Chairman, Committee on Health Services of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Olusegun Olulade on Wednesday, commended the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa and his colleagues for adopting his Committee’s report on the ‘Lagos State Cancer Institute Bill, 2016’, which was presented on Tuesday on the floor of the House.
The House, had at Tuesday’s plenary session took the report of the Health Services Committee on the Lagos State Cancer Institute Bill, 2016, adopting the report as the resolution of the House after some amendments were made.
Olulade while noting that the bill when eventually passed into law, would bring succor to Lagosians who have cancer related issues, thanked Speaker for initiating such a bill, which will provide for the promotion, aid and coordinate researches relating to cancer and cancer related illness.
According to the lawmaker, the World Health Organisation (WHO) few years ago stated that about about 10,000 cancer deaths are recorded annually in Nigeria, while 250,000 new cases are recorded yearly. “It is also worrisome that only 17 per cent of African countries are said to have sufficiently funded cancer control programmes, while less than half of all countries in the world have functional plans to prevent the disease and provide treatment and care to patients.
“According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IAPC), as at 2008, 7.6 million people have died globally from cancer. Indeed, it has become a major source of morbidity and mortality worldwide. In addition, the global burden of cancer is set to double by 2020 and almost triple by 2030 when one out of every two persons is expected to be diagnosed of cancer in their life time.
“It is for this reason that our amiable Speaker, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa in his wisdom, decided to come up with this bill. We have taken the first and second reading of this bill and we have held a public hearing and the report was presented and adopted on Tuesday. In no time, we will take the third reading and pass the bill into law.
“I want to commend the Speaker and my colleagues for adopting the report of my Committee on this bill. I want to say this is respite for Lagosians, who are battling with one form of cancer or the other,” Olulade added.
