Guardian

OVER one year after she lost her husband, Prof. Celestine Onwuliri, in the June 2012 Dana Air disaster in Lagos, his widow and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Prof. Viola Adaku Onwuliri, said no compensation has been given to her family by the management of the airline.

While urging the airline to reach out to other Nigerians who were affected, she stressed that the incident threw the family into serious challenges and described the sad event as a heavy blow on her family.

The widow spoke yesterday amidst tears while addressing journalists in Jos shortly after the one-year memorial mass for the late Prof. Onwuliri at the Good Shepherd Catholic Chaplaincy, University of Jos.

“We have no link with Dana Airline, we have not seen them and we have no contact with them, so that is how it has been,” the minister responded to journalists’ questions. “I just hope they have reached out to other Nigerians that were involved.

“From the day of the incident on June 3, 2012, it has been a downturn of events for our family, it was a heavy blow and we have been feeling quite bad since then and the pain is still there.

“We thank Nigerians, the President and the First Lady and all other distinguished Nigerians for their outpouring of support and condolence, and the feelings people have had towards us since then. Though we are still in pains, we appreciate the support of Nigerians and thank God for His enablement that has kept us up till today.”

She noted that before the demise of her husband, he was a man of so many legacies that contributed to the growth of science and economic activities in the country. So she preferred Nigerians to remember him for his love and kindness for the country.

“You heard the Vice Chancellor of the University of Jos say the institution called my husband Doctor Kindness, and I want Nigerians to remember him for his kindness, patriotism, hardwork and for the expansion and strength of the education sector,” she added.

“I want them also to remember him as a deeply religious person and moreover as a great family man, who loved his wife, children and indeed anybody that came across him.”

At the church service, meanwhile, Mrs. Onwuliri urged Nigerian professors to be disciplined and to contribute positively towards the development of the education sector, just as he tasked them to be dedicated to research work rather than creating confusion with petitions that only compound the challenges the sector was currently facing.

In his remarks, the Vice Chancellor, University of Jos, Prof. Hayward Babale Mafuyai, also urged Nigerian scholars to build on the late Onwuliri’s intellectual work, noting that, “as a distinguished scholar and academic, references will continually be made to his works. His lectures are part of the fabrics that make up many zoologists practising their professions around Nigeria and beyond.

“There are also 24 PhD holders who owe the publication of sound PhD thesis to him. His fingerprints continue to shape and mould academic life, scientific work and research.”