"Akunyili Lived Beyond Doctors’ Predictions" – Husband

Dr. Chike Akunyili, the husband of the late former Minister of Information, Prof. Dora Akunyili, said on Tuesday that his deceased wife lived beyond the time doctors gave her. Speaking at the requiem mass organised in memory of the deceased in Abuja, the late former minister’s widower said although doctors told his late wife that she had seven months to live in 2012 when she was diagnosed, she waived it as a pronouncement of men and not of God.

“When I told her doctors said she would not live for more than seven months, she said doctors have spoken but God has not spoken and then she lived for another two years and three months,” Chike said.

He also recalled how his wife displayed a rare sense of patriotism when she returned her American

passport as a citizen of US in order for her to keep her Nigerian diplomatic passport. And how she kept holding water bowl for him to wash his hands and whenever he reminded her that she was a professor, she kept saying:

 “I am Chike’s wife first before becoming a professor.”

Describing her as an elephant, the widower said time would never be enough to talk about his late wife who he fondly referred to as Dorothy.