Ignorance is killing us rapidly in Nigeria. Ignorance of the early symptoms of diseases, ignorance of where to seek proper treatment, ignorance of the treatable nature of many hitherto untreatable conditions. And this ignorance is COMPOUNDED by our saaaaaaaad culture of HIDING our illnesses from even our nearest and dearest!!!
And some of our priests and pastors are also worsening matters by preying on the poor, innocent, desperate, sick and gullible in their most dire moments. We all know what I'm talking about... I am a Christian and DO believe in miracles BUT God does not call for me to suspend my common sense!!! Which of us who is hungry and has raw foodstuff in the kitchen will kneel down and pray for God to fill our stomachs instead of getting up and going into the kitchen to prepare the food ourselves???
This is what we've reduced God to in Nigeria, our "house help", who does those tasks we are too lazy or can't be bothered to deal with ourselves, chei... But this is not about faith healing or none-healing as the case may be. This is about raising awareness about THREE COMMON KILLER CANCERS IN NIGERIA and addressing and recognising some of our cultural practices which prevent dissemination of this information to ALL who need to know and hear about them.
I'm talking about BREAST, CERVICAL AND PROSTATE CANCER IN NIGERIANS!!!
These three cancers have claimed an increasing nos of lives in Nigeria, of people in their prime, often with young dependents, causing untold hardship and suffering to those left behind as well as causing gruelling, excruciatingly painful, long drawn out illnesses in the afflicted. And whilst some cancer cases will inevitably lead to death, COMPREHENSIVE SCREENING, KNOWLEDGE OF SYMPTOMS & SIGNS; EARLY DETECTION could seriously reduce the mortality and morbidity of these diseases!!!
I have no statistics for the incidence of any of these diseases in Naija as we are notably abysmal at keeping records. But anecdotally I personally know over 15 young Nigerian women between the ages or 30-45 who have kost their lives to breast cancer... One of my pastors died from it just beforehand her 41st birthday!!! My Aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer 16 years ago too, she was treated and cancer free for 15years, and had treatment this year when it recurred. We thank God that it has been successfully dealt with again. The Edo state governors wife, Mrs Oshiomole died from one if these csncers!!! So these ailments are no respecter of persons O.
Now my cause for concern is the lack of knowledge and awareness that these diseases even exist back home and our almost total lack of teaching women to examine their breasts, and what to do if they find a lump!!! And this applies to Nigerian women living both at home and abroad. We are notoriouly BAD at taking on board preventative measures, with the usual attitude of "it's not my portion". Whose portion is it??? Jesus Christ the son of God was crucified on the cross!!! Stephen his disciple was stoned to death, others were killed in various gory ways, so exactly whose portion it is to be afflicted with breast, cervical or prostrate cancer??? We know not!!! All that is certain is that we MUST all die from something, and its only If we are blessed will it be from the complications of a ripe old age...
So hiding our illnesses does NOT make them go away. In fact we might even be doing untold damage to our families. If a daughter does not know her mother survived or died from breast cancer HOW ON EARTH DOES SHE KNOW TO BE VIGILANT ABOUT BREAST EXAMINATIONS OR TO DEMAND EARLIER MAMMOGRAPHY SCREENING WHERE SUCH IS AVAILABLE TO HER??? We have to get over this our fear that if we talk about something the "demons" will hear and attack us with what we were talking about. Kai such upside down thinking. As if any demons need us to decide what harm they will unleash on we humans!!!
Similar issues apply for cervical cancer and prostate cancer. People NEED TO KNOW TO SEEK MEDICAL HELP WHEN THEY HAVE CERTAIN SYMPTOMS, such as irregular bleeding, bleeding after sex, persistent discharge or odour or anything which is unusual with regards to their private parts. For the men we are looking at the signs of prostate enlargement, such as difficulty passing urine, poor stream, regularly waking up at night to pass urine, constipation or persistent lower back pain etc.
An enlarged prostate is often NOT cancerous, but if it is ever removed please ENSURE that the doctor does a BIOPSY of the tissue to rule out cancer. This SHOULD all be part of the standard treatment of any enlarged prostate in Naija but sadly like the rest of our defunct systems in Naija, good medical practice has also deteriorated terribly. So please tell your fathers, husbands, brothers and anyone you know who is having prostate surgery (that's if they let you know in the first place) that they must INSIST THAT THEIR DOCTOR SENDS THEIR PROSTATIC TISSUE TO A REPUTABLE HISTOPATHOLOGY LAB FOR ANALYSIS!!! Also let them have their PSA measured. This is a blood test measuring Prostate-Specific-Antigen (PSA) and is a good marker for the presence or absence of prostate cancer. Because if these diseases are detected early, particularly Prostate Cancer then a good chance of a full cure is possible...
In our forefathers time when there was less understanding and information about the nature and causes of many diseases, being secretive made sense to them. But now that we are in the age of enlightenment we should not allow IGNORANCE to still hold us hostage. Imagine the case of a lady only finding out as an adult that her maternal grandmother dues if breast cancer, her own mother had breast cancer several years earlier and is stikk suffering from some complications of the illness and treatment but has NEVER told her daughters that this is what she suffered from, so that they could even be vigilant about breast examinations and lumps or even take advantage of early screening programmes which are available where they live!!! This is the sad reality on the ground and unfortunately our yeye govt also do NOT care about their citizens so no national health campaigns are organised.
Sadly our churches too which COULD be good platforms to disseminate LIFE SAVING INFORMATION are generally too busy preaching prosperity messages to spend any time to teach COMMON SENSE, LIFE SAVING INFORMATION to their congregation. Some of them are simply not aware that these are huge problems, but we can ALL no longer ignore the many pictures of dying women with massive fungating breast lesions, with their beleaguered relatives vainly trying to raise funds for what amounts to terminal care!!!
And some of our priests and pastors are also worsening matters by preying on the poor, innocent, desperate, sick and gullible in their most dire moments. We all know what I'm talking about... I am a Christian and DO believe in miracles BUT God does not call for me to suspend my common sense!!! Which of us who is hungry and has raw foodstuff in the kitchen will kneel down and pray for God to fill our stomachs instead of getting up and going into the kitchen to prepare the food ourselves???
This is what we've reduced God to in Nigeria, our "house help", who does those tasks we are too lazy or can't be bothered to deal with ourselves, chei... But this is not about faith healing or none-healing as the case may be. This is about raising awareness about THREE COMMON KILLER CANCERS IN NIGERIA and addressing and recognising some of our cultural practices which prevent dissemination of this information to ALL who need to know and hear about them.
I'm talking about BREAST, CERVICAL AND PROSTATE CANCER IN NIGERIANS!!!
These three cancers have claimed an increasing nos of lives in Nigeria, of people in their prime, often with young dependents, causing untold hardship and suffering to those left behind as well as causing gruelling, excruciatingly painful, long drawn out illnesses in the afflicted. And whilst some cancer cases will inevitably lead to death, COMPREHENSIVE SCREENING, KNOWLEDGE OF SYMPTOMS & SIGNS; EARLY DETECTION could seriously reduce the mortality and morbidity of these diseases!!!
I have no statistics for the incidence of any of these diseases in Naija as we are notably abysmal at keeping records. But anecdotally I personally know over 15 young Nigerian women between the ages or 30-45 who have kost their lives to breast cancer... One of my pastors died from it just beforehand her 41st birthday!!! My Aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer 16 years ago too, she was treated and cancer free for 15years, and had treatment this year when it recurred. We thank God that it has been successfully dealt with again. The Edo state governors wife, Mrs Oshiomole died from one if these csncers!!! So these ailments are no respecter of persons O.
Now my cause for concern is the lack of knowledge and awareness that these diseases even exist back home and our almost total lack of teaching women to examine their breasts, and what to do if they find a lump!!! And this applies to Nigerian women living both at home and abroad. We are notoriouly BAD at taking on board preventative measures, with the usual attitude of "it's not my portion". Whose portion is it??? Jesus Christ the son of God was crucified on the cross!!! Stephen his disciple was stoned to death, others were killed in various gory ways, so exactly whose portion it is to be afflicted with breast, cervical or prostrate cancer??? We know not!!! All that is certain is that we MUST all die from something, and its only If we are blessed will it be from the complications of a ripe old age...
So hiding our illnesses does NOT make them go away. In fact we might even be doing untold damage to our families. If a daughter does not know her mother survived or died from breast cancer HOW ON EARTH DOES SHE KNOW TO BE VIGILANT ABOUT BREAST EXAMINATIONS OR TO DEMAND EARLIER MAMMOGRAPHY SCREENING WHERE SUCH IS AVAILABLE TO HER??? We have to get over this our fear that if we talk about something the "demons" will hear and attack us with what we were talking about. Kai such upside down thinking. As if any demons need us to decide what harm they will unleash on we humans!!!
Similar issues apply for cervical cancer and prostate cancer. People NEED TO KNOW TO SEEK MEDICAL HELP WHEN THEY HAVE CERTAIN SYMPTOMS, such as irregular bleeding, bleeding after sex, persistent discharge or odour or anything which is unusual with regards to their private parts. For the men we are looking at the signs of prostate enlargement, such as difficulty passing urine, poor stream, regularly waking up at night to pass urine, constipation or persistent lower back pain etc.
An enlarged prostate is often NOT cancerous, but if it is ever removed please ENSURE that the doctor does a BIOPSY of the tissue to rule out cancer. This SHOULD all be part of the standard treatment of any enlarged prostate in Naija but sadly like the rest of our defunct systems in Naija, good medical practice has also deteriorated terribly. So please tell your fathers, husbands, brothers and anyone you know who is having prostate surgery (that's if they let you know in the first place) that they must INSIST THAT THEIR DOCTOR SENDS THEIR PROSTATIC TISSUE TO A REPUTABLE HISTOPATHOLOGY LAB FOR ANALYSIS!!! Also let them have their PSA measured. This is a blood test measuring Prostate-Specific-Antigen (PSA) and is a good marker for the presence or absence of prostate cancer. Because if these diseases are detected early, particularly Prostate Cancer then a good chance of a full cure is possible...
In our forefathers time when there was less understanding and information about the nature and causes of many diseases, being secretive made sense to them. But now that we are in the age of enlightenment we should not allow IGNORANCE to still hold us hostage. Imagine the case of a lady only finding out as an adult that her maternal grandmother dues if breast cancer, her own mother had breast cancer several years earlier and is stikk suffering from some complications of the illness and treatment but has NEVER told her daughters that this is what she suffered from, so that they could even be vigilant about breast examinations and lumps or even take advantage of early screening programmes which are available where they live!!! This is the sad reality on the ground and unfortunately our yeye govt also do NOT care about their citizens so no national health campaigns are organised.
Sadly our churches too which COULD be good platforms to disseminate LIFE SAVING INFORMATION are generally too busy preaching prosperity messages to spend any time to teach COMMON SENSE, LIFE SAVING INFORMATION to their congregation. Some of them are simply not aware that these are huge problems, but we can ALL no longer ignore the many pictures of dying women with massive fungating breast lesions, with their beleaguered relatives vainly trying to raise funds for what amounts to terminal care!!!
It could be me affected next, it could be you or your wife, sister, mother, husband, brother or father affected by any of these illnesses. We MUST raise awareness about them to help save lives. I salute the efforts of a growing nos of organisatios in Nigeria that have taken on board this noble cause. But we ALL need to do more, however we can and end this conspiracy of silence and ignorance that continues to decimate Nigerian lives at home and even abroad. May God bless all of us as we help spread this message, amen..
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