Dons seek policy to vaccinate female children, prevent cancer

• ‘Unemployment, poverty rate embarrassing’
• Lack of funding hinders research in varsities, says VC

The Federal Government has been charged to formulate a national policy that would help vaccinate female children below 12 years to prevent cervical cancer among women in the next 20-30 years.

Prof. Gabriel Avwioro of the Delta State University, Abraka, made the call yesterday while delivering a lecture at the 19th Annual National Conference/ Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Guild of Medical Laboratory Directors (GMLD) at the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), Effurun, Delta State.

He noted that for Nigeria to succeed in its fight against increasing cases of cancer in women, he said: “First, is to have a National Policy where all children below the age of 12 are vaccinated against human papiloman virus.”

Prof. Avwioro whose lecture centered on Cancer: Emerging Diagnostic Platforms: The Medical Laboratory and Patient Prognosis, noted that although vaccine was expensive, he said it could be subsidised to reduce cervical cancer from the society.

He stated that the causes of cancer included physical, chemical and biological sources, stressing that several chemicals, which were previously unknown to be carcinogens are now causing cancer.

“The management of the public hospitals in the country do not understand priorities. They need to prioritise all the activities in the hospitals to achieve maximum health care delivery.”

Speaking, GMLD’s National President, Chioma Austin Onuorah, stated that the major challenge of the guild was “quackery,” stressing that the government that was supposed be the custodian of the law sometimes ignorantly permit same in the profession.

In a related development, Prof. Emmanuel Chike Onwuka of the Edo State University has chided Federal Government’s failure to tackle unemployment in the country. According to him, the increasing level of unemployment rate in the country stands at 29.6 per cent while the poverty rate stands at 70 per cent.

These, he added pose serious threat to the country’s socio-economic stability and by extension, its political stability.

Meanwhile, the Vice Chancellor of Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun (FUPRE), Delta State, Prof. Akii Ibhadode, has said Nigerian universities were not experiencing innovation due to lack of adequate funding, which has largely resulted to churning out half-baked graduates with largely no practical skills.

He said this at the third Lift Above Poverty Organisation (LAPO) Annual Conference on Microfinance and Enterprise in Benin City with the theme: Entrepreneurship, Financial and Economic Development.

Ibhadode said Nigeria has no business being poor because of its abundant human and natural resources.