Obituary: On March 18, doctors told Oronto Douglas he had a few days to live…

Oronto Douglas, special adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan
on research, documentation and strategy, died in the early hours
of Thursday three weeks after his doctors told him he had a few
days to live.
He was diagnosed with cancer in 2008 and had been battling the
disease since then with "encouraging signs" of improvement,
family sources told TheCable.
At some stage, he was thought to have survived as the cancer
went into remission, but he suffered a relapse in 2011. He had
been visibly sick in the last one year, losing weight dramatically
and sometimes needing a wheelchair to move around in the last
three months. Douglas, a trusted aide of Jonathan travelled to the
US in March for his regular check-up and was told by his doctors
that he could not survive further medication. "They told him he
would die in a matter of days. That was on March 18, 2015. He
had to choose between dying in the US and returning to Nigeria.
He decided to return home," the source said. He was said to be in
high spirits up till the moments leading to his death, which
occurred at 4:58am on Thursday at the State House clinic, Abuja.
"You would not believe he was so sick if you listened to him on
the phone. Only if you saw him physically would you know his
state.
As at Wednesday, he was still working even though he could not
move around the house," the source added. Unlike in 2011 when
he went on the nationwide campaign tour of Jonathan, he was not
strong enough to participate in the 2015 campaign, and could no
longer go to office.
Douglas, who would have clocked 49 on August 6, cut his teeth
as a young lawyer and environmental rights activist. He was the
deputy director of the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the
Earth Nigeria, a group devoted to "protecting the environment". He
was a member of the legal team that represented Ken Saro-Wiwa
and eight other Ogoni activists at their trial under Gen. Sani
Abacha's government in 1994-95. The Ogoni Nine, as they were
called, were executed in November 1995 in what was described as
"judicial murder".
The Okoroba-born humanitarian had degrees in law from the
University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt, and De
Montfort, Leicester, England. He was commissioner for
information in Bayelsa state, but resigned in 2005 when DSP
Alamieyeseigha, then governor, was impeached. He left behind a
wife and two young sons.
Source: The Cable