The remains of Professor Dora Akunyili were finally laid to rest in her country home in Agulu, Anaocha Local Government Area of Anambra state last Thursday. Born in Makurdi, Benue state, on July 14, 1954, Dora hailed from Nanka, Anambra State. The former Minister of Information and Communication and erstwhile Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), who died in an Indian hospital from ovarian cancer, had a knack for distinction.
Although, a lot has been said, the most striking of the plethora of dirges on the late humanist, was that of the wife of Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra state, Mrs. Ebelechukwu Obiano. She described Dora as a colossus among men. Mrs. Obiano said: “In public service, Dora endeared herself to the people and gave hope to the hopeless. Even in her traumatic moment, she radiated hope. I will never forget her motherly advice and I am eloquently grateful for making herself a shining example. She was a woman who never wanted to shine alone as she always wanted stars around her. Professor Akunyili had promised to package me the way Anambra people will be proud of and while she lived, she encouraged me and that is what is guiding me now.”
The foregoing could be deduced to imply the virtues of role model and mentorship – all possessed and exemplified by the late Dora. This is significant because they are virtues that are scarcely found among Nigerians – both leaders and the led – in spite of their being the bedrock for societal engineering. The Nigerian project is stalled or in the reverse gear today due largely to the absence of role models and mentors. The ruling elite or so-called elder-statesmen, who are supposed to be role models and provide the right mentorship to the younger generation of Nigerians, are bad examples to emulate.
The situation is even more precarious given the fact that these leaders are beneficiaries of the virtues of selfless service, honesty, integrity, humility, brotherliness, justice, peace, and love, among others. Unfortunately, rather than be good custodians of our cultural heritage, the 21st century Nigerian elder-statesmen have become notorious for their egregious use of power. They have so messed up the polity that today stealing has been given a new definition – “theft” is when one steals a chicken or a tuber of yam while it is “misappropriation” if a person converts trillions of naira from the public treasury to personal use. Whereas the former is sentenced to a long term of imprisonment and a fine, the latter walks away with a plea bargain, a juicer portfolio, national honours and chieftaincy titles to boot.
Ironically, the dysfunctional system in which Dora tried to excel by standing out against all forms of vices, finally consumed her after series of unsuccessful attempts on her life. While serving at NAFDAC, where she took on the drug counterfeiting cartel, she was shot in the head by unknown assassins, but the bullet merely hit her scarf, leaving her unhurt. However, Dora was later to be felled by the endemic corruption that had crippled all the socio-economic spheres of Nigeria including the health sector. Dora’s death was blamed on misdiagnosis by some doctors in the United States in 1998, where she, like most Nigerians who can afford it, go for regular medical checks because of the sorry state of our health sector. The doctors were said to have claimed she did not have cancer after her Nigerian doctor’s diagnosis to the effect she had the sickness. Alas, new checks in 2013 showed she had cancer, which eventually led to her death.
It is, therefore, on the backdrop of this failed generation that the late Dora Akunyili could be appreciated as having distinguished herself from the pack in both service to humanity, and, above all, service to Almighty God. It was a blaze of glory for the late professor as her Requiem Mass in Agulu had an unprecedented attendance of two cardinals – Francis Cardinal Arinze, former Head of Inter Religious Affairs at the Vatican, and John Cardinal Onaiyekan of Abuja – 28 bishops and 100 priests from the various Catholic Dioceses in the country. This is a testimony to her pious nature.
Also present at the Mass were former head of state, General Yakubu Gowon and his wife, former vice president, Dr. Alex Ekwueme and his wife, Governor Willie Obiano and his wife, Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo state, Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi state, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief Emeka Ihedioha, immediate past Governor of Anambra state, Mr. Peter Obi and his wife, as well as the wife of Abia state governor, Mrs. Odochi Orji, and her Ebonyi state counterpart, Mrs. Josephine Egwu.
Dora, who brought pressure to bear in the Senate’s invocation of the controversial doctrine of necessity to empower then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan as acting President following the incapacitation of then (late) President Umaru Yar’Adu, has won many awards both locally and international. Her sojourn can be surmised by the maxim, vox populi, vox dei (the voice of the people is the voice of God). Rest in perfect peace, ‘adorable’ Dora!
