•As First Ladies Against Cancer doles out N1m to cancer patients

By ABUBAKAR YUSUF, Abuja

The Chief Medical Director, University of Abuja Teaching Hospital (UATH), Gwagwalada, Professor Bissala Ekele, says management of cancer patients has been an herculean task, both to the carriers and managers.

He therefore called for more supports from both government the international communities and Non-Governmental Organisation (NGOs) to assist in mitigating the high cost of treatment for cancer patients.

Professor Ekele made the call while receiving the Nigeria’s Governors Wives Forum under the aegis of the First Ladies Against Cancer (FLAC) led by its current chairperson, Dr Zainab Shinkafi Bagudu, wife of Kebbi State Governor and founder Medicaid, along with Erelu Bisi Fayemi, wife of Ekiti State Governor, who doubles as Chairperson of Nigerian Governors’ Wives Forum.

He commended the governors’ wives on their routine visits, passion, donations, advocacy to the hospital, as well as donations to indigent patients of cancer and malaria for their support and treatment, saying the visit of six of the governor's wives in a swoop was a memorable one.

Prof. Ekele said the hospital, with over 500-bed space, was operating at full capacity, adding that the governors’ wives, by their influence, could step up their interventions by attracting local and international donations.

The Chief Medical Director maintained that the support the hospital has enjoyed in the last three years, both from government at all levels, agencies and the private sector, if sustained, would affect the ongoing remodeling of the tertiary health institution positively.

He advised on the early detection, testing and treatment of cancer, as panacea to the debilitating effects of the ailment, saying the zeal of the Governors’ Wives Forum through FLAC was an encouragement to major health stakeholders in Nigeria.

Earlier, the Chairperson and wife of the Kebbi State Governor, Dr Zainab Shinkafi Bagudu, said FLAC was a think-tank convened by both former and serving Governors’ Wives, saying the anxiety of its abrupt winding down of its programme was not feasible, as the first timers among the current governors’ wives would continue from where the second timers would end by 2023.

She said that FLAC had intervened through the assessment of the 2021 Health Cancer Fund from the federal government to the tune of N700M in 2020, stating that, that of 2021 would soon be released to ameliorate the high cost of treatment of cancer patients in the country.

Aside from attracting government attention both at the local, state and federal levels, the body was determined to continue to attract such support both from local and international NGOs, as well as multinationals operating in Nigeria.

Also speaking, the Chairperson, Nigerian Governors’ Wives Forum, Erelu Bisi Fayemi, expressed the commitment of FLAC to continuing it its mission with zeal in extending succour to the needy in the society, particularly on the treatment of cancer patients.

She announced that among many other programmes of FLAC, was aggressive campaigns against Gender-Based Violence in the society, and the dreaded drug abuse among the people that have rendered the entire society vulnerable and exposed to all forms of criminal activities.

The programme attracted six governors’ wives, including the Chairperson of FLAC, Dr Zainab Shinkafi Bagudu, Erelu Bisi Fayemi of Ekiti State, wives of governors of Kwara, Benue, Ogun, and Adamawa states attended the occasion.

Highlights of the occasion included visits to the Oncology Ward of cancer patients and donation of N1M to 10 patients in the ward.

The governors’ wives also visited the female surgical ward and donated unspecified amounts of money to the patients in the ward.

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