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 Daily Independent Online.
* Friday, July 23, 2004.
She is different: A tribute to
Akunyili
By Jasper Okpalafulaku
No woman has in
recent years captured the Nigerian public imagination as Dr. Dora
Akunyili, Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug
Administration and Control (NAFDAC). The near unprecedented acclamation for her is
surprising for four reasons.
Unlike some organisations which could earn loyalty by dispensing immense
patronage through the award of mouth-watering contracts, NAFDAC is a
service organisation.
Secondly, NAFDAC is a regulatory agency. All over the world, regulatory bodies are scarcely
popular because as the policeman of a given industry, they make and
enforce regulations which naturally do not often endear them to either
the public or industry operators.
The third factor is her sex.
Nigeria is still largely a conservative society where women have
yet to be accorded a proper status, no matter their education and
achievements.The fourth is that Nigerians often criticise public officers
severely when they are still in office, only to speak nostalgically about them when they are no more around.
Everyone agrees Dr. Akunyili
is worthy of all the numerous honours she has received from both Nigeria
and abroad. It speaks
volumes that though Transparency International has on occasions declared
Nigeria one of the two
countries most perceived to engage in unethical business practices, Dr.
Akunyili won in 2003 the highly coveted Integrity Award.
Recognitions for her work in the last four years have
come from places like the
Vatican City, as Pope John Paul II used the occasion of the Silver
Jubilee of his Papacy last year to offer a Special Apostolic Prayer in
Rome for the NAFDAC Director-General.
In an era when a number of
Nigerians have embraced privatization of state-owned enterprises as an
article of faith because government businesses have failed colossally,
NAFDAC has stood out as a
perfect example of sound public sector management.
But a brand new NAFDAC has
emerged since April 2001 when Dr. Akunyili assumed office. For the past
three years, the
agency has through imaginative methods been raising huge revenues which
enable it to not just carry out its primary mandate of regulating drugs
and processed foods but also carry out massive public enlightenment
campaigns. Its officials
frequently travel abroad to monitor the processes of manufacture of drugs
imported into Nigeria, which account for some 90 per cent of drugs in the
country.
If, indeed, there is a
government agency where corruption is almost a foreign word, it is the
brand new NAFDAC. And if
there is any public organization where nepotism or favoritism has no
place, it is NAFDAC. No one
who knows Dr. Akunyili is surprised at the NAFDAC new culture of
integrity. While serving in
the19 90s as the Administrative Secretary, Southeast Zone of the now defunct Petroleum (Special)
Trust Fund (PTF), she was given 17,000 pounds sterling for surgery in
England, but when further tests proved that she no longer required the
operation, she returned the remaining 15,000 pounds to the government.
President Obasanjo had been intimated of that and of
her other qualities, but when he wanted to make her the NAFDAC
Director-General, some people advised against it on the ground that the
Health Minister then hails from the same geopolitical zone as Dr.
Akunyili. In other words,
some well-placed Nigerians feared that nepotism could mar the agency’s
work. It is therefore
noteworthy that a good number of the victims of Akunyili’s crusading work
are from her zone. In fact,
she is reputed to be particularly strict in dealing with relations and
close friends.
Akunyili is firm but
fair-minded. No one can
accuse her of victimization
or witch-hunting. Even if
she makes a mistake, it is obvious to everyone that it is of the head,
and not of the heart. When
she takes a decision which affects you unfavourably, it will still be
manifest she has taken a dispassionate position. I am talking from
experience. She is one
public officer who works truly with the fear of the almighty, unlike most
Nigerians who indulge in mere outward religious worship.
“They worship me with their
lips”, laments the Holy Writ, “but their hearts are far from me” (Mark
7:6, Isaiah 29:29). That is why there is so much religiosity but little
Christianity or Islam in Nigeria.
Hence, the high prevalence of corruption, bribery, abuse of
office, murder, wickedness
in high and low places and other social iniquities in our country reputed
ironically to be the most religious country in the world. Ours is a typical example of
religion without spirituality.
We are, in one word, a nation of hypocrites, what Jesus Christ
described as a “white sepulcher”.
The church enjoins its members to be conscious of the
fact that “faith without good work is dead” (James 2:17). An influential
apostolate in the church is Opus Dei, “God’s Work”, which strongly
requires its members to reflect godliness in everything they do every
minute of the day. As a
corollary, any Christian who extorts money from people is a false
Christian; a Christian public officer who sits on files or on
contractor’s payment is nothing other than a pseudo one; a professed
Christian who gives unjust or biased judgments is not fit to be called a
disciple of Christ. Dora
Akunyili may not be a member
of Opus Dei, but she is by every stretch of the imagination an
authentic witness to Christ.
She has set standards by which public officers are assessed.
Because Dr. Akunyili has in
the last four years worked with the sense of urgency, commitment,
devotion and sincerity of
both a missionary and a revolutionary, NAFDAC has been transformed,
and the whole nation has been the healthier for it. Nigerians now consume processed
foods and drugs with greater confidence. The fear of
drugs being counterfeit, substandard or expired has reduced
considerably. Those of us in
the pharmaceutical business who have at one time or another complained
about some NAFDAC policies for being harsh are now her greatest
cheerleaders. Once you meet
NAFDAC’s stringent standards, the sky becomes your limit, whether you are
a manufacturer or an importer.
For someone who has lived a
most productive, action-packed and service-oriented 50 years, not even
the sky is her limit. Many
more years of superb service to our motherland. Her best has yet to come.
•Chief
Okpalafulaku is President, Association of Anambra State Pharmaceutical
importers
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