The
World Cancer Day was widely celebrated across various social media platforms on
Thursday, as people from different parts of the world engaged in discussions
around cancer-related issues.
From
Twitter, Yahoo to Google, the Internet users sustained the buzz generated by
the event. Many Nigerians, who joined the discussion, advised their followers
to adopt a healthy lifestyle and screen for cancer regularly in order to
minimise the risk of getting the disease.
But
a critical group known as the Nollywood Female Stars, whose voices would have
made a lot of difference in the cancer awareness campaign, considering their
huge fan-base, stayed away from the social media segment of the event.
As
of 2pm, when the campaign had already become a subject of attraction on the
Internet, only Kate Henshaw, out of several Nollywood stars whose social media
accounts were visited, had posted a comment on cancer.
Henshaw
posted statements about campaign rallies organised by a medical centre on
Instagram and Twitter, while she called on her fans to heed the call for
regular screening.
“Cancer
has killed many of our men and women. Enough is enough. Early detection through
screening is key to prevention. Screen for breast, cervical and prostate
cancers,” she posted on Instagram.
A
large number of the actress’s colleagues, whose social media presence could
have reminded millions of Nigerians of the danger they faced if they failed to
screen for cancer regularly, shunned the campaign on the digital space.
Notable
stars who did not participate in the campaign include Tonto Dikeh, Genevieve
Nnaji, Stephenie Okereke-Linus, Mercy Johnson-Okojie, Rita Dominique and Bimbo
Akintola. Others are Monalisa Chinda, Ebube Nwagbo, Olufunke Akindele, Chika
Ike, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde and Lilian Esoro.
Interestingly,
a post from one of these stars could reach several thousands of Nigerians to
whom global non-governmental organisations are making frantic efforts to spread
the message of cancer.
For
instance, Okereke-Linus has over 1.9 million Facebook followers, while Nnaji
had 984,000 Twitter fans as of Thursday when the world needed her to key into
the cause.
Rather
than donate their accounts for the cause, some of the actresses chose to engage
their fans on issues of personal interest.
For
one, Ike indulged her Facebook fans with photographs from her meeting with the
Director General, the National Agency for Drug and Food Administration and
Control, Paul Orhii. The photographs were captioned #newprojectalert.
On
her part, Akindele was on Twitter to seek votes from her fans to enable her
emerge Best Actress of the Year in the Africa Magic Viewer's Choice Awards
event.
Other
Nollywood actors also failed to key into the campaign and thus, show that they
genuinely cared about their fans. Desmond Elliot, who is now a member of the
Lagos State House of Assembly, Nonso Anozie and Mike Ezuruonye are popular
social media users in the film industry whose accounts were not used to promote
the campaign against cancer.
It
seems that the entire Nigerian entertainment industry had a poor outing on
#WorldCancerDay. Popular music stars shunned the important hashtag.
The
likes of Ayo Balogun (Wizkid), Michael Collins (Don Jazzy) and Tiwa Savage, who
individually enjoy a huge following on Twitter, could have reached several
millions of people, if they had showed interest in the campaign.
#DiaMundialContraElCancer
and #WorldCancerDay were the two leading global trends on Thursday. Both
hashtags, which were dedicated to cancer awareness, were adopted by global
figures and the ordinary people as the major social media communication code of
the day.
Meanwhile,
the Cancer Research Centre, based in the United Kingdom, has said that
improvement in detection, diagnosis and treatment has led to a decline in the
rate of cancer deaths in the UK by 10 per cent between 2003 and 2013.
Posting
on its website, the Centre said, “The rate of cancer deaths has fallen and this
is largely due to improvements in detection, diagnosis and treatments. Without
these research-led advances, the rate of cancer deaths would undoubtedly have
risen.”
