News

Cancer: FG To Review Hospice, Palliative Care Policy – Official

Published

2 years ago

January 14, 2024

The Federal Government will review the National Policy and Strategic Plan for Hospice and Palliative Care 2021, to ensure cancer patients live a fairly good quality life.

Dr Uchechukwu Nwokwu, the National Coordinator, National Cancer Control Programme, disclosed this on Sunday in Abuja, during an interview with Newsmen.

Nwokwu said that the policy, inaugurated in 2021 was meant to institutionalise hospice and palliative care services in Nigeria.

According to the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care (IAHPC), Hospice and Palliative Care (HPC) is the active holistic care of individuals across all ages with serious health-related suffering due to severe illness and especially of those near the end of life.

The association also says HPC focuses on a continuum of care from diagnosis till patient’s death and bereavement.

It also addresses all domains that may cause suffering, including end-of-life care, loss, grief, and bereavement.

Nwokwu said that though the policy was already being implemented, it was not up to the expected scale.

“We are very certain that by 2024, we will review the document and then review our level of implementation as a country and see what we can do to improve on it.

“We have a new government and we are hoping that the renewed hope agenda will also translate into addressing palliative care needs of cancer patients and other patients that need palliative care services,” he said.

According to Nwokwu, cancer which does not respect any race, religion or social status, has the capacity to impoverish the richest of all people, because of the cost of care which is very expensive.

“So palliative care deals with terminal illnesses and not just cancer.

“For any illness that has the capacity or potential to last for too long, it is important to institutionalise palliative care as part of the care the person needs to receive,” he said.

Explaining how the policy came about, Nwokwu said that sometimes, someone might have a pain that could not be removed but could only be ameliorated by giving some pain medication that could just palliate it.

“So while we cannot take away the pain, we need to palliate it so that somebody who has that kind of illness will not die in pain but also live a fairly good quality of life as much as possible.

“The policy document spells out that palliative care should even start from a point of diagnosis and that means that you need to integrate the psychosocial needs of the person and even the person’s faith based system.

“If he’s a Christian you involve the pastor or the priests, if he’s a Muslim you involve the Imam or whoever can give that person some psychological or moral support.

“This is because they need to first of all accept diagnosis and the way they accept the diagnosis goes a long way in determining how far the person can accept the treatment that they’re going to be provided.

“It will also determine how much the person can also collaborate or participate in that care.

“So this palliative care is meant to start from the point of diagnosis, to end of life and even at the end of life, it also involves bereavement, even the person who has lost that loved one needs to be integrated to be able to accept the loss,” he said.

Nwokwu said that many cancer patients who were diagnosed late did not actually present late as they complained to someone or some facility when they felt pain or noticed some abnormality.

He, however, said due to lack of awareness or ability to diagnose at the facility, they did not get the needed care early enough.

“If these health workers they present to at the facilities, are able to carry out certain levels of tests or screening, they pick up these diseases early, then treatment can begin early enough and survival rate will also be higher.

“So what we want to do with the palliative care policy is to integrate these services since we have said it’s going to start from the point of diagnosis.

“We want to integrate it in the primary levels of care so that people will understand what is to be done at that level and then cascade it or refer when it goes beyond what they can do,” he said.

Nwokwu said the palliative care policy was looking at integrating HPC services at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels of care so that at these levels, everybody knew what to do at any point in time.

He said also, that in-patients, or those who had terminal illnesses could have the opportunity of receiving a fairly good quality of life before they die.

This, he said, was because, when curative measures were no longer possible, all the patients might require was palliative care.

“At that time, it will be a waste of resources to keep that patient in a hospital bed because the bed fees and the cost of care is quite exorbitant and that adds to what we call financial toxicity.

“Those patients ought to be referred probably to a health centre or to a hospice centre where since all they require is palliation, they can stay there and be taken care of while they receive those palliative care services and be managed symptomatically.

“It is however necessary that those people at the hospice homes or at the primary health care centres must be trained on what to do.

“Then they can now have oncologists or other specialist doctors who visit them regularly to also attend to their other medical needs,” he said.

News

Tinubu Approves Portfolios For 5 NCDC Executive Directors

Published

31 minutes ago

September 15, 2025

Editor

President Bola Tinubu has approved portfolios for five executive directors on the board of the North Central Development Commission (NCDC).

Mr Segun Imohiosen, Director, Information and Public Relations, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), made the announcement in a statement issued on Monday in Abuja.

The appointees and their portfolios are: Hajiya Biliquis Jumoke- Administration and Human Resources, Mrs Aisha Rufai Ibrahim-Commercial and Industrial Development.

Others are, Mr James Abel Uloko-Corporate Services, Prof. Muhammad Bashar-Finance and Atika Ajanah-Projects.

The president urged the executive directors to work closely with the governing board of the commission to promote and coordinate sustainable development of the North-Central geopolitical zone.”

News

Court Orders Arrest Of 2 Lawyers Over Alleged Forgery, Impersonation

Published

58 minutes ago

September 15, 2025

Editor

A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, sitting at Apo, on Monday, issued a bench warrant against two lawyers charged with forgery and impersonation.

Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie made the arrest order following repeated failure of the defendants- Victor Giwa, and Ibitade Bukola- to appear before the court to enter their plea to the charge that was preferred against them by the Inspector General of Police.

In the charge marked: CR/150/25, the duo were accused of conspiring to forge a legal document purportedly issued by the chambers of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Prof. Awa U. Kalu, with the intent to mislead the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF.

According to the three-count charge, the alleged offence occurred on June 28, 2024.

The prosecution alleged that the defendants forged and signed a letter on the official letterhead of the SAN, requesting the AGF to suspend a scheduled arraignment.

The contentious letter, titled “Urgent and Solemn Appeal to Suspend the Arraignment of Our Colleague Victor Giwa on Charge Number: CR/222/2023”, was allegedly addressed to the AGF.

It allegedly sought intervention of the AGF to halt an arraignment that was scheduled before trial Justice Samira Bature of the high court.

The IGP, in the charge, maintained that the two lawyers committed offences punishable under Section 97, 179 and 364 of the Penal Code Act, 2004.

At the resumed proceeding of the court on Monday, the prosecution counsel, Mr. Eristo Asaph, noted that the defence lawyer told the court that the 1st defendant was bereaved, hence his absence for the scheduled arraignment.

The prosecution counsel further noted that it was on the strength of an application by the defendant that the case was adjourned.

He, therefore, wondered why the duo were also absent in court for the case to proceed.

Responding, the defence counsel, Mr. Ogbu Aboje, told the court that the 1st defendant, Giwa, wrote a letter that was accompanied with a medical report dated September 3, indicating that he had a health challenge he described as “Degenerative disorder of the lumber vertebrae,” in addition to his hypertensive condition.

He added that the 2nd defendant equally went to the hospital on Monday morning to keep to a routine appointment for the immunisation of her daughter.

More so, he drew attention of the court to an application the defendants earlier filed to challenge its jurisdiction to entertain the case.

Dissatisfied with the developments, the prosecution counsel urged the court to issue a warrant for the defendants to be arrested y security agencies and produced for their trial.

In his ruling, Justice Onwuegbuzie held that having listened to both parties, he was minded to accede to the prosecution’s request.

He court stressed that the medical report did indicate that the 1st defendant would not be able to attend court, adding that the 2nd defendant did not adduce any material to justify her absence.

Consequently, relying on the provision of section 266 (2) and 352 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), Justice Onwuegbuzie issued a bench warrant for the defendants to be arrested and produced before the court on October 8.
(VANGUARD)

News

Community Attributes Access Road To Reduction In Maternal Mortality In Bauchi

Published

5 hours ago

September 15, 2025

Editor

A cross-section of residents in Toro Local Government Area of Bauchi State has attributed the reduction in maternal mortality to the ongoing construction and rehabilitation of the Kirjaule–Lame roads.

Mr. Samila Jauro, who spoke on behalf of the community, made the disclosure during a media tour of ongoing Bauchi State projects in the area.

He explained that in the past, no fewer than 50 pregnant women and their babies had lost their lives due to delays in accessing healthcare caused by the poor condition of roads.

“We have lost many of our pregnant women and their unborn babies in the past because of bad roads.

“But the present administration has changed our lives through its infrastructural development,” Jauro said.

While commending the state government, he appealed for the electrification of Kirjauke community.

“We are grateful for the road project, but we still call on the governor to provide us with electricity.

For the past 18 years, we have had no source of power,” he added.

The Bauchi State Government, through the Ministry of Works, in 2023 awarded a 40.5-kilometer road construction and rehabilitation projects in the aforementioned sites.

Speaking on the progress of the projects, the Site Engineer, Mr. Ado Shehu, said the project had reached 75 percent completion.

“The Kirjaule–Lame and Magama–Gumau roads were awarded at the end of November 2023.

“Some portions are already completed, while others are at the second layer and shoulder stage to ensure a successful outcome.

“The duration of the project according to the contract is 36 months.

” But with 75 percent already completed, the project will be finished ahead of schedule,” he said.