Nigeria’s health challenge is far above the current COVID-19 pandemic. The country is bedeviled by the rising cases of cancer. There have been calls by various bodies for the government to invest more attention and resources in tackling cancer just as it focus on curbing the spread of COVID-19. To this call, the Federal Government in 2019 through the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire said a Cancer Treatment Fund that would be driven by investment or donation to cater for cancer patients in the country is in the offing.
According to the Minister, the fund “can be driven by any method that takes you beyond the point where health insurance cannot cover anymore in your treatment.” Prior before COVID-19, the treatment of cancer is expensive as cancer patients have to depend on donations and life savings since there is barely any assistance from the government. Many patients rely on foreign aid and fund raising through social media.
According to the World Health Organization, Nigeria in 2018 had a total number of 115,950 cases of cancer and over 50% death caused by cancer in the same year with 70,327. What have made cancer more deadly in the country is the lack of medical cover and the high rate of poverty in the country.
We are aware that the Federal Government through the National Cancer Control Plan (NCCP) set out with priorities to guide cancer control initiative in the country within five years (2018-2022). The NCCP is expected to be implemented by the National Cancer Control Programme. The Federal Ministry of Health, the 36 states and the federal Capital Territory including development partners are expected to be responsible for the implementation of the plan.
The various states of the country are expected to develop yearly operational plans that feed into the NCCP while the NCCP would support the states with monitoring and evaluation to ensure accountability.
We wondered how the country, with this promising initiative, still record 57% of new cases and 65% of deaths annually from cancer. It is unfortunate that the government at both the states and the federal level continue to pay lips service to health challenge affecting the country.
The high rate of new cases and death contributes to medical tourism in the country. But with the poverty level when most Nigerians cannot afford the cost of traveling overseas for treatment, they resolve to fate and the little they can get from the already weak health system.
The Federal government therefore needs to revisit the NCCP with the genuine resolution to invest financial resources into the programme in order to reduce the rate at which lives of Nigerians are cut short. More also, since the Honourable Minister of Health spoke publicly about the Cancer Treatment Fund, nothing have been heard about it. The government needs to rise above lips service. Nigerians are dying.
