Before she came into the wobbly administration of President Umaru Yar’Adua as minister, Madame Dora Akunyili was distinctly a brand of some sort. Actually, she was a glittering icon: a global showpiece of the best that this generally derided country is potentiated with in integrity, patriotic vigour, job commitment and daring courage in public office.
That was during her highly eventful tenure as Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), when she proved herself the veritable Nemesis of dealers in fake drugs and other dubious consumables. In the sleuth of the corruption, base interests and gross incompetence which over the years characterised leadership in Nigeria, the Pharmacy professor stood out as a shining beacon of character and noble conduct.
For her robust exploits in dealing a heavy hand against shady tycoons, she picked up many laurels locally and internationally – almost as if they were overripe grapes in free fall amidst a racy storm. In the course of that, she lent a shred of globally-accounted credibility to the disreputed institution of leadership in this country. In the thick of the ill-fated and cancerous third term bid by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, for instance, she came across as a core professional who found herself in public office, and doing what she knew best apolitically. I vividly remember that once when she paid a courtesy visit to The Punch’s head office in Lagos, where I then worked, she was accorded the full complement of corporate reception reserved only for that paper’s select list of ‘worthy’ dignitaries.
That was Akunyili as the anti-fake drug czar. Then she dabbled in politics. Perhaps to soften the ground for her alleged ministerial ambition (or maybe to secure herself in the saddle at NAFDAC – where I would say she was already secure by the sheer record of her performance), Madame Dora weighed in vigorously as a member of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by featuring actively and visibly in the electioneering for Yar’Adua presidency. But that, I think, also marked the onset of her eclipse. Shortly after Yar’Adua became President, for instance, and while Madame Dora was yet at NAFDAC, the acclaimed ‘garrison commander’ of gutter politics in Oyo State, the late Lamidi Adedibu, dragged her reputation in the mud by alleging that she had lobbied him without success to facilitate her being made a minister.
Speaking outside an Abuja Magistrate’s Court where he was arraigned for unruly conduct on November 15, 2007, Adedibu had dismissively said of her: “That lady is a useless lady. Don’t mind her. She was in my house showering praises on me when she came during the campaign. When she lost her ‘right’ to become a minister, she started abusing everybody.”
Akunyili, of course, refuted that claim vigorously. Speaking on the phone same day to the media, she had said: “I am in Germany. I just got a message from my office that Adedibu told journalists in court today that I came to beg him to help me to become a minister and that was why I started complaining about him. I am in shock. I only went to Ibadan with the presidential campaign train, with the presidential candidate and other members of the campaign team. Thereafter, I only went to Ibadan again during the recent stakeholders meeting during which I complained to the governor and the Oba (Olubadan) on how Adedibu consistently obstructed our (NAFDAC) activities in Oyo State. I never in anyway lobbied Adedibu or anybody for a ministerial position.”
If you asked me, I easily believed Akunyili’s word against the political henchman’s. Still, that verbal spat remained at the level where it came up – dirty politics – steeply below the turf of technocratic professionalism where she had built her towering reputation.
Eventually, and much to widespread expectation, the iconic Akunyili was nominated for a ministerial job by colourless President Yar’Adua after he shook up his initial cabinet. The surprise, however, was that the Pharmacy professor and proven technocrat got named to the yeoman portfolio of Information and Communication.
Incidentally, not a few Nigerians smelled rat and suspected that reputed Dora was being set up for deconstruction with that posting – just like when World Bank gnome, Prof Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who was literally expatriated home by ex-President Obasanjo to run the Finance Ministry, was vindictively exiled to Foreign Affairs portfolio for her refusal to back the third term bid. But then, unlike Okonjo-Iweala who swiftly called Obasanjo’s bluff and quit the government, Akunyili had enthusiastically rationalised and laundered her posting. “I have enjoyed serving Nigerians through the NAFDAC where I worked with my wonderful and indefatigable team to safeguard the health of the ordinary Nigerian…Today, I find myself steering the ship of this very important ministry as the chief image maker of Nigeria.
“This ministry represents the image and the soul of the nation…My vision is to work assiduously to shore up the good image of Nigeria through responsible communication which entails proper information management. Responsible information management does not mean telling lies. In fact, one thing we must avoid is telling lies to the public. When we lie to the public about any situation, they will surely find out and lose confidence in us as the information mouthpiece of the nation and if this happens, no matter how well-intentioned we eventually become, the public would have lost confidence in us, that they will reject whatever programme or policy we introduce, no matter how credible,” she had said at her assumption of duties at the ministry‘s Radio House Headquarters, Abuja, on December 18, 2008.
Were she even slightly clairvoyant, perhaps Madame Dora would have noted the markedly prophetic ring in that inaugural pronouncement of hers concerning the impending demand of her portfolio, as it would bear on her principal’s health and flagrant medical abdication that has thrown Nigeria in a dangerous constitutional crisis. Seventy-eight days on, the President is on medical exile in Saudi Arabia without having transferred his executive powers to Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan.
Until last Wednesday, Akunyili was the voice of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) – along with self-appointed Michael Aondoakaaa, the Justice Minister and Federal Attorney-General – in postulating that Nigerians should make do with an offshore President, who is alleged to be on life support machines, and whose indefinite absence literally has put the country itself on life support.
But now, Madame Dora appears to have regained some spark, as her old mettle for principle and pluck resurged to the fore. She broke rank last Wednesday to do a memo challenging the FEC to face up to Yar’Adua’s incapacitation and stop taking Nigerians for a ride. That memo was momentarily buried by spineless and self-serving lackeys of the establishment, and may be re-tabled this week. Whenever Yar’Adua returns, Akunyili’s position as minister may be quite untenable and she may inevitably get the boot. But she is already back in league with history.
Akunyili rebrands.

By Kayode Idowu