Husband to a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, has said she lost her ability to speak and subsequently fell into a coma due to the complications of the cancer she had.
Diezani’s husband, Rear Admiral Alison Madueke (retd.), said this in his recently published book titled, ‘Riding the Storms with God on My Side’.
Madueke, who is a former Chief of Naval Staff, said towards the end of the Goodluck Jonathan administration in 2015, Diezani was diagnosed with cancer and had to be flown to London for treatment.
The retired naval officer said unfortunately, while his wife was severely ill, her condition became an issue of politics.
Earlier in the book, Madueke said when Diezani accepted a ministerial appointment in 2007, he told her not to focus on money but maintain the good name of the family and also do her best to bring name not money.
Madueke, who served as military governor of Imo and Anambra states in the 1980s, said he initially did not want his wife to take public office having only become the first female director of Shell Petroleum Development Company in Nigeria and had a great career.
The former naval officer explained that when she was appointed Minister, “I took further time to advise her on the topic of self protection and self preservation in the bureaucracy.”
On how his wife was appointed a minister, Madueke said shortly before the inauguration of President Umaru Yar’Adua in 2007, he was approached by the then Vice-President-elect, Goodluck Jonathan.
Madueke said Jonathan pleaded with him to allow Diezani to take up a job as minister as there were very few persons of Bayelsa origin who had her impressive resumé.
