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ICON
Dora Akunyili: ‘God is in this with me’
By SHOLA OSHUNKEYE
Sunday, June 26, 2011

Dora Akunyili
• Photo: The Sun Publishing

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For as long as she was in government, Dora Nkem Akunyili, a 56-year-old mother of six, erudite scholar and professor of pharmacy, is easily one of the stars of this democratic dispensation.

Her sterling performance at the National Agency For Food and Drug Administration, NAFDAC, and her honest and fearless stance on sensitive national issues, have endeared her not only to millions of her compatriots at home and in the Diaspora, but also to many agencies across the world which have bathed her with countless awards.

Driven by the avoidable demise of her diabetic sister who died as a result of fake insulin administered to her, and the burning desire to save Nigerians from unnecessary agonies, she chased dealers and manufacturers of fake and adulterated drugs to hellholes and gave them a run for their blood money. Although she almost paid with her life on one occasion, she was never deterred. She was unstoppable. In fact, the fear of Dora Akunyili became the beginning of wisdom for the merchants of death.

Very few Nigerians were, therefore, surprised when the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua named her Minister of Information And Communications. Her pedigree had preceded her. Although most people had thought she would be best suited for a health-related potfolio, Akunyili, a quintessential storm-rider, never disappointed. She learned fast on the job and took firm control of her beat in no time.
On February 3, this year, at the peak of the controversy over the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s actual state of health, a needless controversy that almost drove the nation to the brink, Akunyili presented a memo to the Federal Executive Council, FEC, asking the council to square up to the reality of the ailing President’s dilemma and transmit a letter to the National Assembly for a smooth transition.

Although her memo shocked, awed and tore the federal cabinet apart, it provided the impetus for the flat-footed National Assembly to recognize Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, then Vice President, to assume duties as Acting President in Yar’Adua’s stead. The ‘shock-and-awe’ memo created a few enemies for Akunyili but further endeared her to majority of Nigerians who saw her as an embodiment of courage.
And just last week, Wednesday, Akunyili, who was born July 14, 1954, in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, again jolted the nation. She suddenly resigned her appointment as Information and Communications Minister, and announced immediately that she was going to contest the Anambra Central Senatorial District seat under the platform of the ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA. As the decision continued to generate heated debate across the country, last week, ICON trailed the former minister to Awka, the Anambra State capital, where she granted a two-hour no-holds-barred interview.

Here are excerpts from the encounter:

Last week Wednesday, you took the nation by storm when you suddenly announced that you were leaving government. To use your word, you said you were leaving your comfort zone to come to Anambra State to help Governor Obi, and most importantly, to pick a ticket for the Anambra Central Senatorial District. What informed that sudden decision?

Well, since you call it ‘sudden’, I confirm that it needed to be sudden for me to succeed in my decision to resign. If I had started telling friends and relations, they would have discouraged me. That is a natural situation, because people are generally afraid of leaving the so-called good job, the so-called secure job to go and run election. Usually, at such a juncture, people are usually confused by all kinds of advices and questions. Questions like: ‘what if you don’t win?’ ‘In this horrible terrain, this people will blackmail you, they will fight you.’ ‘They will even start saying are not from Anambra State’.

You will hear all sorts of things. So, whatever I do in life, I try to pray over it, meditate upon it, seek the face of God, and ask men and women of God to seek the face of God with me and for me. Once that is done, whatever God tells me is final. No looking back. I started, like two months ago, to ask pastors, priests, bishops, to pray for me on this mission; and each time each of them finished praying, and I asked them what did the Lord said, they told me ‘the Lord says you should go.’ So, that actually strengthened me. On my own, I tried to go to Mass every morning, (sometimes I was not able to get up), and once I was before the Blessed Sacrament, I will say to God, ‘God tell me if I should go’. I tell you, the more I prayed, the more my spirit got strong, and the more I was convinced that I should take this step forward. So, I’m sure God is in this with me. If I wasn’t sure God’s hands are in this, I would not have come forward.

You didn’t even give room for rumours. Naturally, things like this would have been subject of rumours for like two, three weeks before the cat is let out of the bag.
Actually, there were rumours about two weeks to the time. But not that I was leaving because the Lord didn’t say that I should leave immediately, the Lord said I should leave like one month to the election. But I didn’t feel like staying and not concentrating on what I am doing, that is my official assignment as minister. It’s like eating your cake and having it. If I did not tell men and women of God to pray for me, and I did not discuss with my husband, my brother and maybe one or two people, it wouldn’t have leaked. I would have kept it to myself, just like the memo. That memo was even tighter than this because I did not even tell my husband about the memo issue. But this particular one, I told him. I needed to tell him to get his permission. And he gave me the nod.

On the memo thing, some people, who probably didn’t like your guts, said it was a product of self-survival. That you did it because you saw the handwriting clearly on the wall.
How could it be a self-survival step? Was I threatened? I wasn’t threatened n any way. I didn’t have any problem with President Yar’Adua. He loved me until he left. I had no problem with him; I had no problem with anybody. I just saw the ship of the nation sinking and felt like taking a stand. You are talking of self-survival, what of some of my detractors that said I was an opportunist. And I laughed because if you have the opportunity to do good, would you rather reject it and do evil? Where there is opportunity to do good, you do it! When there is opportunity to talk, you talk.

As far as you are concerned, you don’t owe anybody any explanation?
I don’t owe anybody any explanation. It’s between me and my God. And every morning, before that memo, I was praying and asking God, ‘how long can this last?’ In the morning of the memo, I called my special assistant, and I said ‘it is over’. I told him what I was about to do. He almost jumped out of his skin. He screamed, ‘but you can’t do this ma’. He was like almost threatening me. ‘Our job is on the line, ’ And blah, blah, blah.

So, I have no regret on this particular one. I have no regret. I have left the cabinet, and this election is not a matter of do-or-die. If I win, I will be very happy and do my best. I will put in my best. I will do this job in such a way that Anambra State Central Senatorial District will say ‘Thank God’. If for any reason, God Changes his mind, God will still be God. Nobody can direct Him. If for any reason, He says, ‘my daughter, you are not going’, I will still glorify God, and then go on working with my governor, because what is important is that my state should move forward. It has to be because this is a state of very intelligent, very resourceful people.

The state of the Great Zik of Africa, the state of our indomitable leader, Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu, the state of the unbeatable, globally acclaimed Chinua Achebe, the state of the great Chike Obi, the impressive Cyprian Ekwensi, the glorious Ezilo, the versatile Chimamanda, does not have a choice but to move forward. You can go on and on. Yet, we are almost getting to a point of self-destruct. So, we have to come here and work, whether I am a senator or not. I have come into the ring and I will not leave. Whether I am a senator or not, I have come out to help my governor, hard-working Governor Peter Obi to build this state and there is no going back. I don’t have to be a senator to help him, but being a senator will offer me a better platform.

Although people are also insinuating, rightly or wrongly, that the scheme is that if you pick the ticket and you do your four years, the four years would be your preparatory period towards aspiring to becoming the governor of the state.
Human beings are wonderful. They are already thinking for me (laughs). Is the office of governor the highest in the land? Maybe the next story now would be, from governor, they will say she wants to be president. I thank God for favoring me so much that people are ascribing these great things to me. Even if they say ‘she wants to be president’, I will say ‘That’s okay, no problem, if it is God’s will’. If people say ‘you want to be governor, no problem, if it is God’s will’. If people say you are an opportunist, I will say ‘thank God for giving me opportunity.’ If people say ‘you are a survivalist, I will say ‘thank God for telling me how to survive’.

That would be my response because if you start denying and exchanging words, you would waste valuable time, and some people who people would not naturally listen to will sue you just to get to the limelight. They will say: ‘Akunyili said, ’ So, I don’t have the time, and I don’t even want to answer such things. Quite frankly, we take these things, one step at a time. After all, I was not thinking about it this senate thing some months ago. The first Anambra person that came to my office to mention senate was Engineer Okoye, and I said ‘Never!’ That’s why, honestly speaking, we should no be saying ‘never’.

Why did you say ‘never’ at that point?
Because it wasn’t in my mind in any way. Either I said never or God forbid, I cannot remember exactly what I said. But it was so vehement that he changed the topic.
What transpired between that time, five months ago and now, and last week when you resigned?
About one month after he brought it up, some Anambra people were coming to me and saying ‘Madam, why don’t you go to the senate and give us proper representation?’ I said, ‘well, I‘m not thinking about it’. But as people continued talking to me, I started praying over it. Then, about two months ago, I went to some Reverend Fathers, some pastors, some bishops, and talked to them, and urged them to please pray for me. These were men of God from different denominations.

And they unanimously agreed?
I did not meet one man of God or woman of God who said ‘Don’t go’. Not one. In fact, some of them even said instantly, ‘I will pray, but I think you should go’. I said ‘no, pray for me first’. People pressurized me but I don’t want to say I am coming out because people pressurized me. It is wrong to go and vie for a position because you are pressurized. No, there must be a strong personal conviction.
I am somebody that can never do what I am not convinced about.

I cannot do something because I am pushed. That is why it really annoys me when people keep saying ‘my people pushed me to go and run election’. When people say that, I just feel that people are beginning to make it up. You cannot run for an election because people are pressuring you. People’s pressure can only start a thought process. Then, overtime you work on it. ‘I am coming out because of the wishes of my people’, I think, has become a cliché in this country.

It is terrible thing. In Abuja, one lady came and told me that some women wanted to come and tell me that they wanted me to go to the senate. They wanted to pay courtesy call but I said ‘no, I don’t want’. I have seen that over and again on television, and it is beginning to annoy me. And people will not even believe that I didn’t organize it.

For me, people pressurizing me is not the right reason. But when people pressurize you, they put it in your consciousness that ‘this is possible. Think about it’. Then, you start thinking about it. Then, you pray over it, then God directs. That is where I am today. Eventually, I started consulting with people in the political class and stakeholders and a few of them said ‘well, that will be very good, but why APGA?

And I said ‘why not?’
Really, why APGA? After all, PDP is supposed to be the biggest party in Africa with all the financial muscle and influence to sway any election.
Let me tell you something about political parties. Political party is a platform to get to that destination where you can offer services to your people. So, I don’t really think it matters the political party that gives you the platform or the political party through which you can get the platform. What is important is getting the opportunity to serve your people. And I mean selfless service.

Or is it because you think that the opportunity will be brighter in APGA than in PDP because APGA is incumbent here?
Not just because APGA is incumbent, but most importantly, we have an APGA governor that is doing a fantastic job; and success begets success. And I want to be part of the success story. We also have Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu, who is our leader today in Igbo land, who is the leader of this party. We have the chairman, Chief Victor Umeh, who is the chairman of the party. These great minds have stabilized the party and endeared it to the good people of Anambra State.

If Anambra State people love APGA, and the APGA governor is doing a fantastic job, and their leadership is excellent, and there is no rancour, and my spirit accepts to move with them, I’m moving with the people. And when you talk about this party thing, I look at people and laugh. I say so because I am first and foremost an Anambra person before I became a PDP member.

Are you not afraid that some people would misread your judgment and conclude that you are desperate, judging the way you dumped PDP to embrace APGA? They might say why didn’t you continue with PDP if this is all about service?
You are asking me why I did not continue with PDP. Do you know that as we speak, today, PDP is Anambra State is in disarray? And we all know that. So, why are we pretending? We cannot pretend all our lives. And it is not as if there was a lot of fight among PDP members in Anambra and this woman did not even try to bring peace. And she just left.

No. I spent my money, my personal resources, to call for meeting of PDP people in Anambra in Hilton Hotel, Abuja. After that meeting, they were very happy. They said it is better to bring the meeting to Anambra State. I called another meeting in Anambra State. I spent my own money. Some PDP members organized and brought some students, very young boys that came into the hall, not police, and released teargas on us in that meeting.

There are so many court cases among PDP members and so many injunctions, and more are coming. People have these injunctions in their pockets, waiting for the right time to release them. So, the atmosphere is not conducive. So, it’s not matter of dumping PDP, it’s a matter of if I am desperate or not. Oh yes, I am desperate for peace. And if there was no peace and people are not ready to sit down and accept that there should be peace, why would I die and sink with rancour, anger acrimony? I think one of our problems in Anambra is that we have too much money.

What is the meaning of that?
That is Anambra people are so rich that we are now allowing our wealth to destroy us. Too much wealth. My grandmother calls it ‘over sense’. We have too much money, too much brain, and instead of our too much money and too much brain earning us development and recognition, it is leading us to self-destruction. And if I tried in PDP for us to make peace and I did not succeed, I can also succeed through APGA. We can eventually come together, it may not be now, but we have to come together because we are brothers and sisters.

Talking of brothers and sisters, one of the problems you may have had in PDP may be due to the strained relationship between you and your brother-in-law, Charles Soludo?
As a person, I don’t have any problem particularly with PDP, because I never ran election in PDP. But PDP has internal intractable crisis.

Like what?
Like they have many court cases, many injunctions, and bad blood, generated from here and there.
The issue of your brother-in-law?

I don’t think it’s an issue. It is not an issue because I never ran election.
It almost disrupted your elder sister’s funeral. Everything came to the fore and we all saw it.
It’s unfortunate. That’s all I can say. And I want us to respect the soul of the deceased. However, I want to tell you is I have a right to support who I want to support, just like I have a right to determine which platform that is best to render service to my people. In more civilized societies, we have had instances where a husband comes out to run for election on the platform of a party and the wife supports another party. That should not necessarily scatter their home. If my husband joins a party tomorrow, and if I feel he will not do well, I will secretly tell him that he should not go. If he insists, then I may not come out to campaign for him.

What I am saying is that, no matter how close you are to me, if I believe your rival is better, I will not come out to campaign for you. In the case of my brother-in-law, Professor Charles Soludo, I never campaigned against him and I never went to any rally with Governor Peter Obi. I avoided coming out even when some PDP people came out and openly canvassed for Peter Obi. I did not because I wanted to respect my sister. But my sister still felt I should have come out to campaign with Charles Soludo but my spirit did not agree. And I don’t think people should be forced to campaign for anybody.

I think we are pushing this democracy to a funny level. I remember during the time of Tofa and Abiola. You know people were standing on the line under Option A4. My people stood on one line and I stood on the other line. My husband was saying come over to my line, and I was telling him: come over to our own. He said ‘okay, we will win. And I told him we would win.’ At the end of the voting, both of us left and we were waiting together for the result. He didn’t because of that divorce me.

To me, that was beautiful democracy. He never said ‘why are you not standing for my candidate?’ And I never said: ‘Why must I stand for your candidate?’ The thing is that, I had no problem with Professor Charles Soludo because I didn’t run election. He had problems with people he ran primaries with. I never picked a form. I had a chance to pick the form because my picking the form with PDP was to take it free. But I had no plan to pick it and I did not pick it.

Why is it also impossible for the two of you to mend fences?
I don’t think I can answer that question. I think the bitterness that went with losing that election is so deep that it might take time to heal.

Deep on both sides?
No, I didn’t lose election. My candidate was Peter Obi and he won. But I never campaigned for Peter Obi. I never went to any rally with him. I never went to people’s houses to say vote for him. I never called people together in any group to say vote for him.

But did you support him underground with money?
I never gave him a kobo. I didn’t give him one naira. And if you know Governor Peter Obi, he is not a money politics man. That is why people called him Araldite hand. He is financially prudent. In a state like Anambra State, where we have very lean resources, if he is not financially prudent, this state will not get to where it is now. In fact, it was his performance and prudence that attracted me to APGA, whatever anybody may want to say. If he is not doing well, I would not be interested.

One last question about Professor Charles Soludo: as a good Christian, don’t you in the spirit of the bible or what the bible teaches about forgiveness, don’t you see yourself making a first move towards reconciliation between the two of you?
As a Christian, I don’t bear grudges. I bear no grudges against him. I have no grudges whatsoever against him. And if I don’t have grudges against somebody, I don’t really see why I should worry myself. I have no grudges against him; I can never work against him in anything he is doing.

How has it been since you threw you cap into the ring?
Interesting. Very interesting. I have found God’s favour. The level of support has been incredible. I have enjoyed unbelievable level of support, from the high and the low. You won’t believe the kind of support I am getting; it’s highly encouraging-text messages, people giving me money, etc. And it would interest you to know that I have never done anything for most of those people that are giving me money. That is the one that is most baffling.

The most amazing one is the case of a clerk who sent a text message promising to donate her January salary to my campaign. I have seen messages that are touching but this is the most profound. The kind of support I have today is unprecedented. People have come to say this is unprecedented in the history of the state. I respect the people that are running with me, and I pray that the will of God will be done in all of this. Whoever wins, we will congratulate that person.

And cooperate with him or her?
Of course, what is important is that we should have a free and fair election. I am not going to fight anybody who does not support me. That is very important in elections. Because in Nigeria, people feel that you either support or you become an enemy forever. It is wrong. Politics is all about choices. It’s all about thinking of what you want. Somebody might have a reason not to support me. If I am really desperate about that person’s support I will go and plead with the person. I will tell him or her, ‘please, whatever reservation you have about me, please support me’.

Even at that, there is no way I can get 100 percent of the votes. And if I get 100 percent today, I will feel uncomfortable about it. I won’t even like it. What of the people running with me, are they not human beings? Don’t they have families? Don’t they have friends? All we are praying for is free and fair election. An election free of thuggery. I don’t want any thugs. Why would I use other people’s children as thugs? It’s a sin because you wouldn’t want your child to be a thug.

My child can drive me as driver, but my child cannot be a thug. My child can cook for me as a cook, but can never be a thug. A thug is like using a human being like an animal. That is why I keep preaching against it. I have preached it to some women, telling them that when they finish using them and giving them guns, at the end of the elections, it becomes difficult to collect the guns back from them. Then, they would go into kidnapping and all other forms of crime. Kidnapping is now the easiest because it is not as difficult as armed robbery, and they make so much money without sweat. Without any danger. So, I am very optimistic, but I am not desperate.

Talking about desperation, we have heard stories of diabolical things that politicians do, like going to Okija Shrine to swear to oath of allegiance, and so on. Some were reported to gone to shrines to wear in unclothedness. What extent can Professor Dora Akunyili go?
Me, shrine? God forbid! I talk to the living God every morning, every day. I can never go to any shrine to swear to any oath because I want to win election by all means. Never! I can never touch anything that will make me deviate from following the living God.

I take my own oath with my God every early morning during the morning Mass. Every early morning, I go to Mass and talk to God before the Blessed Sacrament. That is my oath. Anything that will make me go to shrine or worship another god, or believe in another thing except my God, God should take my life before I start thinking about it.

For what? What is it that I want today that God has not done for me? Even if I don’t work from now till I die, God has blessed me. My children have all gone through school. The last one is graduating. They are working. So, what do I want? So that I must be senator? Nonsense! People forget that whenever the devil gives you anything with the right hand, he collects it back, and much more, through the left. The devil does not give you anything free. If you are getting anything through shrine, it’s from the devil. The joy from whatever the devil gives you will never last because he will take something back from you and eventually destroy your soul. And what gain is it if you gain the whole world and lose your soul? What is the essence? Politics should not be do-or-die. It is not do-or-die for me who is a professional in politics, not a professional politician.

What is the difference?
There is difference, I am a professional in politics, I am not a professional politician.

Who is a professional politician?
Professional politicians are people that cannot do any other thing. It’s their job. For me, I can do too many other things. For professional politicians, it is their first and last job. It is what they have regarded as ‘this is my job for life.’ Politics is their job, A to Z. On the other hand, a professional in politics is like somebody like me who is a pharmacist. I can go into practice, I can go into consultancy, I can teach, I can go in to the laboratory anywhere in the world.

There is nowhere that I cannot work in pharmaceutical laboratory. There is nowhere in the world that I cannot teach in pharmacy or medical school. So, the difference is that a professional in politics is not supposed to be desperate, except if you are greedy. Because if I lose election, I can get on with other things. But if some people lose election, they are finished. If a professional politician loses election, most of the time, he is finished. He goes down, and he may never come up because there is nothing to go back to. I have too much to go back to.

For instance, people are looking for me across the world to come and teach regulation. They are not yet teaching regulations in universities abroad. I can get a United Nations job if I put my mind to it. I started International Medicine Anti-counterfeiting Taskforce, IMPACT; I generated the issues that made United Nations and World Health Organisation, WHO, to set it up. I can write them that I ran election in my country, and I lost, I want a job. And that is a little bit more relaxing, like consultancy, if I can get accommodation and a decent salary, I don’t think they will deny me that.

They might not make me the chairman, because there is already a chairman, but they will certainly give me something decent to do out of my worth, and the need for me. And then out of sympathy, if I apply and put it on paper that I lost election, and that I am looking for work. For a professional politician, it is not like that. It is more difficult and that causes desperation.
That is why we have this do-or-die attitude to almost everything,

Because when they lose, they are finished.
Which one, then, would you count as preferable: that we should have professionals in politics rather than professional politicians?
We should have both because if you are a professional politician, you can still be decent. Many professional politicians are very decent, decent enough and Godly enough to know that everything happens as God wills it. That is important. But if you are a professional politician, and you are not godly, there is trouble.

dude, can u create a business edition of this article please? Something short, thanks