Dora Akunyili's Husband Heart-Felt Speech At Her Requiem Mass

 

Late Dora Akunyili’s husband, Dr. Chike Akunyili, in his remarks on behalf of her family, extolled his late wife as a patriot who loved her country so much that she gave up her American citizenship.
Dr Akunyili also thanked President Goodluck Jonathan for his support since the demise of his wife.
A grief stricken Dr Akunyili said, "When Dora died, I saw the special FEC session in her honour, that helped me in my grief. When I also had the opportunity to meet the President in his office, he held my hands and comforted me with kind words, saying, “give me any date for Dora, I will be there,” and today he is here.
"Dorothy is an elephant and if I start talking about her we will not leave. We went to Florida, and there at the immigration, they told her, ‘look, you are an American citizen (because she won the lottery and that was what favoured us). And here you are, you have a Nigerian diplomatic passport, you must surrender one. She used her left hand to drop her green card and retained her diplomatic passport. So you can see the level of her love for this country.

"Once in her local government, they brought a trailer load of fertilisers, what did Dorathy do? She shared all to the community. They told her that this was not how it is done and she said, this is how it will be done.
"Even as a professor, if you see her in the home, she would hold water for me to wash my hand. And I would tell her, Mummy, you are a professor and she would say, “I married Nkem before I became a professor.”
"One day, we went for medical check up and we found a lump at her lower abdomen. Doctors said she had seven months. But she said, ‘you are not the husband I married, you are always dejected, what happened?’ And I told her that the doctors said she had seven months to live. She said doctors have spoken, God has not spoken, seven months became two years and three months.
"Dora had a message for this country; it was a message of love, courage and steadfastness. Even when she was in pain, she still attended the national conference . You all heard what she said at the conference that ‘a country grows great when old men plant trees, whose shade they will not live to enjoy".
Dora’s remains would leave Abuja for Enugu Tuesday afternoon where there would be another mass at KSJ Temple.
She died from cancer in India on 7 June 2014 at the age of 59 and would be buried in Anambra State on Thursday 28 August 2014. May her gentle soul rest in peace Amen!