The Death That Ripped Kanu Nwankwo’s Heart Apart

On the eve of Christmas last year 2019, Super Eagles legend Kanu Nwankwo, turned to Twitter to express his grief and hurt at the passing away of someone dear to him. 

In 1996, the former Super Eagles captain had his first heart surgery. Kanu had a faulty aortic valve that needed to be operated on, this experience opened his eyes to the high costs of such heart surgeries around the world. This led him to make the decision to open a heart foundation. 

The Kanu Heart Foundation, a non-profit, non-governmental organization was founded in 2000 in England, to help indigent children with heart conditions to obtain life-saving surgeries both within and outside Nigeria. The first two beneficiaries of the Foundation, Oluwatofunmi Okude and Enitan Adesola were operated on at Crown Hospital London in 2000. 

Enitan Adesola was only 2 when she had her open-heart surgery, which was successful. She went on to live a normal life, even becoming a part of the Kanu family, with the former Arsenal player referring to her as his daughter. When Enitan completed her University education in London, she set back to Nigeria, to join the Kanu Heart Foundation in Lagos, and add to their efforts. 

However on Tuesday, December 24th, 2019, the news broke that this young survivor had passed on. The two-time African Footballer of the Year was clearly distraught about this painful incident on the eve of Christmas. He expressed his dismay and confusion at Enitan’s sudden passing in his tweet. 

Why why why one of Kanu heart foundation gone. My daughter gone gone gone I can’t believe this R I P Eniton God knows all 💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔 sad sad sad Don’t know what to do pic.twitter.com/EVq1AASsYM

— Kanu Nwankwo (@papilokanu) December 24, 2019

Later that day, Nwankwo’s wife, Amara Kanu, on her Instagram page explained that the young Enitan had passed away due to complications she suffered after a brief malaria illness. This news made the whole incident more heart wrenching – a survivor of open-heart surgery at the age of 2, dies due to malaria complications in Nigeria at 21. 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Sad news today for me, I don’t know how to take this but God knows best. . One of our first @kanuheartf beneficiaries passed away. Enitan was just 2 years old when she had her open surgery done in London courtesy of the Kanu Heart Foundation. She then became part of my family and 19 years later after completing her university studies, she came back to work with us in our Lagos office until she passed yesterday from some complications with malaria 😢. She was kind, sweet and patient. She will be missed by many. Our condolences go out to her parents and family. 💔cc: @kingkanu4 . A reminder to love while you can. 🙏🏽 . #atimeforeverything #lovewhileyoucan #kanuheartfoundation #love #loss #hope #life #death

A post shared by Amara Kanu (@amarakanu) on Dec 24, 2019 at 8:12am PST

Kanu’s pain and hurt were evident in his tweet, and looking at the smiling picture of Miss Enitan, one wouldn’t even believe that she had a heart condition that required surgery. She seemed full of life and ready to impact lives, but sadly her life ended too soon.

The Kanu Heart Foundation will be 20 years this year and it has sponsored more than 560 heart disease patients to have open heart surgeries both in India and Nigeria.