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Dora Akunyili: A phenomenal woman [Sun, The (Nigeria)]
[June 10, 2014]

Dora Akunyili: A phenomenal woman [Sun, The (Nigeria)]


(Sun, The (Nigeria) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) The death of Dora Akunyili, former Information and Communication Minister and former Director-General of the National Agency for Foods, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), has stirred emotion and poignant tributes across the country. Dora, as she was affectionately called, built a reputation as an exceptional woman.



Before she was appointed a federal minister, she was already highly regarded as a hardworking and scrupulous public servant in her capacity as the Director-General of NAFDAC. It was in that role that Akunyili fought an unrelenting war against fake and adulterated drug producers and marketers inside and outside Nigeria.

Akunyili performed her job with unparalleled commitment and passion. She was no respecter of people of high or low social status. She was not afraid to confront people, who dealt in fake drugs. For that reason, for the fact that she stepped on some powerful toes, for the reason that she performed her job dispassionately in a country in which corruption has become an approved way of doing business, Akunyili was seen to be working against a predominant culture of nepotism in government business.


She nearly lost her life in 2003, two years after she was appointed by President Olusegun Obasanjo as the director-general of NAFDAC in 2001. This was how she explained the most audacious attack on her life: "They shot me. And this bullet shattered the back windscreen of my car, entered through my scarf, burnt the base of my hair… It was a horrifying experience." That experience was not surprising. The counterfeit drug business is a multibillion dollar trade. Those who produce and market the drugs would do anything to eliminate anyone whom they perceive as a threat to the growth and development of their prosperous business. Despite numerous threats to her life, Akunyili persevered in the face of adversity. Some people have asked the question: What kind of woman would place her life and the lives of her immediate family members at risk in the service of her country? To understand Akunyili, it is important to understand the forces that drove and inspired her during her time as NAFDAC chief. Those who knew and interacted with Akunyili say she was a soft, sociable, gracious, competent, understanding, and a sympathetic woman with a high degree of people-to-people skill. She was also a dedicated and caring mother who did her best to assist members of her family and other people in various ways.

Many people who have marvelled at Akunyili's extraordinary work ethic do not understand her antecedents. It was this private background information that Akunyili publicised in a television programme broadcast in 2005. In the TV program, she revealed for the first time the reason why she devoted her life to a campaign against fake and adulterated drugs, including those who manufacture and market the drugs. She said it was misfortune and a sad death in her family that drove her to take the battle against fake and counterfeit drugs to the entryway of the merchants of fake drugs.

During the program, the TV reporter asked Akunyili: "Why are you willing to risk your life on this?" The reference was to the sacrifices that Akunyili had made and the dangers she had exposed herself and her family in undertaking the national assignment. Akunyili considered the question, took a long hard look at the wall of her kitchen and resumed cutting some onions and capsicum on her kitchen table, as she prepared her meal.

In response to the question, Akunyili said: "You see, most of us have suffered from the effects of fake drugs. The best of all my sisters died in the '80s because she was taking fake insulin. And she was diabetic. Her blood sugar could not be controlled. She got very ill. She had an infection. She needed antibiotic. We bought some antibiotic and she never responded to it. And as a scientist, I knew that if the antibiotic was genuine she would have been fine. And Vivian would have been alive today." Vivian was a victim of fake antibiotic capsules sold on the streets, markets, pharmacies and inside commercial buses in the country. Akunyili continued: "The opportunity I have to deal with these criminals is a life opportunity that I should make the best use of. And I'm happy that I make the best of it. I am getting results. We are getting results. I don't really like saying 'I' because we are working as a team. But right now, as I am cooking here, my workers are in the field; they are in the ports." The appointment of Akunyili in 2008 as Information and Communication Minister by President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua sparked controversy in some segments of the society, notably the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ). A statement by the national secretary of the NUJ, Shu'aibu Usman Leman, on Thursday, 18 December 2008, read: "The NUJ national secretariat frowns at the recent appointment of Prof. Dora Akunyili as Minister for Information and Communication by President Umaru Yar'Adua. The appointment is ill-advised and smacks of the usual disdain with which politicians perceive the media." The NUJ statement continued: "It is noteworthy the zeal, honesty and commitment Akunyili brought to bear in the discharge of her assignment as the Director-General of National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control, and we thus assumed that a personality like her would be assigned the portfolio of Minister of Health. That would have been putting a round peg in a round hole rather than the present situation which is a misnomer." Of course, Yar'Adua ignored the NUJ objection and Akunyili was screened and sworn in to serve as Information and Communication Minister. However, following Yar'Adua's prolonged ill health, his absence from the country, the uncertainty over the vacuum created by Yar'Adua's absence, Akunyili became the lone sound voice in the Executive Council who called for an end to the uncertainty created by Yar'Adua's ill health and absence from the country.

Her proposal was that the then Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan should take over presidential duties pending the recovery and return to office of Yar'Adua. Akunyili pushed her view more forcefully at a meeting of the Executive Council of the Federation where she single-handedly distributed a memo that suggested that Yar'Adua should step aside temporarily till he had recovered fully from his ill health, in order to end the power vacuum at the Presidency.

It was a rational suggestion that Akunyili put forward to her colleagues in the Executive Council but it was also a proposition that did not go down well with northern members of the Executive Council and other politicians.

Yar'Adua's inability to hand over power to his Vice-President who should have overseen government business during Yar'Adua's medical treatment in Saudi Arabia had plunged the nation into a political predicament. The boldness and candour that Akunyili showed in calling for order in the midst of chaos made some northern politicians to take offence at her.

Those gutless northern politicians waited for an opportunity to take on Akunyili. The chance emerged when Akunyili was nominated as minister by President Goodluck Jonathan. On Monday, 29 March 2010, during her screening as a ministerial nominee in the Senate, Senator Mahmud Kanti Bello from Katsina State broke all protocols in the screening room when he asked Akunyili awkward questions sprinkled with painful insinuations that questioned Akunyili's allegiance to ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua.

True to her character as an indefatigable woman of substance, Akunyili responded to Kanti Bello's abrasive questions and defended vigorously allegations that she was not loyal to Yar'Adua. She cited numerous instances of her kindness to the Yar'Adua family to strengthen her case that she had always been loyal to Yar'Adua.

Akunyili also revealed something she did for Yar'Adua that touched many hearts. She said: "Consequent upon my close relationship with Mr. President, when he became ill, I organised a fast with my workers and my household… I also booked a… Novena mass for him in Saint Leo's Parish, Ikeja, when he went to the hospital…. That shows you that I have nothing against our President. I am loyal to him; I am loyal to the Constitution and I am very loyal to the country, Nigeria." In 2011, Akunyili left the People's Democratic Party (PDP) to join the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). In an essay published in The Guardian of Thursday, 3 March 2011, Akunyili explained her reasons for contesting the Anambra central senatorial seat under the APGA flag.

She wrote: "My sole motivation for contesting the April 2011 senatorial elections is my desire to use my wealth of experience to attract more attention to my senatorial district, to Anambra State and to the South East geo-political zone, as well as to make Nigeria a better place through robust contributions to the lawmaking process and in performance of my oversight functions as a Senator.

My ambition is not driven by the desire for pecuniary gains but by patriotic considerations and a strong desire to contribute more meaningfully to positively touch the lives of my people…" There is no doubt that Akunyili has served her fatherland faithfully and commendably in senior capacities. Certainly, her professional knowledge and skills contributed to the development of the departments and ministries in which she served.

Akunyili was a capable and exceptional woman, and a conscientious scholar too. She was a woman of high character who took her responsibilities seriously. Nigeria will be a different place if only we can reproduce a few senior government officials who approach their assignments with the same zeal, devotion and fearlessness that Akunyili brought to her job as NAFDAC boss and Information and Communication Minister.

May her soul rest in peace! (c) 2014 The Sun Publishing Limited. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).

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