OIC, first lady collaborate to fight cancer

The First Lady, Mrs Oluremi Tinubu, has called for closer collaboration among all the stakeholders to fight the scourge of cancer.

She made the call as cancer awareness took the spotlight at the High-level Seminar on Promoting Cancer Awareness and Advocacy Programmes in the OIC African Member States, which kicked off on Wednesday in Abuja.

The two-day event, supported by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in partnership with the Office of the First Lady of Nigeria, along with pertinent OIC institutions and global allies, concentrated on discovering inventive methods for preventing, detecting early, and treating cancer in OIC African Member States.

Led by Nigeria’s first lady, participating first ladies and stakeholders committed to advocating for increased funding and substantial initiatives to reduce the toll of the infection, which claims hundreds of thousands of lives, particularly in the African region.

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In her welcome remarks, Mrs Tinubu commended the OIC for organising this important seminar and for choosing Nigeria as a host.

Speaking, the representative of the OIC Secretary General, Dr Ahmad Kawesa Sengendo, Assistant Secretary General for Economic Affairs/Science & Technology said the OIC General Secretariat remained committed to providing all assistance to pursue this fight against cancer till the very end.

He added that there’s a need to identify, document, and preserve all the available indigenous knowledge and plant species that are used in the traditional treatment of cancer in our countries.

However, the First Lady of Türkiye Mrs Emine Erdoğan who attended the seminar as a special guest lamented the abandonment of the fundamental life lessons that have been transmitted across generations for millennia as a result of the consumption culture that this age has instilled in people.

She pointed out that in Asia, Anatolia, and Africa, there was once a prevalent way of life centred on healing.

“In the past, medicinal practices were individualised in accordance with an individual’s temperament at healing homes situated in Anatolia along trade routes traversed by caravans which transported not only cultures but also epidemic diseases and the indigenous way of life and dietary practices that had protected them,” she said.

The seminar was addressed by, among others, the first ladies of Türkiye, Sierra Leone, The Gambia; the Director General of the International Atomic Agency (IAEA), the Federal Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare and the Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives.

Daily Trust reports that the first ladies adopted the Abuja Declaration on the First Ladies’ Leadership on cancer control, which was read out by Mrs Tinubu and signed by all the participating first ladies.