First lady of Nigeria, Hajia Aisha Buhari has expressed concerns over the negative health outcome associated with cancer, calling on stakeholders to channel more efforts towards its eradication  in the country.

Mrs Buhari made the call in her address at the official flag-off ceremony of the Arm Our Youths Anti-Cancer Health campaign with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) organised by the Onyebuchi Chris Ifediora (OCI) Foundation in Abuja on Thursday.

Represented by Wife of the vice president, Mrs. Dolapo Osinbajo, the first lady said, “It is important to ensure that we do everything possible to reduce the rate of mortality associated with cancer especially cervical.

“My future assured initiative has been at the forefront of this campaign over the years, creating awareness, screening and making referrals across the country.

“This campaign has reached thousands of members including those in hard to reach areas. I intend to do more and partner with more organisations such as Nigerian Cancer Society and OCI foundation until we overcome the negative health outcomes associated with cancer.

“I call on cancer stakeholders to exact more effort in awareness creation amongst our citizens. It is also important to come up with new ideas such as this cascade campaign to Secondary schools.”

Earlier, the Director General (DG) of the NYSC Major-General Shuaibu Ibrahim, represented by the Director Corp Mobilisation Victoria Ango, stressed the importance of awareness creation, stating that “this might, among other things, reduce medical tourism and conserve the hard-earned foreign currency of Nigerians.

“Thus, creating awareness to enable Nigerian prevent or better manage this ailment is quite commendable. The NYSC is far more determined than you can imagine to carry out the awareness to all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria,” he assured.

In his welcome address, the founder and president of the OCI Foundation, Professor Chris Ifediora, stated that it’s health promotion Initiative primarily seeks to introduce anti-breast and cervical cancer programmes into the NYSC’s orientation across the country.

He added that it also aims to include preventive teachings into the the academic curriculum of all senior  secondary schools in the 36 states and the FCT by 2025.

High point of the campaign was the unveiling of the first CerviBreast app which is a free and interactive mobile phone application that will assist in keeping track of breast and cervical cancer screenings, and the Gynocular project, which provides free and highly subsidized digital cervical cancer screenings to Nigerians.

“This will help Nigerians locate breast and cervical cancer service providers, from anywhere in the country,”  he said.