Celebrating Prof Dora Akunyili, the former NAFDAC Boss who saved Nigeria’s health sector
If awards could build a house, Prof Dora Akunyili who have probably owned a castle. Nigeria has not seen a public servant dead or alive who was decorated like Dora Akunyili. She got about 930 awards and more than 100 awards were discovered in a box after she was gone.
Prof Dora Akunyili was a wind, an Eagle, and an Amazon; such that has not been known.
Dora Nkem Akunyili was born on July 14, 1954 to Chief Paul Young Edemobi. While she was still tender, she was sent to live with her uncle who was a schoolteacher. The young Dora attended Queen of the Rosary College, Nsukka; this was around the time the Civil War was being fought. She left the school with some recognitions of ground-breaking records. She went for the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, with dreams of studying Mathematics and Chemistry, but God, through fate had other plans for her. She eventually went through Pharmacy. In 1985, she got a Ph.D from the same University.
Dora joined University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu in 1978 and in 1982, she ventured lecturing as a Graduate Assistant at College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, UNN. 8 years into lecturing, she became a Senior Lecturer. She went with the University’s College of Medicine in 1992 and worked as a Consultant Pharmacologist from 1996 until 2001.
While the country under former President Olusegun Obasanjo sought for a reliable pharmacist to head the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration Control (NAFDAC), the lot fell on Prof Akunyili. The odds of ethnicity and her origin from Anambra were stacked against her, but Dora triumphed. The President appointed her as the Director-General of NAFDAC in 2001.
Pain is one of life’s teachers. Pain sometimes come from loss. A fake and contaminated insulin injection had claimed the life of Prof Dora’s sister in 1998. This fueled her fight against counterfeit, contaminated and substandard drugs.
She conquered the drug markets in Nigeria and went all out in Onitsha and Kano where she had fake drug dealers arrested and disposed tons of fake drugs. Prof Dora literally swept the food and drug sectors clean. She fought corruption on land, deep and seas. Despite the death threats and assassination attempts on her life, she protected the nation like a baby and gave her all in service. At one time, she escaped death by the whiskers when a bullet nearly shattered her brain.
She was appointed as the Minister of Information and Communication in 2008. She served in the ministry until 2010.
Prof Dora Akunyili lost her life to uterine cancer in 2014. She left behind her husband, Dr. Chike Akunyili (who is now late), six children and three grandchildren.
A statue of her was erected in Agulu in memory of the great woman. The Anambra State government renamed the women development centre to become Prof Dora Akunyili Women Development Centre, Awka.
Prof Akunyili was recognized with so many awards locally and internationally. She held the national honour award of The Order of the Federal Republic (OFR). She also gave Nigerians the mantra “Good people, Great Nation” during her service in the Ministry of Information.
She wrote a book titled “The War Against Counterfeit Medicine: My Story”.
Although her memories are all we have left, Prof Dora Akunyili will always be celebrated in minds and hearts. The Amazon lives on.
