“40 Nigerian women die every day of breast cancer (a cancer that can be cured if detected early); one Nigerian woman dies every hour of cervical cancer (a cancer that is virtually 100 per cent preventable); 26 Nigerian men die daily of prostrate cancer (another cancer that can be cured if detected early); 32 Nigerian dies every day of liver cancer (a cancer that is preventable through vaccination); and one Nigerian dies every two hours of colon cancer (another cancer that is virtually 100 per cent preventable).” – International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
The art of selfless giving is one value that we have gradually lost as a people. The ideal of giving back to the society that has made us who we are is not a thought that resonates with many Nigerians. Many generous people have selfish personal motives behind their giving, such as the desire for public recognition and honour. As a result of our warped values and the poor standard of living, the craze for acquiring wealth at the expense of others has led many people to consider their welfare as being the most important thing in their hierarchy of needs and values. That is why contemporary Nigerian society is a distorted space, “a paradise for maggots” (to borrow the words of Wale Adebanwi in his book by the same title) where greed, selfishness, corruption and lack of compassion are the forces that drive human relationships. People want to amass wealth that neither they nor their children’s children will ever need, without any regard for the welfare of others. As long as they have what they want, the rest of the society can go to hell. No wonder the spirit and culture of philanthropy has virtually died in our land.
In 2012 Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP-Nigeria), was born as an initiative of the organized private sector with the mission of inspiring and challenging Nigerians across political, social, economic, religious and cultural divides, to unite in finding innovative ways of solving unmet societal needs. The idea is that if our life choices were re-aligned with the ethics of love, kindness and compassion, our society would become a better place. One area that CECP-Nigeria has made its voice heard and its action seen is the area of combating all forms of cancer, which has over the years decimated the lives of thousands of Nigerians.
A few months ago, the National Cancer Prevention Programme (NCPP) noted that about 80,000 Nigerians die from various forms of cancer on a yearly basis largely due to late detection and treatment. For a sane society where human life has value this figure is frightening. One would naturally expect that over the years wealthy Nigerians and people of goodwill would come together to look for ways of fighting the scourge of cancer and other deadly diseases that are devastating the lives of our people. But not in Nigeria! This is because we have largely lost our collective sense of human sensitivity to the plights of others. Headlines of deaths no longer move us. What does not affect us personally as individuals or families has ceased to concern us. That is why crass individualism, a mentality of “me, myself and I” is the distorted value system that rules among us. Life is made to look like a fierce contest where the strongest gets the prize.
In May 2010, former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua died of lung cancer at the age of 58. In December 2009, Maryam Babangida, wife of a former military Head of State, died in Los Angeles hospital at the age of 61 after battling with Ovarian Cancer. In November 2012, Chief Olusola Saraki, second republic Senate President and father of the current Senate President, died at the age of 79 in Lagos after battling with cancer for 5 years. In 2012, Clara Oshiomhole, wife of Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole died of cancer at the age of 54. In May 2008, Nigeria’s music legend Chief Sunny Okosun died of Colon Cancer at the age of 61 at Howard University Hospital, Washington DC. Gani Fawehinmi, one of Nigeria’s finest lawyers, died in September 2009 after a protracted battle with lung cancer at the age of 71. In June 2014 Prof Dora Akunyili, former NAFDAC boss and pharmacologist of international repute died in an Indian hospital after battling with cancer. She was 59.
There is also Funmilayo Olayinka an accomplished banker and politician who died of cancer in April 2013 at the age of 55, while serving as Deputy Governor of Ekiti State. Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti, a renowned medical doctor and human rights activist died in LUTH in February 2006 after suffering from complications of lung cancer. Alex Ibru, founder and publisher of The Guardian died in November 2011 at the age of 66 from colon cancer. Other prominent Nigerians worth mentioning include former Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, AlhajiAbdulazeezArisekola-Alao, Remi Abiola, Remi Osholake, Yinka Craig, Taiwo Bello, Sam Ojebode, Alima Atta, Roseline Ogbemudia, Evangelist Bimpe Oluwayose-Sorinolu, Cassandra Gabriel, and Alaere Alaibe who died at various times from different kinds of cancer.
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Let us ask ourselves: Are these deaths not enough for us to make the battle against cancer and other deadly diseases a national health emergency? In civilized societies, the death of such prominent persons on account of cancer would raise a lot of questions about the quality of medical healthcare and the capacity of medical research institutions to promote the growth of knowledge in preventive medicine. But not in Nigeria! If many prominent Nigerians who had the financial resources to seek medical help abroad could still succumb to cancer, we can imagine the fate of millions of ordinary Nigerians who lack the wherewithal to go for medical treatment outside the country.This is where CECP-Nigeria comes in to raise public awareness and enlightenment about cancer, pressing governments and individuals to take action on this ‘silent killer’ disease that is needlessly taking a heavy toll on human life in our country.
With all the wealth in this nation, there is no conceivable reason why cancer should be decimating our population the way it is doing. We have more than enough resources to build world-class hospitals and medical research centres in each state of our nation to checkmate this tide, but greed, selfishness and corruption have stood in the way of our collective progress. With the poor state of our medical health facilities in this country, unless we take proactive action cancer will continue to swallow the lives of Nigerians.
December 1st is #GivingTuesday. This is a global day set aside for giving thanks. It is a day in the year when charities, businesses, community centres and students around the world come together for one common purpose: to celebrate generosity and to give. Whether it is making a donation, volunteering your time or just spreading the word at the start of the Christmas shopping season, #GivingTuesday is a call to action for everyone who wants to give something back. The simple idea is to encourage people, charities and businesses to donate time, money or their voice to help a good cause.
As part of a global celebration of a new tradition of generosity, in this year’s #GivingTuesday, CECP-Nigeria is mobilising philanthropic Nigerians and people of goodwill to donate towards the acquisition of 37 Mobile Cancer Centres (MCCs) in each State of the Federation and the FCT, to facilitate early diagnosis and treatment of cancer. This will scale-up the ongoing life-saving campaigns of NCPP, a non-governmental initiative, which has made the first major national effort towards the control of cancer in Nigeria since 2007. However, with 37 MCCs we would still be scratching the surface. For instance, in the United States alone there are over 2000 mobile health units in addition to 1500 Comprehensive Cancer Centres focused exclusively on cancer care. There is also the American Cancer Society, a voluntary health organization, which has been playing a pioneering role in the fight against cancer in America. This society has three million passionate volunteers on its list, and an annual budget of $1 billion, raised mainly through these volunteers and private philanthropists. These efforts have significantly improved the cancer survival rate in America, with nearly 14 million cancer survivors currently in the US alone and more than 400 lives being saved daily from cancer.
According to the Executive Secretary of CECP-Nigeria, Dr Abia Nzelu, many other countries in the world have made significant strides in confronting the scourge of cancer. “Even developing countries like India, Egypt, Zambia, Mauritania, Tanzania, Pakistan, South Africa among others have CCC. In addition to having a world-class National Cancer Institute, as well as mobile cancer units, the Arab Republic of Egypt also has the largest children cancer centre in the world, which was built and is still being sustained solely by donations. India has over 120 CCCs, mostly established with the support of the private sector. Bangalore, an Indian city with a population of eight million has four CCCs whilst Nigeria, with a population of 170 million has no single Comprehensive Cancer Centre. Moreover, there is no full-fledged MCC in Nigeria.”
There are many wealthy Nigerians that can single handedly procure one MCC each without batting an eyelid. Why are they not doing so? The answer is that our society is suffering from compassion fatigue. Many people are tired of doing good for the benefit of promoting human wellbeing. That is why CECP-Nigeria is in the vanguard of waking us up from moral lethargy, so that we can live up to the ethical demands of our social responsibility of giving back to the society that has made us who we are. The key to ending the scourge of cancer in Nigeria is in our hands. We have the human, financial and social capital to make cancer history in Nigeria. We have a historic moral duty to do this, for the sake of the youth of today and for the children who will be born tomorrow. We must make sure that our present does not become their future.
There is a story that the father of Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin, saved a young Winston Churchill from drowning, and in gratitude Churchill’s father paid for Fleming’s education. Years afterward, the nobleman’s son as Prime Minister of England was stricken with pneumonia. What saved him was the Penicillin discovered by the son of the poor Scottish farmer and father of Alexander Fleming. The generosity that goes around comes around.
Ojeifo is a Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Abuja ([email protected])
