Chief Gani Fawehinmi

 :Just Before He Died, Chief Gani Fawehinmi Granted This Interview About His Health

Before now, the doctors diagnosed wrong things. The doctors were looking at my usual ailments, high blood pressure, my heart and so on. They never thought I could have lung cancer since I don't smoke or drink.

Finally, when I was feeling the pain seriously, by January 2007, after January 15 Fawehinmism programme where I delivered an address, I came back home, it was terrible. I called the doctor, he tested me and said it was lubanimonia. They were pouring anti-biotics on me. On the 20th  of June, 2007, I discovered that each time I went to Sheraton to swim, if I swim for a distance of 30 feet, I will be breathing seriously and painfully.

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After sometime, I went to a hospital in Victoria Island for final checkup. I was there for about six hours. They said my heart was about collapsing, that I was going to have  heart attack. In July, I called my cardiologist, Dr Mike Fadayomi, my childhood friend from the age of four. He is one of the best cardiologists  in this world.

I called him and said they said I should not stay overnight in the hospital where they diagnosed me, otherwise I would have heart attack. He phoned me on his way from Ibadan that I should come to his clinic at TBS. He directed me to a radiologist to do the X-ray first. After that,  he (radiologist) came with the wet X-ray and showed it to me and Fadayomi.

Fadayomi shouted that my left lung is bad. He said something dangerous is wrong with your left lung. He said "Gani you must run to London. I don't understand this."

Immediately, I booked the flight. I asked my daughter in London to book an appointment with the best hospital they call Royal Prompting for Lung, one of the best there. I took off, and I checked-in and started series of tests. Equipment I have never seen before were brought.

They said my left lung is about collapsing from something they have to investigate. They said there is something like tumour there and that the whole lung was soaked. Finally, they did an operation on the 2nd of August,  2007. Thereafter, they came out with the pathologist's report.

I went through series of stages from the minor to the advanced. What surprised me was that there is no year I did not do a thorough medical check-up in this country and in England.

In February 2007, I still saw my doctor. He examined me, but he did not discover anything like cancer. So, I didn't know what was just building up. Doctors in Nigeria did not see it, but they saw it in London. After the operation, they treated me and I was discharged.

As at that time, I had not lost my voice. The loss of voice was due to a combination of the powerful drugs I used and the ailments. It made my face darker and I lost my voice.

Gani Fawehinmi was a Nigerian lawyer and activist that was constantly on the neck of those in power. He passed away on September 5, 2009, that's exactly 16 years last Friday.