My Drug Costs N1.7m A Pack – Ailing Nollywood Actor

Veteran actor, Sadiq Daba is currently struggling with his health with a public appeal being made to well-meaning Nigerians to come to his aid.
It is no longer news that seasoned broadcaster and actor, Sadiq Daba, is down with leukaemia. Unknown to many of his fans and admirers, the actor, whose role in Kunle Afolayan’s award-winning film, ‘October 1’, attracted a lot of attention awhile ago, practically lives on a drug called Gleevec, used for the  treatment of the disease.

Although he gets supplies of the drug free-of-charge from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, courtesy of a donor agency based in the United States, it is very expensive off the counter and can only be obtained from the institution.

 “To get the drug at OAU, you have to go through a process of evaluation. Then you are recommended to the foundation that supplies the drug. But, if you are going to buy it off the counter, a pack of it will cost you about N1.7m. And this will last for three months,” he said, in an interview with a Punch correspondent in his Lagos residence.

Baba’s battle with leukaemia started toward the end of 2015. The disease virtually caught him unawares. At first, he had thought that he was having the first symptoms of a minor ailment. “I thought I had malaria fever. So I went to a hospital in Abuja for a test. After a series of tests, the doctor was shocked. He told me that what I had was beyond them at the hospital. He advised me to seek help from a tertiary institution. Tertiary institution, in this case, simply refers to a university teaching hospital. That was in 2015.

“Then I went to the Dermatology Unit of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital and it was confirmed that I had leukaemia. Fortunately, the disease was not overblown yet. It was still at the early and manageable stage. I was placed on drugs,” he recounted. “It was nice that he visited the ward at that point because my bill was almost over N1m.

The good doctor went on to slash the entire bill by 50 per cent. I will never forget that,” he said.