Obi Emelonye donates Kidney to Brother

Obi Emelonye is arguably one of the best movie directors taking the magic of ‘Nollywood’ to the wider world. With his multi-disciplinary approach to film-making, his relentless creative drive and an uncanny sense of artistic style, has marked him out as one of UK's contemporary directors.

In a recent interview, the award winning film maker and winner of The Sun's Creative Man of the Year award, revealed how he survives on one kidney, a sacrifice he had to make in order to save his brother’s life.

‘In 2007, my younger brother was diagnosed with a kidney condition; we thought it was something that could be managed by just taking drugs but increasingly it became an issue… the only option was to do a kidney transplant‘, he said.

‘In March 2010, his condition became more critical, at this time, I was in post-production for ‘Mirror Boy’, I was in the studio editing the film, and it became a vote between myself and my immediate elder brother, who is executive producer of ‘Last Flight to Abuja’, to go to India with the patient… but circumstances led me to being the only person that was singled out‘.

‘God healed my brother; he was in India for another month, now he is back in Ghana, and his kidneys are probably better than yours. The only thing is that he is on medication to control his immune system but he is working perfectly‘.

Asked, how does it feel to win The Sun's Creative Man of the Year award,he said winning The Sun Creative Man of the Year is my beginning, which I look at as God's providence, and I am very humble and very grateful to The Sun for, first of all, carving out this award because a lot of mainstream awards have refused to recognise creativity. So, it is a hugely commendable initiative by The Sun to get a category for creative people and recognize the amount of work we are doing for Nigeria.

I feel very honoured and privileged to be the first winner of the award.