of a less-dogmatic approach when trying to dissuade people from doing things that pre-disposed them to cancer.
He said that the mentality of finding a thing intensely attractive, just because it had been termed forbidden, was what most people adopted when it came to cancer-causing factors.
Soyinka added that some people would rather live a cancerous lifestyle than succumb to the dogmatism of the dos and don’ts of cancer.
He said that a person who was an addict of cancer-causing habits, such as smoking, should be challenged through pride by making him or her believe that he or she had become a slave to cigarettes.
Soyinka said that the will to want to reject the dependence on such habits would motivate a person to quit the habits, thereby reducing the cancer scourge in the country.