14th July, 2021
By Adejoke Adeleye, Abeokuta
Former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has been appointed the Presidential Ambassador for Cervical Cancer Free Nigeria Campaign.
Obasanjo was appointed to led the campaign against cervical cancer in Nigeria children by Global Oncology (GO).
Obasanjo, while addressing the delegate who came to confirm him as the presidential ambassador for the campaign at his Pent House in Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) Abeokuta, Ogun State said that their first responsibility was advocacy “because this is a disease that can kill and that is killing women, but it can be prevented.
“The vaccine which is called HPV is available and we are told it has been available for more than 15 years.
The next thing is, if the vaccine is available and we know it is available, is it accessible? And if it is accessible, is it affordable? These are issues that again we have to look into.”
Obasanjo said there should be a policy at the national and at the State level.
He said, “Vaccine was not there when I was in government, if it was, it wasn’t 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 thing, which is eradicating this decease which is preventable and treatable. That must be part of our responsibility as ambassadors.
“How do we get all these three or four points that are important – availability, accessibility and affordability? 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 done as much in malaria fight is that it is only located in our part of the world, it is something that affects the temperate zones of the world.
“But this one, it affects black and white, so they will make sure that whatever research they are making, is focused on women all over the world.”
He, however, implored Nigerian scientist to do more research as regarding what kind of vaccine would suit the people.
“Our own 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, encourage it,” he said.
Obasanjo, however, promised to always campaign against Cervical cancer everywhere he went whenever giving opportunity to talk since he has been made the campaign president.
The Cervical Cancer-Free Nigeria (CCFN) campaign was launched in 2019, a Grassroots initiative to eliminate cervical cancer in Nigeria and its vaccine has been in existence for about 15 years now.
According to Senator Lanre Tejuosho, the chairman of the campaign, Cervical cancer killed over 8,000 women yearly, and that every girl child between the age of 9-15 are expected to be vaccinated before becoming victim.