By Chioma Obinna

On this year’s World Cancer Day, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa, CAPPA, has warned that Nigeria’s fight against cancer will fail without urgent reforms to the country’s food system, describing the disease as a fast-growing public health crisis driven by unhealthy diets, weak regulation, and aggressive marketing of harmful products.

Marking World Cancer Day 2026, themed “United by Unique,” the organisation said cancer is no longer a distant health threat but an escalating epidemic in Nigeria, with no fewer than 72,000 deaths annually and more than 120,000 new cases recorded each year, according to the National Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment.

CAPPA linked the rising burden of colorectal, breast and prostate cancers not only to genetic and environmental factors but increasingly to what Nigerians eat and how food is produced and marketed.
“We urge the government to place renewed focus on strengthening its healthy food policies and to implement proactive measures to curb this public health crisis by fixing the cracks in our food system that are contributing to the rising burden of cancer and non-communicable diseases,” the group stated.

CAPPA identified those cracks as the unrestricted marketing and growing consumption of ultra-processed foods, weak regulation of tobacco and emerging nicotine products, and excessive intake of sugar-sweetened beverages and salt, all major risk factors for cancer and other non-communicable diseases.

The organisation called for wide-ranging policy reforms, including stricter regulation of tobacco and nicotine products, an upward review of the tobacco control budget, and the development of a national guideline to reduce salt consumption, with mandatory salt targets for processed and pre-packaged foods.

It also urged government to review the sugar-sweetened beverage tax from the current N10 per litre to 50 per cent of the final retail price of sugary drinks, restrict the marketing of unhealthy foods to children, and establish clear nutrition standards in schools, hospitals and other public institutions.

Describing tobacco as one of the biggest preventable cancer risks, CAPPA demanded full implementation of the National Tobacco Control Act and the inclusion of new and emerging nicotine products in the ban on all forms of tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.

“Higher tobacco excise taxes adjusted for inflation and strict enforcement against illicit tobacco and nicotine products trade are critical,” the group added.

CAPPA also commended the Federal Government’s plan to earmark pro-health taxes for cancer prevention and care, noting that such measures could help reduce out-of-pocket healthcare spending.
The organisation warned that Nigeria’s fragile health system cannot cope with the rising cancer burden, citing media reports that the country has only about 40,000 doctors serving more than 200 million people.

“Nigeria cannot treat its way out of the cancer crisis. Prevention-focused policies, especially those related to tobacco, food and alcohol, offer perhaps the biggest and most cost-effective gains. When combined with early detection, health financing and accountability, they can save thousands of lives each year,” CAPPA said.

The group urged federal and state governments to make cancer control a development priority, stressing that decisive action on food and health policies will determine whether the country reverses the trend or faces an even deadlier future.