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New Page 18
Lady Integrity At 50
GODSTIME EGESIMBA
THE
metamorphosis which the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and
Control (NAFDAC) has undergone since April 2000 accounts for its becoming
perhaps the most respected government establishment throughout the federation.
The metamorphosis goes to demonstrate convincingly that the two greatest
challenges facing Nigeria today are an inspired leadership and the enthronement
of the right values. The appointment of Dr. Dora Nkem Akunyili as the NAFDAC
director-general fours years ago was hinged on two critical factors: her
professional and scholastic qualifications as well as her irreproachable moral
standing.
Mrs. Akunyili is not just a pharmacist,
she is a bright academic. She showed unmistakable signs of great promise right
from her primary school days when she passed the first school leaving
certificate examination with distinction. She also wrote the West School
Certificate Examination with distinction. She was a prize student of the
University of Nigeria at Nsukka and the University of London.
Her integrity came to the fore in 1997
when she was working for the Petroleum (Special ) Trust Fund (PTF) as the
Administrative Secretary of the South East Zone. Given 17,000 pounds for a
surgical operation in London, on further medical investigation it was realized
that Mrs. Akunyili’s ailment did not require surgery anymore. By this time,
5,000 pounds had been spent. Unlike many public officer, Dr. Akuyili returned
the remaining 12,000 pounds to the PTF.
This act was brought to the attention of
the PTF authorities in Abuja through Prof. Chimere Ikoku, former Vice Chancellor
of the University of Nigeria who was then on the PTF board. Akunyili’s gesture
which endeared her to those who got to hear of it was to change her career in no
too distant time. Indeed, it was this very act of transparency which more than
any other thing recommended her strongly for the post of NAFDAC Director-General
when democracy was restored in Nigeria in 1999. Following his assumption of
office, President Olusegun Obasanjo discovered that even though NAFDAC was
conceived to play a critical role in the Nigeria’s healthcare system, the agency
was in a mess. Apart from corruption, it was bedevilled by infighting. The
management and staff carried out the agency’s sacred mandate in a lackadaisical
manner.
Dr. Akunyili was the natural person to
carry out a painstaking surgery at NAFDAC, sanitize the place, create a new
culture founded on noble values, and take the agency to a new management
pedestal. Dr. Onaolapo Soloye, a former Minister of Finance, had heard of
Akunyili’s integrity through Major General Muhamadu Buhari, PTF chairman. So he
gave her name to President Obasanjo, who is also his very good friend. The
president was convinced he had got the right person after inviting Dr. Akunyili
for discussions.
NAFDAC has since been turned around,
perhaps even beyond the expectations of the president. It has become arguably
the praised of all public bodies in Nigeria. Not even the non-availability of
government subventions to it in the last three years has affected its
implementation of the mandate to safeguard the health of all in Nigeria. At no
point in recent times have Nigerians felt, more confident about the medicines
packaged water and processed foods they consume.
Not only have new rules been made to guard
the integrity of regulated products, they are now enforced religiously. NAFDAC
enforces the rules and sanctions offenders without fear or favour. This is a
most important development. Nigeria is full of statute books which prescribe
sanctions for all kinds of offences. There are many regulatory agencies set up
to ensure the enforcement of the laws, rules and regulations. Yet the laws are
hardly applied. Consequently, most offenders are not cautioned, let alone
sanctioned. Since the fear of detection, apprehension and subsequent punishment
is the greatest deterrent to potential violators, it is not surprising that a
lot of Nigerians brazenly commit serious offences. NAFDAC is different, showing
other regulatory agencies how to take their work seriously in the overriding
public interest.
One important lesson of Dr. Akunyili’s
success at NAFDAC is the imperative for the use of rational or objective factors
in the appointment of public officers. In other words, what should matter is the
prospective candidate’s suitability for the job, rather than such primordial
factors as the person’s ethnic group, religion, etc. For example, when President
Obasanjo was about to appoint Dr. Akunyili, some people argued against it
because she and the Health Minister then hail from Anambra State; the Health
Minister is NAFDAC’s supervising minister. If the president had heeded the
advice, the nation would have been denied the opportunity of having Dr. Akunyili
as the NAFADC Director General, and the agency would probably remain to this day
one of the numerous sick public sector organizations which gulp so much resource
but add very little value to our national life. The nation is today the better
for it that the President Obasanjo did not accept the advice of some people who
are still preoccupied with such primordial considerations as the ethnic grouping
to which candidates for high public office belong or the faith which they
profess. No nation makes meaningful progress in this day and age when it is
wedded to such socially paralyzing and backward consciousness.
The nation is now proud of NAFDAC because
it has the Akunyili mark: enormous professional and ethical integrity. NAFDAC is
also noted for effectiveness and efficient utilization of resources. If only
other government agencies could be a quarter as good as NAFDAC, Nigeria will be
a different place and "democracy dividend" will have a fuller and more
satisfying meaning. Even the most dedicated critics of the Obasanjo
administration acknowledge that the appointment of Dr. Akunyili and the
turn-around at NAFDAC rank as among the government’s truly important
achievements.
An appreciative Nigerian public, ever in
search of authentic role models without regard to their sex, religion or ethnic
group in a country where for decades villains have been rewarded, has given Dr.
Akunyili the sobriquet of Lady Integrity. She is eminently deserving of
it. With 170 awards in the last three years, she is the most honoured Nigerian
public officer in the present dispensation. She has been rewarded by the Federal
Government and such organizations as Transparency International based in Berlin,
Germany, which in 2003 conferred on her the prestigious Integrity Award which no
woman or African had ever won. Even the conservative University of Nigeria where
she works has endowed a distinguished professional chair in her honour.
As friends and family of the NAFDAC
Director-General celebrate her 50th birthday which President Obasanjo is
attending in person, she should feel satisfied that she is one hard working and
conscientious public servant who is most appreciated by her example, have
displayed tremendous affection for her. The pharmaceutical and processed food
industry have demonstrated remarkable solidarity. So have the mass media, civil
society organizations and the general public. At the personal level, she could
not have asked God for the better family. Dr. P. Chike Akunyili, her husband who
is a medical consultant, has been so understanding. Three of her six children
who have graduated all made 1st Class Honours from top universities, and the 4th
in the family who is about to graduate is comfortably headed for a similar
result.
50 hearty cheers to Dr. Dora Nkem Akunyili,
OFR, the Integrity Lady.
•Egesimba is the Chief Executive of
Godstime Pharmaceuticals Limited, Onitsha.
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