* ‘My story from a partisan politician to a cancer survivor’

Prof. Omo Omoruyi, former Director General of the defunct Center for Democratic Studies (CDS), celebrated his 73 birthday, last weekend, in Benin City. The occasion turned emotional when he told the story of his battle with cancer in the past four years. In this interview,, the prof. of political science discloses how he would want to be buried. He also gives some insight into his relationship with women and his life as a cancer survivor. He speaks as well on the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election, described as Nigeria’s freest and fairest election and presumably won by the late Chief MKO Abiola 18 years ago.

By Simon Ebegbulem, Benin City

How do you feel today adding another year in life despite your battle with cancer?

I am a Baptist and my birthday gives  me an opportunity to re-enact where I normally belong and that is the Baptist Church. And also when I saw my lawyer, he asked me a question on how I would want to be buried. I am a cancer survivor and I know that the imminence of death is very much part of the life of a cancer survivor. Death can come tonight, it can come tomorrow, so I am a very determined person. So, the uniqueness of my birthday comes after having tried four areas where I touched the lives of Nigerians positively. As a professor, there are many people I have taught, some of them are vice-chancellors today.

I have also been in partisan politics where I have interacted with all the big names you can think of in Nigeria and abroad: Saudauna of Sokoto, the late Tafewa Balewa, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and many others.

 I have also tried the political plan which they call public policy which really led to June 12. I have equally defended democracy internationally. I now ask myself, what else can I do? There is nothing I want to do rather than see how much hope I can give cancer survivors in Nigeria.

That is really what my life will be committed to today. So, my birthday is an attempt for me to formally say I don’t want to be a professor or political scientist. I don’t want to be a partisan politician. I don’t want to be a public policy man, I now want to see how much hope I can give to fellow cancer survivors.

They need it, they are abandoned. Let me also use this opportunity to say cancer is not something infectious. I am 73, I pray I can still have few more years to live. Cancer survivors, the kind of mine, can last five years. But you don’t know where that five years begin. Either five years from when it was diagnosed or five years from today. The truth is that the Americans said that a cancer survivor, the maximum the person will live is five years. But they are not God.
Mine was diagnosed in 2008, so you can add five. Maybe I can still put in another years, only God knows.

The American Cancer Society gave five years. That is why the fear of death is part of the crisis facing a cancer survival. You may lie down and may not get up; you saw what happened to Oshiomhole’s wife. These are issues you have to cope with, but I am not worried. That is why I was shocked that all these while, Oshiomhole has been very helpful to me in my fight against cancer but he never told me that his wife was suffering the same thing until her death. You can imagine what the young man has gone through. I don’t blame him because with such ailment, we always pray that God will do his miracle, so you hardly discuss it and it is very painful. I wept for him when the wife died because I know what she must have gone through. I am not scared today because I don’t owe any body, I wake up in the morning, read the Bible, drink coffee and life goes on. Anybody who wants to pray for me is for God to give me more days.

What was your reaction when you were diagnosed of the ailment?

I cried. I was alone in the United States. First, they told me it was spinal cord compression, from there, they were able to diagnose aid tumor. Some time, you don’t want to believe. But I had to believe and I cried, I said ‘why me’. Then you begin to ask questions, then you get into depression. How I feel is captured very much in my book which will be out very soon. That captured my mood and that was when I resigned that the end had come. And I wrote about thirty pages modifying my will. I sent it to my lawyer because it simply means that there are certain issues you never thought you could resolve, you can resolve them quickly. Because that is one thing cancer does, it gives you time to sort out your life.

There was this debt I was owing somebody, I decided that I must pay quickly. Somebody owing me must also try and pay quickly. There are some of my property that I was yet to get the papers, I tried to resolve them. Cancer gives you time to go home and put your home in order. I have put my home in order. But one of things that I did not quite sort out is the church. Like I said, I am a Baptist and I want to be buried there. I don’t want to die and they will say they are organizing an interdenominational service for me, no. I am a Baptist and I want to be buried as a Baptist. That is my home.

But, all the while I come to talk to you, I have never seen a woman around you. You are always at home alone and this your kind of ailment needs the care of a woman. Why is the situation like that?
This is a very serious personal question but I am going to try (to answer it).

I am not divorced. I am married, you can see my wedding ring (displaying it). My wife did not feel that she will be with me during this moment of trial and tribulation because of some certain aspects of my life that she did not approve of. She needed time to resolve it, probably she did not feel she should resolve it now, probably later. Let me be clear on that because it is not when I am dead people will begin to ask this question, where is his wife, how many children does he have? I have two boys and two girls out of wedlock. I have four grand children, sons. That is my life today. I actually got married September 13, 1969 in the Baptist Church in the United States. I am not divorced. My wife is from the Caribbean, a black American woman.

You talked about the cancer society in America. Do you have plans to set up such a body in Nigeria to take care of cancer patients?
I am aware that we have Nigeria Cancer Society. But you can see that they are not making any impact. American Cancer Society provides cancer survivors or cancer patients too many services. If I need a vehicle to take me anywhere, they provide it. If I need a place to stay, they provide it.

They help in so many ways. They know that it is one ailment where you need help. We don’t have it here unfortunately. It is an area when I say I want to give cancer survivors hope. Let me also use this opportunity to thank the late Umaru Yar’Adua. He gave me financial support and the governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, also provided me financial support. Infact, chapter 5 of my book is dedicated to Adams Oshiomhole. But for Adams, I would not have been able to survive. Yar’Adua gave me financial support while I was still in hospital. That was in 2009. I have not got anything from President Jonathan, but I have not made the request.

What I need now is rehabilitation. But I can still do my work very well and I don’t mind providing my services to the president if he wants me to. I know he needs help and we must all assist him to succeed.

How do you relax?

You see me putting out a basket ball court, that is what I want to be playing. I throw ball up and down my compound and I read the Bible. So between those two things, that is enough for me. I don’t go out because there is nothing outside. I have not been out of this house for one week now. Some times, I don’t even come down at all, they just bring food for me upstairs. I know that I am still carrying some medical stuff in my body, so I have to be careful. Again, my immunity is low, so I don’t want to expose myself to many of the airborne diseases, mosquitoes and so on. So, relaxing yes, but relax within limit.

Just like your lawyer asked you, how would like to be buried?

I will like to be buried as a Christian, as a Baptist. I want to be buried beside my father’s grave at Oza Street, Benin City. I don’t need too much fanfare. Maybe my academic friends can pay tributes to me, maybe other people can pay tributes; that is all.

What can you say is your happiest moment and your saddest?

My happiest day was the day Jonathan was sworn-in as president. My saddest day was when June 12 was annulled. You can see the way I still feel about June 12, that is why people call me June 12. That is why I feel very sad today when I see some people who contributed to the annulment calling themselves democrats. Don’t want to name them. That remains a very sour point in Nigeria’s political life. My happiest day, the day Jonathan was sworn-in, not May 29 as Democracy Day, no no no. Don’t let us re-write history. In the history of this country, the annulment remains a very sour point for some of us and the death of Abiola. I feel sad because I believe that those who contributed to that annulment, they should get them out and shoot them. Because when I see them on television, I feel like breaking the television. Nigerians should spend that day reflecting, people need to find out why democracy eluded us on June 12, 1993. President Jonathan needs to put together a committee for political science to fundamentally restructure the political order. The political order must be restructured. Why should somebody be saying that it is the turn of one zone or the other. One of the problems June 12 solved was that it threw up people and people never minded where they came from. PDP must be restructured to make it look like a national democratic party. The ACN looks too much of a regional party, it must also restructure in a manner that it will serve as a national alternative to PDP. If we do that all other things, prosperity shall follow.