The Enugu state governor spoke to
journalists in Enugu on Monday. Below is what he shared...
“Late August or early September, last year,
I am not sure again of the dates, but it is about that time. I was privileged
to be one of those nominated by the Nigeria Governors Forum to go to Germany to
understudy their federal system. A Governor was picked from each of the six
geo-political zones. I represented the South-East and of course, we were led by
our Chairman, Rotimi Amaechi.
“On our way to Germany, I decided to go a
little bit earlier, passing through London to do my medicals because of what I
will call lack of our time. We do not have time here. So, I decided to take
that opportunity, got to London and did my medicals and was certified fit. I
was given a clean bill of health. But I had a little growth here (pointing at
the right side of his neck) that was not visible to anybody. I am a very
observant person. I noticed it, showed it to my doctor and he touched it and
said he didn’t feel it is anything serious, that I should just try and forget
it.
“So, I thought they would have seen
anything if there was anything wrong when they were doing the general scanning
and screening, but nothing was found. So, I just singled it and said, please,
this particular thing, I will like it to be investigated. I was referred to GB
who after examining me and asking me questions, because I told him, no
symptoms, no pains, no discomfort from anywhere. He said as far as he was
concerned, there was nothing wrong but as a professional advised me to
investigate it further because I was almost running out of time, short of time.
“I made arrangements with them to help me set up
appointments for closer examination of the growth. So the next day I left for
Germany to join my colleagues. On that trip was my Commissioner for Commerce
and Industry, Dr. Jude Akubuilo and my SSA Investment. They were already in
Germany waiting for me and so, I joined them. At the end of the day, about a
week after they had set up the arrangement, I left Germany. I left my
colleagues. I told them where I was going, went back to London and did the
proper screening of that particular growth. They did biopsies and all that. So,
in the process it was discovered that it was cancerous. The growth was
cancerous.”
“Further investigation revealed that the main tumour, because this
actually turned out to be the lymph node, but the main tumour was behind my
nose. It actually turned out to be what they called nasopharyngeal cancer- that
is cancer of the nose. At that stage when you hear cancer, you will declare
yourself dead before any further examination. Then I asked them what
should be done, they told me straight away that they will subject me to further
screening to know if it had spread. So luckily it hadn’t spread, it is
just only in those two places.
“They said the good news is that it was curable and not manageable. It was
curable, that was when I became interested. And they said as soon as I
was ready, they would commence treatment. Originally we had planned to go from
Germany to Lebanon on our way back to Nigeria but I cancelled that trip, went
back to Germany, informed my people I went with, came down to London with the
Commissioner. The SSA hadn’t UK Visa then, so he traveled back to Nigeria from
Germany. In London we made arrangement and agreed on when to come.
“So we came back to Nigeria and within the two weeks, I was able to make
arrangements for transition. I wrote a letter to the Speaker of the House of
Assembly in accordance with the constitution, informing him of my decision to
proceed on leave and of course sought his cooperation to work very well with the
Deputy Governor, who would work as governor in my absence. Within the two
weeks, we held two exco meetings, the last was held on Tuesday, the week I
left. After the EXCO meeting, I told my EXCO members that I was proceeding on
long vacation which I wouldn’t know how long it would last to treat
myself. That was the information they got and of course I told them to
cooperate with the acting governor. The following day, I left for Abuja, which
was a Wednesday and again attended the meeting of the Governors’ Forum, that
night. Then Thursday morning, we had National Economic Council meeting and the
Deputy Governor was there to represent me.
