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Zorro’s pathetic assault on Akunyili
ANDY IKE EZEANI
The very
total commitment to principle and uncompromising disposition in a critical
public assignment which have defined Dora Akunyili and gained her tremendous
public approval are bound to attract some opposite reactions too. That is just
natural. Look at it this way; the lady is being celebrated because of the
unbelievable success she has made of her tenure as director general of the
National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
In the less than four years that she has
led NAFDAC, Mrs.Akunyili has virtually run purveyors of fake products out of
town and wrestled miscellaneous merchants of death almost to a standstill. By
her commitment and acts, the pall of inevitable and often unaccountable deaths
from consumption of fake drugs which loomed large in Nigeria has greatly been
scaled back. Many genuine entrepreneurs in the area of food, drugs, beverages
and sundry consumables have also reclaimed their ground and the initiative in
enterprise. In terms of both a healthier society and a better international
profile, Nigeria is in a better shape too. All these because one lady totally
killed any urge within her for self aggrandizement and took a vow reminiscent of
a nun’s, on this count to save Nigeria from itself.
But there is no way the applause for Dora
Akunyili within the Nigerian society can be total. It will be extremely na�ve if
she does not realize that. She may be receiving domestic and international
accolades for her successes in cleaning up the drug and food industries in
Nigeria, but make no mistakes about it, the merchants of fake drug and expired
food who she has virtually driven out of business are not from Mars. They are
human beings, citizens of this same abused society. These may be crooked
elements quite alright, but they have friends and relations too, their own
people as the phrase goes. Within the tortured social context of contemporary
Nigeria, many of these elements are big men (and women), as the loose tag goes.
To be so tagged often entails a certain elastic capacity to spend money. And who
cares in our present society where money comes from?
There is no doubt that the fake drug and
expired food merchants who Dora Akunyili has been doing battle with, have
sizeable war chests from which they will be too willing at any time to draw to
roll back the assault of the lady missionary at NAFDAC.If at any point
therefore, a counter attack of either personal or official variety is hurled on
Akunyili’s way, it can be understood to an extent. Evil and illegality don’t
just roll over when they come under justifiable attack. They fight back,
viciously too.
Sani Zorro’s extremely unkind and
factually leaking piece on the back page of The Sun of August 10,2004
titled "The over dance of Lady Dora" smacked every bit of a missile hurled from
across the divide in the Dora Akunyili versus merchants of fake drug war. Is
Sani Zorro now also among the bad guys on the other side of this very dangerous
war? An answer in the negative makes his outing even more grievous.
The logic is this; if he is counted among
the clan of the wounded and threatened of the fake drugs and expired food
merchants, the basis for any level of bitterness, belligerence or distortion of
facts from him can be understood. After all, in war and possibly in love, all is
still fair. Sani Zorro set the tone of his assault early in his expedition when
he declared in the third paragraph that "from the cellars and the dark recesses
of inner settlements of Onitsha, Aba and Lagos, our (his) brothers had long
perfected the art of labeling classroom chalk as Panadol and Aspirin, and which
they sold freely in dispensing drug stores and markets. And they call the
mindless practice,’bizness’".
In the instructive view of the
ex-president of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), the ultimate
confirmation of Dora Akunyili’s authenticity in her unrelenting campaign against
fake drugs is located essentially in his thesis that the "highest casualty of
the war she is waging" are "her own people". Mark his choice of words and
phrases. It is "her war" and the victims are "her people". It is left to be
imagined what Zorro’s views would have been if in his reading the majority of
the casualties of such a value-laden war, are from say, his own people.
Zorro leaves no one in doubt that for
people of his ilk, consideration of ethnic and sundry parochial effects takes
precedence over general salutary impact on setting and executing public
policies. Zorro’s reminder is helpful, lest we all forget so soon how Nigeria
came to its present pass.
Because he was obviously out on a
determined assassination trip, Zorro did not care to even get the basic facts
that would have aided his expedition to appear a bit more rounded. As is the
case with such passionate undertakings, he so ignored and side stepped counter
points and facts around him that would ordinarily have rendered the basis of his
views hopeless. And so he ended up quite obtuse and too transparent in his
premeditated assault.
In a society where rogues and sundry
public parasites in high and low places have been promoted and celebrated over
the years and across regimes, some in the very presence of Sani Zorro and with
public resources, the former NUJ president has just woken up to propriety.
Pitiably, he chose to step out on a very wrong case.
Zorro has seen nothing wrong with state
resources that have been deployed so garishly over time to stage weddings
(including live telecast) of children of public office holders. He has found no
fault with public funds so disgustingly spent on celebration of flimsy local and
foreign awards. He has watched without comment as far deserving elements who
have given nothing to Nigeria have their birthdays marked so obviously with
public resources. All these obviously went well with him. Now, it is the
celebration of Dora Akunyili’s 50th birthday that Zorro has found indecent. How?
If any public servant in Nigeria of this
season deserves a celebration of his/her life, who better than Dora Akunyili?
Even at that, Zorro would have easily discovered, had he tried, that all
Mrs.Akunyili contributed in the making of her colourful birthday party was
literally to dress up and present herself and her family. The committee of
friends that put the event together bore the cost of practically everything. The
companies that so willingly donated their products were made aware that there
was and could not be any strings attached to their products supplied.
Mrs. Akunyili reportedly reacted publicly
and characteristically to the car gift from the Manufacturers Association of
Nigeria. According to reports, she was so touched that the manufacturers group
with whom she had had serious confrontations in the past has realized over time
that her campaign was never personal but based on principle and in the interest
of Nigeria. Zorro says Akunyili does not require a car gift to continue her
work, so she should either send the car to the Independent Corrupt Practices
Commission or deploy the car for NAFDAC public enlightenment.Sani Zorro’s new
sense of ethics and propriety is indeed acute.
Of all the social functions that Mrs.
Stella Obasanjo has been attending across Nigeria, Sani Zorro never found any
unacceptable. Then the first lady attends the birthday of Dora Akunyili and
Zorro asks that she should explain why public fund should be used to fuel the
jet that brought her to Lagos for such an event. What other evidence of bad
faith is required of Zorro?
Did Mrs.Akunyili also use public resources
to rent the surging crowd of both elite and ordinary citizens that attended both
the church service and the subsequent reception of her birthday in Lagos Island?
There was and continues to be a tremendous public appreciation of the sacrifices
and services of this lady to the country. She has knocked down all parochial
barriers in her acceptance today because Nigerians realize how much she has gone
to ensure their wellbeing.
There is a most instructive lesson to people in public
positions today on how well Akunyili has been appreciated across the land.
Understandably the pervasive warm appreciation of the NAFDAC boss cannot extend
to those whose intentions and businesses are not genuine. This is why Sani
Zorro’s disposition is worrisome. Zorro’s fears that the way things are going
Dora Akunyili may decide to run for president, cannot be a convincing ground for
his blind hit below the belt. His reasoning and disposition were at once
pathetic and disgusting.
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