TheCable

Former minister of information and communications, Professor Dora Akunyili, will be buried on August 28, 2014, the family announced on Sunday.

The widower, Dr. Chike Akunyili, who signed the statement announcing the burial date, said details would be made public later.

The former director-general of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) died on June 7, 2014 ─ a few months after she was told by her American doctors that she had survived cancer.

Akunyili would have been 60 on July 14, a birthday she could have marked with a thanksgiving service if she had indeed survived the cancer.

After falling seriously ill in the United States last year, Akunyili was assured by her doctors that she was “good to go” following what they called a “successful surgery”.

“One of the doctors told her to fix a date for her thanksgiving. He said he would like to  attend the event,” a family member told TheCable.

Based on this promise, Akunyili returned to Nigeria and attended the National Conference as a delegate.

When pictures of a frail-looking Dora were circulated on the social media, several Nigerians expressed concern on her state of health.

However, based on what the doctors had told her, she dismissed the fears via her facebook account.

She posted:

I AM WELL, FIT AND READY FOR THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE

My Dear Friends,

My attention has been drawn to a story making the rounds online claiming that I am seriously sick, currently out of the country and in need of urgent prayers.

This story is baseless, unfounded and the handiwork of mischief makers. It should be ignored and discarded in its entirety. As every informed Nigerian knows, I am a Delegate to the National Conference currently holding in Abuja. I was duly accredited as a Delegate and I am currently in attendance at the National Judicial Institute, Abuja, venue of the conference.

While it is true that I recently came out of a major sickness, for which I thank Almighty God for delivering me, I have since been declared fit by my doctors and returned to my normal activities. I shed much weight in the course of the sickness – which is normal – but I am well now and only need time to re-grow some flesh. There is nothing to worry about either my health or my present stature.

I know that God has kept me alive for a purpose, this National Conference being part of that purpose. For the avoidance of doubt, I am well now, fit, strong enough and ready for this all-important National Conference and I look forward to collaborating with other delegates to chart the way for a better Nigeria.

I thank all my friends for their love and prayers. May Almighty God bless and reward you.

Dora.

However, it turned out to be only a respite as her condition worsened, leading to her being flown out on medical emergency to India on May 11.

The Indian doctors initially stabilised her condition, raising hopes that she was going to survive.

“They even said she was going to be at the hospital for months undergoing intensive treatment. She was making good progress. She started talking. She was discussing several issues about Nigeria. But suddenly, things took a negative turn and she went into a coma, from which she never recovered,” the family source told TheCable.

Akunyili had been diagnosed with cancer by Nigerian doctors in 1998, but on a foreign medical trip for surgery, another ailment was treated instead.

Her frequent medical check-ups abroad from that time did not reveal she had a cancer until she took seriously ill in 2013 on the eve of her 59th birthday.

The cause of her death was given as uterine cancer by an unnamed family member.