By Sola Ogundipe
The phone call came just after midnight. As the strident and persistent tone startled me out of fatigued slumber, I clawed for my handset on the bedside table wondering who could be calling so late and why.
The caller’s number was unfamiliar and for a fleeting moment I considered rejecting the call and going back to my much-needed sleep.
I was used to getting countless unsolicited and frivolous nocturnal calls from unknown sources daily, and as a counter measure, I developed the habit of switching my cell phone to silent mode at bedtime. But on this day, I had returned home quite late, dead beat and fallen asleep without remembering to switch to the silent mode and now the phone was ringing and disrupting my sleep.
With an open mind, I answered the call expecting nothing special. The voice on the line was female. It was radiant, intense and determined all at once. “Who is this?” I blurted.The reply was prompt.
”Hello, is this Shola? Am I speaking to Shola? My name is Dora.” Dora? I asked blankly. ”Yes Dora, Dora Akunyili.” The cobwebs of sleep vanished from my mind. My sleep-glazed eyes instantly came alive and my drowsiness evaporated like morning dew.
I was dumbfounded! Why was the renowned Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, calling me in the dead of the night? How did she obtain my phone number?
My thoughts ran riot as the voice on the phone continued to speak. “Shola my son, I’m sorry to be calling so late, but I need to speak to you. I want to apologise for what happened this morning. I’m sorry that you were embarrassed. You are justified if you felt offended, but I’m appealing to you to forgive and forget.” This statement took me by surprise, but it made sense; a lot of sense.
My mind went back 12 hours earlier to the “incident” she referred to. In the flashback, I recalled the activity that had been organised by one of the pharmaceutical professional groups somewhere in Ikeja,
Lagos The NAFDAC Director General was special guest and I was among several journalists invited to provide coverage. I recalled how half-way through the event, all media men were
asked to step out of the gathering because “sensitive matters” were about to be discussed with the DG.
This didn’t go down well with those concerned. The explanation that we were only meant to “hang around” outside for a few minutes failed to stop us taking offense.
were several loud protests, but the organisers stood their ground and ordered every journalist out of the gathering. One after the other, we were marched outside and the door firmly shut
behind us. The meeting was paused while this lasted and a head count was even taken after to be certain none of the journalists was lurking inside among the participants.
Many of us did not hide our displeasure at this treatment and we all left the venue immediately and went about other activities. But for Akunyili’s midnight phone call, I had completely forgotten the incident. “Madam, you didn’t offend me. It wasn’t you who sent me out,” I
managed to reply.
But she wasn’t going to accept any of that. “My son, I was there,” she stated. “I might not have sent you out, but you were asked to leave because of me. I feel responsible and that is why I’m apologising. Please accept my apology. You and your colleagues have consistently supported me in safeguarding the health of Nigerians.
I value that support and it is my hope that this incident does not erode the mutual trust we share.” I was humbled by this call. Never, in my wildest dreams, had I anticipated such humility and openness from a public official. How could I turn down such person?
Much later, I gathered she had earlier called every journalist who was present that day and everyone accepted her apology. As time went on, I was privileged to know and understand even better the character in the person of Professor Dora Akunyili. It’s been a decade or thereabouts, but I recall the encounter vividly.
It is indelible in my mind and one of my fondest memories of the late NAFDAC DG.
To the best of my knowledge, no public office holder in Nigeria engaged the media the way she did.
My first encounter with her was in 2001 shortly after she was appointed DG.
Her respect for the media quickly became evident during the first workshop the Agency organised for pure water manufacturers. It was there she declared her intention to engage the media in her campaign against fake and counterfeit drugs.
Sometime later, during one of the jointly organised health events by NAFDAC and UNICEF in Abuja, there was a communication breakdown between the hotel accommodating journalists and the organisers. Akunyili stepped in and personally attended to the welfare of journalists, staying up far into the night till the wee hours. She always exhibited great respect, admiration and support for the media. At almost every opportunity she showed that love and regard.
In her book, every journalist was either “My son” or “My daughter”.
She knew us by our first names and we had her personal phone numbers. Not once, throughout her tenure did she fail to acknowledge the media as instrumental to her success. She was even accused of being too fond of the media.
She always told whoever cared to listen that half of her success was due to the men and women of the pen profession. She was an interesting person, and there was no dull moment in her
company.
If you needed clarification on any issue, all you had to do was call her line or send a text message. She would always call you back or reply your message. When you published a story that challenged the Agency’s regulatory activities, she wouldn’t hold it against you but would thank you for being objective and keeping her on her toes.
Almost to a fault, Akunyili was a stickler for order and uprightness. She didn’t tolerate laziness, sloppiness or tardiness, especially among her staff. Years ago, a few of us witnessed her reprimand one of her staff in her office at the old Federal Secretariat, Ikoyi, in Lagos. Apparently, the staff in question that had been caught in fraudulent activity, had approached the DG to appeal for leniency, but he met her on the wrong side. She sent him away after a thorough tongue lashing.
After, Akunyili apologised for “losing her cool” in our presence, but pointed out that there was no room for dishonesty in her Agency.
I recall another time another member of her staff had a disagreement with her official driver. She got wind of the matter and rather than send the driver away, requested that he (staff’s driver) exchange
positions with her own driver.
The “new” driver was attached to her house and he got along quite well with the DG.
Yet another time I saw red in her eyes was during the clampdown of the Onitsha drug market.
Akunyili was so infuriated, her eyes blazed with fire of palpable anger. Consistently, she took the battle to the fake drug barons, describing the drug market as “a national embarrassment”.
Not only did she lament the embarrassing level of fake drugs in the market but was also pained by the fact that identities of the drug counterfeiters were not hidden. She dealt ruthlessly with them. But she was also human. A chink in her steely visage appeared during the infamous “My Pikin” teething mixture saga in which several infants died of poisoning.
For the first and perhaps the only time ever at a press conference, there were tears in her eyes and her voice cracked with emotion as she announced the hospitalisation and death of infants as a result of
ingestion of tainted teething mixture.
Always down to earth and unpretentious, these are just instances of how the deceased went to great lengths to ensure all was well with Nigeria and Nigerians. At several instances, she engaged us in small talk and chit-chat. These were times she rendered account about her early life, and how she went to school in the village and her closeness to her father who mentored and encouraged her tremendously.
She never hid the fact that she was much closer to her father than her mother and often recalled how she was to be sent to the village to stay with her grandmother to train her. But her father preferred to be close to her and ensure she pursued her education. It was during one of these “chats” that she mentioned in passing that when she clocked the age of 60 she would cut her hair to wear a low- cut style.
Dora died of ovarian cancer last Saturday at 59. She did not live to wear the low -cut hair style. Sad.
With no time for vanities, Akunyili’s achievements are an inspiration. Her experiences are a message of hope and testimony of commitment, courage and integrity. She didn’t have to know you to like you.
In 2004, when she emerged as the 7th recipient of the Nigerian Exemplary Award, it meant a lot to her that her courage in safeguarding the health of Nigerians regardless of attempts on her life was not in doubt. Akunyili truly established the fact that one can make a difference.
She was really proud of that Award which was essentially to showcase exemplary Nigerians who have remained resolute on the path of integrity and serve as role models to be emulated. She served humanity to the best of her ability. And she was loved by all. May her soul rest in peace.