By Fatima Saka
Senator Sunday Marshall Katung on Monday presented the Sickle Cell Anaemia Disorder Research and Therapy Centre Establishment Bill, 2025, calling for urgent national action to address Nigeria’s staggering burden of sickle cell disorder—currently the highest in the world.
Speaking during the public hearing of the Senate Committee on Health (Secondary and Tertiary), Senator Katung who is representing Kaduna South Senatorial District, described the bill as a life-saving intervention and “a deep sense of responsibility,” noting that every day in Nigeria, 650 children die from sickle cell complications, amounting to the highest global mortality rate from the disorder.
Senator Katung said the bill proposes the establishment of seven Sickle Cell Disorder Research and Therapy Centres—one in each of the six geopolitical zones and one in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. These centres, he noted, would provide Nigeria’s children “the same standard of care available in other parts of the world” and end decades of avoidable deaths.
He emphasised that Nigeria records 150,000 babies born with sickle cell disorder annually, the highest number globally. “Behind every number is a name, a family, a community, a future asset that must be protected,” he said.
The senator also shared a personal experience from 1992, recalling a family overwhelmed by repeated crises involving their two children living with sickle cell. He narrated how one of the children, exhausted by pain and lack of medical support, pleaded with the parents to let him die so that the family could find relief. “From that moment,” Katung said, “I promised myself that if I ever had the opportunity, I would bring a solution. That is why I am here today.”
He stressed that the problem in Nigeria is not lack of medical knowledge but the absence of a comprehensive institutional framework, including standardized early diagnosis, accessible therapies, and consistent treatment protocols—that have ensured 90% survival into adulthood in countries with advanced healthcare systems.
“Why should a Nigerian child born with sickle cell disorder face a drastically lower chance of survival than a child born elsewhere?” he asked.
Senator Katung urged lawmakers, medical practitioners, civil society, and affected families to seize the opportunity of the public hearing to confront what he described as “a national crisis cutting through many lives, young and old.”
The bill seeks to ensure early diagnosis, research advancement, improved therapies, and equitable access to care nationwide, an intervention the senator says will finally give Nigerian children living with sickle cell disorder a fair chance at life.
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