The wife of the President, Mrs Aisha Buhari, has called on stakeholders, especially Nigerian Governors to support their spouses towards eradicating cancer and other diseases affecting women and children in Nigeria.
Buhari made the call on Wednesday at the Governors’ Spouses Summit organised by the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) for the outgoing and incoming wives of the state governors held at the Banquet Hall, Presidential Villa, Abuja.
She said governors’ spouses have important role to play in the lives of women and children of their respective states.
“Every wife of the Governor plays a complementary role to support the effort of the governor, especially on issues of women, youths and children.
“It is apt to state that as mothers of the states, you should have the listening ears of women and children.
“You should attend to developmental issues like girl-child education, women empowerment initiative, child abuse, advocacy on family values, disease prevention, especially for killer diseases and negative widowhood practices,” she said.
Buhari expressed concern over the rising cases of breast and cervical cancers among women and the high cost of treatment, hence the need for more commitment by stakeholders to tackle the menace.
The wife of the president also called on stakeholders to deploy more resources towards acquiring vaccines as well as devices for examination and treatment of cancer patients.
According to her, such device will assist patients to detect cancer at early stage.
Mrs Buhari, however, called on the governors’ spouses to push for more slots for political appointment for women in their respective states.
The former first lady of Nigeria, Mrs Turai Yar’adua, urged wives of governors to pay more attention to women and children of the less privileged, especially the internally displaced persons (IDPs) to avert any potential threat.
“My advice is for the governors’ wives to provide jobs for their women and sponsor education of their children,” she said.
Also speaking, the former first lady of Nigeria, Prof. Uche Azikiwe, called on the governors’ spouses to prioritise their pet projects based on the peculiar needs of women and children of their respective states.
Azikiwe explained that the social needs of women and children might differ from states, hence the need for synergy between the governors’ wives and their people.
