Written by:
Clement Muozoba.
okochacm@yahoo.com

THE LOOMING DOOM ON THE AMAZON.

No matter how anyone wants to think of it, Prof. Dora Akunyili is not a strange figure in Nigeria. She is believed to be the most popular woman in Nigeria of today. Even the first and second ladies are believed to be nowhere around her in terms of popularity and achievements. This is because any woman in so far as she is a woman can be a first or second lady but not everybody can be a professor and not every professor can head such a sensitive outfit like the National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC). Dora’s names appear on the dailies and her pictures appear also on the screen almost on daily basis. Therefore, anyone who does not know the Iron Lady of NAFDAC is but a new immigrant in Nigeria. The old ones know her more than enough.

The picture she portrays is that of an unusual but desired strictness in a country where everything, including governance, politics and even life have not only been trivialized but also commercialized. But this is not so with Prof. Akunyili, fondly referred to as Dora. Whenever one finds her on the screen making her points, she talks tough and her eyes seem to be popping out of their sockets in a type of boldness that was thought to be associated with the men’s world alone. Sometimes she would seem to be smacking the table to make her points understood. Her carriage is not just a defensive mechanism but a natural endowment for a woman born to rule. It is believed that through diligence, she worked her way into the corridors of power as a first class material, being on top of the class in her school days. That she maintained till today by being the first woman to head the NAFDAC. It was during this period that she not only exercised her erudition as a trained pharmacist but also showed her toughness in doing things the way they should be done even in the infamous Obasanjo administration. She thus became the fear of men and women who exchange the people’s lives for some coins in the name of business in fake food and drugs. Many still believe that she is among the few good things that came out of the Obasanjo administration.

Her educational and political pedigrees are not what endeared her to the hearts of the Nigerians. It is not even her fearless pair of eyes. It is rather that she is seen as a lover and protector of life. The way she vigorously pursued the fake drug barons was unprecedented in the history of Nigeria and she was noted to have done what no person in the country, whether man or woman, had ever dared to do. It was with her that many Nigerians came to understand that they had been taking pieces of chalk in the name of tablets and cassava powder in the name of capsules through the instrumentality of heartless drug merchants. Dora came to rectify all these and sent these evil men and women packing and with this, the health sector was considerably sanitized. This was where this great woman made her name and wrote it in gold in the hearts of millions of Nigerians who will continue to pray for her and wish her well in all her endeavours. Apart from the powerful politicians who go to the best hospitals abroad for treatment and the fake drug barons whose businesses have been threatened by Prof. Dora’s exploits in the NAFDAC, every other Nigerian owes his or her life to Dora.

However, this piece is not meant to canonize Dora and blame her human imperfections on the evil spirit. Like every other hero or heroine of a play, she had her tragic flaw. This was grossly shown when in the spirit of her party, she openly campaigned for the most notorious politician from her state as the gubernatorial candidate. This singular act nearly vitiated her efforts in the NAFDAC as majority of the citizens of her state wondered why such a woman of noble character could associate herself with such men of questionable character. She was later forgiven with the simple reason that nothing lives in the water without being generously bathed in it. The People’s Democratic Party is like that. More so, it was believed that she might have been forced to do that or else she would jeopardize her appointment. But many had questioned why she did not resign honourably instead of that mess. The simple answer is that it is not easy to resign one’s appointment in Nigeria and for those who have walked the corridors of power, quitting is always the last thing thought of. Even if she had resigned, would anyone have vowed for the security of her life? It is only God that can answer this question. But did she win her war in the NAFDAC? Yes. She won. This victory in an unusual battle might have been responsible for her elevation as a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

When on the 17th of November, 2008 President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua included the name of Prof. Dora Akunyili among the ministerial nominees, not a few Nigerians showed their happiness. They thought her elevation as a minister would help to extend her good works to the health sector as the minister of health or at least, the minister of state for health. But the surprise of the century came after the screening of the ministerial nominees by the legislators, an exercise that has been reduced to a mere routine. Of course, Dora scaled through. When it was time to allot them their various ministries, she was rather given the ministry of information and communication. It was a rude shock and not a few saw it as forcing a square peg in a round hole. It is not that Dora can not do it. But what could a pharmacist be doing in the ministry of information when there are other professionals in communication and more especially when the ministry of health was empty? This did not go down well with many.

I do not blame those who find fault with Prof. Akunyili’s appointment. This is because the history of those who have staked their lives for this country have been awful. The case at hand now is that of Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the immediate past chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) who was known to have vigorously fought financial criminals especially the advanced fee fraudsters to a stand-still. Ribadu was first elevated, then demoted, then humiliated and frustrated out of the police force. The Police Service Commission has finally dismissed him from the force. Right now, his whereabouts are not known. Before him, another woman of great repute, Prof. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala had been disgraced in a similar way. She was the minister of finance before she was deployed to the ministry of foreign affairs and subsequently forced to resign. The reasons for her resignation have not been made public. But she resigned and her position was given to her less experienced assistant in the ministry who was said to have found favour with the Obasanjo administration. Experience mattered no more.

One can then compare these people mentioned above with an educationist who served as a minister of aviation during whose tenure there were series of plane crashes that claimed the lives of hundreds of Nigerians including about fifty bright students of the prestigious Loyola Jesuit College, Abuja. Despite the wailing of the parents of these students and other well meaning Nigerians for that minister to resign, the federal government gave no heed to their plea. Though he was later relieved of his post as the minister, instead of sending him home for his ineptitude, he was deployed to another ministry. The fundamental question then was, “What had an educationist to do with the aviation ministry?” Where were our engineers? The same thing happened when Ishaya Mark Aku, a water engineer was made a sports minister in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Though death cut short his stay in that ministry, he was another square peg in a round hole, no matter how he was taunted to have done well before his death. Many believe that the fate of Prof. Akunyili may not be far from those of these people mentioned above.

The performances of the ministers of information in Nigeria especially in the recent time have not been quite encouraging. They are believed to have been selected from the Igbo stock to serve as the ‘presidential parrots’, just speaking from the head and not from the heart. That was why in the evening of the Obasanjo administration and immediately after the April 2007 General Elections, the then minister of information, against all sense of modesty, for about ten minutes, interrupted the network news to insult the then senate president in the national television. The senate president’s sin was that he said that there were no elections, a fact which everybody knew and for which some ‘governors’ had been forced to surrender their seats to the rightful owners. But he did not care because he had been detailed to do that by the master and he went against the exalted cultural value of respect for elders in Igbo land. In the very recent past, when it was very clear to even babies at the breast that the president was not in the best condition of health, the information minister boldly made the citizenry understand that the president was hale and hearty and just went on the lesser Hajj. Why should such a lie be told? Is there anything in one being sick? But that has become one of the functions of the information minister. LIES. Could this be a part of what our Dora is expected to do as the minister of information?

Another belief widely held is that as the D-G of NAFDAC, Prof. Akunyili had stepped on the toes of some big fishes in the country that were hitherto untouchable. These people might have found their way into the corridors of power and had to do something, not to punish the iron lady as such, but to breathe a little. And the great woman had to be eased off. Her exit from the NAFDAC is also associated with the attempt to remove all the elements of the Obasanjo administration, just the way Ribadu had been taken care of. May be she had to be rubbished in the information ministry first before she would be finally given the red card. These are mere speculations. But many wonder why she did not resign rather than allow herself to be booted out of office for inefficiency or make herself a pariah in the eyes of the public who once adored her and praised her work of food and drug supervision and control.

In her characteristic dual carriage, the new minister of information and communication has since received her appointment as the Lord’s doing, saying that she is where God wants her to be. Of course, she had begun her duty with alacrity and many hope that she will do well there by being one of the few information ministers that say the truth. I join others in wishing her well. In case she lasts long there, Dora should try to look at the various contracts in the communication industry that gave the GSM operators an undue advantage over Nigerians in such a way that Nigeria has become a goldmine for them while we get nothing for that. She should also look into the Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL) which had died long ago and is awaiting burial to know whether there can be a miracle of resurrection. The sale of the outfit to the Transcorp should also be reviewed and more serious investors should be invited to take it over for some serious business. Some other great tasks await her. But there is the great danger of falling where her predecessors had fallen. Let her be very mindful of this as we hope that in the next cabinet reshuffle, the Yar’Adua government may find it necessary to place her where she belongs and where she will be more useful to the country.

Clement Muozoba.
okochacm@yahoo.com

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