Muna Obiekwe: I have been living without kidney for threeyears – Emma Ugolee

Following the death of Nollywood actor, Muna Obiekwe, last
Sunday, after a protracted battle with failing kidney which
finally gave in on Sunday, an air of gloom descended on the
industry, prompting many to question their lifestyles and
warning colleagues to do the same. Tributes began to pour in
for the deceased, just as colleagues exchanged messages of
love, sharing the loss and embracing in a sombre camaraderie
that only could come from losing a dear one.
Emma Ugolee
Amid the tears, the sobs and sheer disbelief is a man who
must feel the loss than most people. Not because he is a kin
or of same family with the deceased but because he suffers
from the same ailment from which his colleague has just
passed away. To him, death is never far away. He had come
close to seeing it many times but has always won. The man
is Emma Ugolee, former on-air-personality.
“Too many phone calls last night only with everyone just
checking to see how I was doing. It all made sense when
news filtered in that Muna Obiekwe had just died from a
disease I’ve battled for over three years now. The general
concern being the psychological impact of being reminded of
the likelihood of one’s demise owing to the unpredictable and
deadly nature of living without a kidney,” he recalled his
experience a night after Muna’s death.
“For closer friends, aware that I had lost 10 associates to this
struggle. Three being in the last Three months and that each
one lived with issues less complicated than mine. Calling me
was like checking up on a pal on death row,” he observed
somberly.
But Emma Ugolee, as much as he may see himself on death
row, isn’t sitting helplessly, expecting the hangman to come
with the noose. He has hope and he shared it with colleagues:
“Now it was time to return the calls and assure every single
one that the unfortunate event is no reason to lose faith,” he
said
“It’s no proof that I must toe a similar line. That I am not
holier than those whose journeys have ended and thus wise
enough to understand that logic does not explain the
sustaining power of grace. The fact that a pattern surrounds
you, does not mean your future has been moulded by it. Your
faith, your vision, aspiration and motivation must tower above
your environment all the time. What around you shakes your
faith in you? What around you weakens your resolve to try?
What tempts you to want to conform? Nothing, should be the
only answer you know,” he counselled.