7th October, 2016
Alhaji Muhammadu Bashar, the Emir of Gwandu, on Friday advised husbands to allow their wives to go for early breast and cervical cancer screening and treatment.
The emir, who is also the Chairman, Kebbi State Council of Chiefs, gave the advice when he received a delegation of wives of eight governors in Birnin Kebbi on Friday.
They are the wives of governors of Zamfara, Kogi, Niger, Lagos, Oyo, Sokoto, Nasarawa and Kebbi
reports reveal that the women were in Birnin Kebbi for the 2016 Annual International Cancer Month Awareness fundraising dinner organised by the founder of MedicAid Cancer Foundation, Dr Zainab Bagudu, the wife of Kebbi Governor.
Gwandu said that cancer would not be easy to stamp out in the country unless women were encouraged to go for early medical checkup.
He called on the wives of the governors to extend the awareness campaign to remote areas where residents hardly had access to information on the danger of cancer.
The emir assured the founder of the NGO of his emirate’s commitment to encourage people to go for routine screening.
He commended the wife of Gov. Bagudu for the initiative and foresight in coming up with such a timely foundation.
Earlier, the wife of the governor had appealed to traditional leaders to assist in enlightening the public on the relevance of health care and preventive measures so that women would come out for the screening.
She said the screening and treatment of breast and cervical cancer were free, adding that “no penny is collected from any of the patients and those who turned out from screening”.