James Ogunnaike – Abeokuta

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Wednesday advocated for a national policy for the eradication of cervical cancer in Nigeria.

The former President, who made the call when he played host to delegates of the Cervical Cancer-Free Nigeria (CCFN), led by Senator Lanre Tejuoso, at his Penthouse located within the premises of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, 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.

Obasanjo who was appointed as the Presidential Ambassador for Global Oncology during the visit, 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.

The former President said, the HPV vaccine must be available and accessible to every Nigerian girl child to prevent the spread of cervical cancer in the country.

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Obasanjo said, “Our first responsibility is advocacy, that yes, this is a disease that can kill and that is killing our women, but it can be prevented.

“The starting point for me is that we need a policy at the national and at the State levels to eradicate this disease”.

“Vaccine was not there when I was in government, if it was, it was not brought to my notice because then we would have had a policy, now we should appeal to government at national and State levels to have a policy for this particular type of things, which is eradicating this decease which is preventable and which is treatable. That must be part of our responsibility as ambassadors”.

“Polio was not left to government alone, but the first thing that was done was the policy, government had a policy and government used all the available means – traditional rulers, native doctors, women, community leaders, civil societies, development partners, private sector and every resource available even vaccine manufacturers, we used all the available resources”.

“What gladdens my heart initially is that, cervical cancer is not like malaria and the reason why we haven’t made much in success in 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 scientists have their own role to play, because there maybe 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 encourage it.

“Wherever I go now, I will talk cervical cancer.

“I do hope that in our policy or whatever we do, we should also have a timeline something that will give us incentive to say we want to achieve this at such and such a time and then we move on in that”.

Chief Abimbola Ogunbanjo, a Global Ambassador to the CCFN campaign said despite the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, CCFN cannot neglect other health priorities like cervical cancer.

He noted that the HPV vaccine has existed for more than 15 years and has become a standard, routine vaccine in many countries of the world, pointing out that over 270 million doses of the HPV vaccine have been distributed worldwide.

He assured that, ” the HPV vaccine is time-tested, effective, and, most importantly, safe.

“Cervical cancer elimination is possible, but we need to be bold and decisive by ensuring both supply of and demand for the HPV vaccine in Nigeria”.

“We need stakeholders from all sectors–public, private, and civil–to join us in this fight to work toward a future when no Nigerian daughter, mother, or sister dies from cervical cancer. We cannot achieve this ambitious goal alone. Therefore, we are thankful for the partnership of Global Oncology”.

Vanguard News Nigeria