THE AFRICAN COURIER. Reporting Africa and its Diaspora! The African Courier is an international magazine published in Germany to report on Africa and the Diaspora African experience. The first issue of the bimonthly magazine appeared on the newsstands on 15 February 1998. The African Courier is a communication forum for European-African political, economic and cultural exchanges, and a voice for Africa in Europe.
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has claimed the life of a prominent UK-based Nigerian doctor.
Dr Alfa Saadu, 68, died on Tuesday afternoon at the Whittington Hospital in north London. He was infected with the virus while volunteering in a hospital in London.
According to his son Dani Saadu, the doctor started to show symptoms of coronavirus two weeks ago and immediately self-isolated, the BBC reported.
Dr Saadu was persuaded by his family to go to hospital, but he refused because, in the words of his son, he “did not want to take up a hospital bed because others would need it”.
Dani Saadu added: “He was a very passionate man, who cared about saving people.
“As soon as you spoke to him about medicine or what was happening with the NHS [National Health Service] his eyes would light up – he was very passionate.”
Dr Saadu had been a medical director at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Essex and Ealing NHS Trust and worked at many hospitals in the British capital. Despite retiring in 2017 after a 40-year distinguished career, Dr Saadu continued to work part-time until his death.
Dr Saadu is the fourth doctor working at the NHS to die of the coronavirus disease in a week in the UK, according to the BBC.
Tributes have been pouring in for the late medical practitioner, who was from Patigi in Kwara State, where he was turbaned as the third Galadiman Patigi in March 2000.
Former Nigerian Senate president Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki posted his condolences on Twitter.
Dr Sa’adu was born on 31 August 1952 in Patigi, Kwara State, and arrived in London on 6 October 1960. He went to school and studied in the UK, graduating from University College Hospital Medical School, London in 1976. He has been a Consultant Physician in Geriatric Medicine since 1994.
Austin Ohaegbu
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