Dora Akunyili: Sacrifice for Love of Nation

When pictures of gaunt-looking Nigeria’s former Minister of Communication and Director-General of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Dora Akunyili surfaced on the web months ago while she was attending the ongoing National Conference in Abuja, I was concerned that she needed to have taken enough timeout from the public glare to fully recover from whatever ailment it was that had so visibly ravished her frame.

A recently published Yes International interview (excerpts follow below), has, however, helped me understand why the dogged professor might not have contemplated such an option: her unflinching love for Nigeria and a willingness to lay down her life in the service of her beloved country. In a tribute informed by a personal encounter of the Amazon, former Presidential Liaison Officer to the Senate, Kashim Ibrahim-Imam, alludes to this love when he writes that Akunyili “defiantly, patriotically [took] up a national assignment, disregarding the odds, the hazards and even the encumbrance of a debilitating ailment.” Her body might have been ravaged by cancer, but not her spirit. And so, like the great lioness (alumna of the University of Nigeria Nsukka) that she was, she resolutely determined to fight on. Till the end.

We will remember and celebrate her for her positive impacts in our lives, fighting to rid Nigeria and, to some extent, the world of fake drugs (when one takes into consideration the awareness campaign she waged on the export countries of such counterfeited drugs, getting the authorities concerned from such countries to realize the horrendous effects on human life the unconscionable businesses originating from their countries wreck on Nigeria). This is hoping that her labors (labors of our heroes past) would not have been in vain. Rest in eternal peace, worthy lioness. Africa mourns you.

What’s the greatest sacrifice you’ve made as the boss of NAFDAC?

I think I sacrificed everything. When you ask me of sacrifice, it is difficult for me to give you a straight answer. From the first day, I knew that this is a job that can take my life – but that is if God allows. So, I can now call it the sacrifice of my life. 
It’s a sacrifice of any pleasure, pleasure of being with my family. It is total sacrifice that is even difficult for anybody to explain. But it is a joyous one because you have every reason to be happy. If you are sacrificing and you are seeing the result, you are sacrificing and people you are working for are happy, you have every reason to be happy. It’s like I’m sacrificing, I’m under stress but I’m happy. When you are sacrificing and God shows you that He’s happy and blesses what you are doing, you are happy. So, I think sacrifice is good when it pays off.

Receiving the 2012 ThisDay Special Award, flanked by her husband, Dr. Chike Akunyili,
former British First Lady Cherie Blair, and former US President Bill Clinton

Some people say Nigeria is not worth dying for but your antecedents ever since you got here have been the opposite. Why do you want to die for Nigeria, is Nigeria really worth dying for?

That statement, ‘Nigeria is not worth dying for’ is a wicked statement. You know why I call it wicked? The same country that made you what you are, you are saying it’s not worth dying for. I don’t know why people say that. But for me, Nigeria is worth dying for. Ask me why.

Why?

Nigeria made me what I am today. It is because I’m a Nigerian that I went to the University of Nigeria Nsukka on scholarship, I did my post-graduate on scholarship, I went for Commonwealth Fellowship on scholarship and I was well paid. If I was from Zimbabwe maybe I wouldn’t have got it. And I’m working in Nigeria and I’m earning, and my children were born here. It’s only my last child that was born in Europe.

And everything I have is in Nigeria. It’s a country that has made me. It’s a country where I have my friends, my relations, my everything. So, I don’t have any other country. And if I say Nigeria is not worth dying for, is it America that I should die for? Or is it Britain that I should die for? Nigeria is worth dying for any day, anytime provided you are dying for the right cause. You can die for stealing (laughs). But if you die in the process of doing the right thing, not only will Nigerians appreciate, the God you are serving through Nigerians will bless you.

What’s the sweetest thing that any Nigerian has ever said to you since you found yourself here? And for the good work you are doing. The nicest…

Nicest? I don’t know how to address the one of nicest because everywhere I go people say you are doing a good job. Some people just come and whisper, I love you; some people come into my office and say to me or even at the airport and so on, and say, ‘You have saved us’.

Some people say a few things and I cry. Somebody had walked up to me, not just one person, and said, “Madam, God bless you. If you were in NAFDAC, my mother wouldn’t have died”. When people say such things, I withdraw and I really cry. I say, “God, look at the kind of trust that people have in me and my team. Please, do not allow us to disappoint the people”.

People have said so many good things to me that it’s even so difficult for me to recollect. Some of them will come and say, “God bless the President for appointing you”. Ah, it’s prayer all the way. Nigerians are wonderful people. Honestly, Nigerians are good and I pray that we will never, never disappoint them. By the grace of God.