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Federal government would have to include the treatment of cancer in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), as the wages of workers cannot cater for the treatment of the disease.
The general secretary of the National Union of Garment and Textile Union Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN), and vice president, Industrial Global Union, Issa Aremu, stated this at the cancer awareness programme held on Valentine’s Day in collaboration with the Timilehin Leukaemia Foundation.
Aremu, represented by Ismail Bello, assistant general secretary, said the inclusion would be a show of love as Valentine’s Day, a day dedicated to share love and affection, would make sense if there is love and affection in society as a whole.
Aremu said: “Nigeria more than ever before needs love, love and love among its wonderful and beautiful people, as it is God’s own country. What God has put together, let no senseless killings and hatred put asunder. We, therefore, join all compatriots to socialise today under the theme ‘Love Conquers All.’”
He said the unnecessary killings in the country, virtually turning it into a state of civil war, is an aberration to the principle guiding the country as it was formed out of love as seen in the national anthem and hence the madness must stop.
“Love was mentioned twice in our national anthem. The first stanza, ‘Arise, O compatriots, Nigeria’s call obey/To serve our fatherland, with love and strength and faith.’ Then in the second stanza, we have ‘Direct our noble cause/Guide thou our leaders right/Help our youth the truth to know/In LOVE and honesty to grow, and live in just and truth, Great lofty heights attain, To build a nation where peace, And justice shall reign.’ As a matter of fact, there is no word of ‘hatred’ and ‘killings’ in our national anthem. Yet there is so much hatred in the land.
“We must stop the unacceptable culture of ‘fire’ for ‘fire.’ Let there be ‘water’ for ‘fire.’ If we do ‘eye for an eye,’ all Nigerians will go blind. Though there is the problem of fuel scarcity. There is a war of attrition between so-called herdsmen and so-called farmers. I said so-called because genuine cattle rearers and genuine farmers should give us meat and food, respectively, and not kill each other.
“Even in the labour movement, we have our challenges of non-payment of salaries in some states and payment of salaries that can hardly take us workers home. But the solution is not to agonise and spread more hatred. The solution is to organise and stand up in solidarity to solve all the problems of nation building, which are not peculiar to Nigeria”, he said.
Aremu stated that the union dedicated the Valentine’s Day to the commendable efforts of Timilehin Leukaemia Foundation (TLF), an NGO formed by Jane Oyedele with the mission of raising awareness about leukaemia and also helping patients, especially children, living with such condition in different ways.
He said: “Comr. Janet Oyedele is a great mother who even after the death of her only son, Timilehin Oyedele to leukaemia still shows remarkable motherly love by helping other children in similar circumstances”.