TVC E. The campaign is on again to save another entertainer, actor Leo Mezie, who is down with advance kidney failure.
Since the news broke last Thursday, his colleagues have been making frantic effort to raise N10 million, estimated for an immediate kidney transplant abroad.
READ MORE: Nollywood actor Leo Mezie down with kidney failure
Mezie’s situation is urgent and pathetic owing to the fact that he had been wrongly diagnosed of typhoid fever since last year, until the disease reached a full blown stage.
Before going public, Mezie had been shouldering the responsibility of undergoing dialysis every week on his own.
His wife, Maureen said: “Leo Mezie, one of Nollywood sensations who hails from Umuahia, Abia State has been in the movie industry for over a decade now. Leo who is famously called ‘The Prince’ was recently diagnosed of kidney disease and has been on dialysis. The actor who is my husband needs the help of Nigerians to help him live. Kindly take this as a confirmation from me to go ahead with the campaign to raise funds for his treatments. The official account detail for all financial support is Mezie O Leonard, 0125346916, GTBank. Thanks for all the support and prayers. Maureen Leo Mezie.”
Filmmaker Lancelot Imasuen admonished: “Think! Think and Think Again Nollywoodians!!!, For once let’s look inward to SAVE one of Us Leo Mezie…Nollywood, we can raise Ten Milion to Save our friend and colleague’s life God helping Us…”
The conversation which continued on an online group chat had some members advocating government’s support, recalling that the GEJ administration had paid the bills of about five filmmakers who were down with similar ailment. However, others feel that a situation whereby filmmakers continue to wait for government or the general public for bail out for sick members wouldn’t have been necessary if the various health insurance schemes proposed in time past were embarrassed.
“Why must we wait for Government, why did people not buy the health insurance under CONGA that was brought down to 11k a year and up to 100k a year per family covering all medical and pension, and life insurance,” noted a prominent film industry award organiser who cited an example of a scheme proposed by the defunct Coalition of Nollywood Guilds and Associations (CONGA).
Supporting the health insurance scheme as permanent solution, another filmmaker and former president of Association of Movie Producers (AMP), said: “…All these donate here, donate there are just a “quick fix”. We need to search for permanent and long term solution… Let us revisit this health insurance scheme. In many papers I have presented (including the one at Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies), I have already documented “Stakeholder Apathy “ as a major challenge in the industry. If some people don’t have shame, I have shame. No industry survives on begging.”
Yet for another, personal insurance scheme is not a bad idea, saying: “I agree that the industry should get its health insurance scheme in place or rejigged. However, I also have personally canvassed that practitioners should make efforts to personally get their health schemes in place. With about N35K to N50k, you can get yourself and your family a lasting health insurance which covers as much as N1m worth of bills in some cases. Many of us don’t know about this and wait until some illness strikes before running helter skelter.”
While efforts are on to raise fund for Leo Mezie, another Ghanaian entertainer, OJ Blaq is also down with temporary kidney failure, announced actress Juliet Ibrahim.
What else do you think we can do about this?
