Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP-Nigeria)[/caption]The Executive Secretary of the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP-Nigeria), Dr Abia Nzelu, has called on all stakeholders to commit adequate resources towards the acquisition of Mobile Cancer Centres (MCCs) across the country to facilitate cancer prevention through screening and early treatment at the grassroots.
She made this statement in Lagos while reacting to the recent deaths of some Nigerian public figures who were victims of the dreaded but preventable disease, cancer. These include: Prof Omo Omoruyi, the former Director- General of the Centre for Democratic Studies, who died of prostate cancer on the 13th of October, 2013; Mustapha Amego popularly known as Funky Mallam, one of Nigerian’s foremost entertainers and Former President of Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria (PMAN), who died of colon cancer on the 24th of October, 2013 and Vice Admiral Mike Okhai Akhigbe, Former Governor of Ondo and Lagos States, former Chief of Naval Staff and former Chief of Defence Staff and President of Nigerian’s Chamber of Shipping who died of throat cancer on the 28th of October, 2013.
Dr Nzelu lamented that although all these three prominent Nigerians received treatment in the United States of America, they did not survive because of late detection. According to her, this fact should serve as a wake-up call to all Nigerians to support the move to make facilities for early detection and treatment available to all Nigerians.
In her own submission, the Convener of the CECP-Nigeria, Mrs. Margaret Rose Adetutu Adeleke, decried the way in which wealthy Nigerians have to travel abroad for cancer diagnosis and treatment and stated that such facilities should be available to all Nigerians, whether rich or poor, within the country.
She therefore enjoined families, friends, colleagues and associates of the departed Nigerians to donate Mobile Cancer Centres (MCCs) in their memory as a way of stemming the tide of avoidable deaths through cancer and other common diseases in Nigeria.
It will be recalled that on the 25th of February, 2013, the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP Nigeria) which is co-promoted by the core bodies of the organized private sector, adopted as its focal cause the campaign to take cancer prevention to the grassroots through the acquisition of 37 Mobile Cancer Centres (MCCs) at the cost of 95 million naira each.
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