Late former Minister of Information and Communications, Prof. Dora Akunyili, was given seven months to live by her US doctor in 2012, it has been revealed. The legendary one-time Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) ended up beating the prediction by over two years.

Addressing newsmen in his Agulu village in Anaocha Local Government Area of the state, her husband, Dr. Chike Akunyili, said about Dora, who died in India on June 7: “When my wife told me that she observed a lump in her body, we went to the USA and did a surgery. But after sometime, she took ill again and we went for another test; it was then that a very good Nigerian doctor based in the USA, Dr. Egbujobi, who performed the surgery, called me and said my wife had Endometrial Carcinoma, a very rare cancer, and that those who had that type of cancer do not live for more than seven months.

“From then, I became downcast and couldn’t fathom how to tell her but when she noticed my constant bad mood, she told me that I was hiding something from her which I don’t do, that I was no longer the man she married many years ago. I then summoned up courage to tell her what the doctor said.

“To my surprise, she didn’t take it as bad as I thought she would. She simply told me that it was the doctors that had said it and not God. While in the hospital, she was still very positive and said, daddy, you see, the doctor said I will live for only seven months but here I am; God is in control. Despite the doctor’s report, she lived for two and half years before she finally died.”

Dr. Akunyili dismissed the rumour that his Dora died of cervical cancer, stressing that she rather died of endometrial carcinoma. This, according to him, is a rare cancer that is not usually detected early until it has eaten deep into the system.

Commenting on how life has been since after Dora’s death, Dr. Akunyili said: “Though she is dead, I know her spirit is with us because since her death, anything I want for her burial simply comes easy. Dora is a very intelligent person. If I start describing her worth, we won’t leave here today. She electrifies the house whenever she is in the house. She doesn’t discriminate between the rich and the poor. She has a formidable memory. When she is in the house, you won’t even know that she is a Professor because she will cook, clean and serve my food, holding water for me to wash my hands.”

Dr. Akunyili disclosed that Dora received over 800 awards from local and international organisations which have been used to decorate the family’s living room at Agulu where her body will lie-in-state before burial on August 28. He said that another award would be conferred on Dora posthumously in the USA in November this year based on her outstanding work in her field of work as a pharmacist.

Eulogizing his late wife who he described as a true Nigerian who had an undiluted love for her country, Dr. Akunyili recalled that when the family won an American lottery and received the US Green Card, officials of that country wanted to make her a citizen but she vehemently refused, insisting that nothing would take her out of her home country on a permanent basis.

Reeling out the activities for the burial of late Professor Akunyili, the husband said that the burial activities would begin on August 22, 2014 with a wake-keep in Enugu, to be followed by a night of tributes at the International Conference Center, Abuja, on August 25, while the burial would be on August 28 after a Funeral Mass at the Madonna Catholic Church, Agulu.

Speaking at the press conference, the last child of Akunyili, Obumneme, a Psychology graduate, said that it was a bitter taste for anybody to lose any of the parents. He said they had been consoled by the fact that his late mother was not only a mother at home but also for the nation at large.

“I will miss her greatly,” Obumneme said. “Her death has created a vacuum no one can ever fill.”

•Photo shows late Prof. Dora Akunyili.

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