Dora N. Akunyili

Dora with Human Rights Award

A hero to me is someone who uses his or her God-given potentials and talent through hard work to get into a position of authority in an honest way in order to save and help humanity. Doctor Professor (Mrs.) Dora Nkemdilim Akunyili, who is my hero, was born on the 14th of July 1954 into the family of Chief Mr. and Mrs. Paul Young Edemobi. Mrs. Dora Akunyili attended her early primary education at Holy Ghost primary school, Markurdi now in Benue state of Nigeria. This was where her amazing brilliance began to manifest. The school was very cosmopolitan in those days. Children of various ethnic backgrounds schooled there, and there was healthy competition among the pupils. In the midst of the competition, Dora emerged as a shining star. From standard one, she was the best in her class, always maintaining the first position. She obtained her first school leaving certificate with distinction in 1966 and West Africa School certificate with grade one distinction in 1973; this earned her the faster Nigerian government post primary scholarship and the Federal Government of Nigeria undergraduate scholarship respectively. She got her B. Pharmacy (Hons.) in the year 1978 and PhD in 1985, both at the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), she won the vice chancellor post graduate and research leadership price in faculty of Pharmaceuticals Sciences from 1984/85 and 1985/86 academic sessions.

She served in six Senate Committees and various faculties of Pharmaceutical sciences Committees of the University from 1986 – 1992. She was appointed Zonal Secretary of Petroleum Special Trust Fund (PTF); coordinating all projects in the five South Eastern States of Nigeria from 1996 – 2000. She was a post Doctorate fellow of the University of London, and a fellow of the West African post graduate college of Pharmacist. She was appointed as Director General of an Agency known National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) in 2001. She lives in Abuja presently where the headquarters of the Agency she oversees is situated. Her Agency covers the controlling and regulation of Food, Drugs, Cosmetics, Detergents, Chemicals, Drinks and Medical Devices.

Dora enlightens on drugs

Doctor Professor (Mrs.) Dora Akunyili is my hero because of many reasons. Apart from her background, that has given me the challenge that hard work is the way to attain excellence and blessings to humanity, her efforts in saving lives of humanity through her hard work and commitment has saved the lives of my family and myself from being victims of fake/sub-standard drugs and contaminated food which many Nigerians had been victims of before her appointment. She has sanitized the food and drug industry and created a reasonably well regulated environment that have saved the lives of millions of Nigerians, boosted the economy by encouraging local industries, genuine importers and foreign investors. Immense public awareness resulted in the participation of all stakeholders in the promotion of food and drug regulation in Nigeria; this awakened the international consciousness that Nigeria is no longer a dumping ground for fake drugs. Despite the fact that some bad eggs wanted to kill her because of her efforts to sanitize the food and drug industry, she continued her good work for humanity even though some members of her family told her to resign because of fear of losing her.

Statistics I collected when we visited the Agency reveals that unregistered drugs by NAFDAC was at 2001 when Mrs. Akunyili was appointed was 68% this has decreased to 35% and 19% in the year 2003 and 2004 respectively. Counterfeit drugs in Nigeria have dropped from an average of 41% in 2001 to 16.7% in 2006. The production capacities of local Pharmaceutical industries have increased tremendously from 70 to 150 in the last five years. Ban on drugs made in Nigeria has been lifted by other West African countries. Also, she ensures that laboratories were made available for analysis in all the 36 states including Abuja in Nigeria, the procurement of electronic lab (E-LAB) to monitor the status of all finished pharmaceutical products from arrival at the port office to its final release and create a product-specified database for all products treated by the Directorate. This has led to the destruction exercise of counterfeit and substandard products valued about $115 million in April 2001 to July 2006.

There has been cheering reports of declining death rates in our hospitals since she assumed duty. By the late year of 2002, over 95% of Nigerian Bakeries were using potassium bromate as bread enhancer (this is injurious to health), her coming to service to the nation has reduced the use of bromate to less than 1 %. Through her commitment to saving lives, she stopped the sale of industrial salt for public consumption and Nigeria has been rated as the first country in Africa to have achieved Universal Salt Iodization and is currently working hard to achieve the same feat in Vitamin A fortification in flour, oil and sugar.

For her commitment to values of honesty and care to mankind, her philanthropic activities include; annual cash donation to one of the states in Nigeria known as Oji River Leprosy Settlement, annual cash donation to war disabled persons (Biafra) Oji River, yearly gifts to widows, destitute and orphans in the twelve villages in Agulu community in Anambra state since 1994, she built Chapels for Catholic Churches at Agulu and Nanku communities and she also drilled boreholes for Agulu and Nanku communities.

DR. DORA AKUNYILI

In recognition for her commitment to the values of honesty, transparency and life saving, she has received over three hundred and ninety (390) awards as at 15th November 2006 when we visited her office in Abuja. The awards are both given locally and internationally. Prominent among which are: Person of the Year 2005 Award by Silverbird Communications Ltd, Nigeria (5th January 2006); Honourary Georgia Citizen by the State of Georgia, USA (24th June 2006); Honourary Degree of Doctor of laws by University of Bristol, London (18th July 2006); Transparency International Integrity award in South Korea (25th May 2003); Honoured as one of the 18 heroes of Time Magazine Worldwide by Time Magazine, New York (2nd November, 2005) to mention but a few. She is also a Fellow of Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria and member of other learned societies, a few of which are New York Academy of Science, International Union of Pharmacology and International Pharmaceutical Federation.

I don’t have any award to give my hero rather than to strive and give myself to hard work in using my potentials and talents to reach out in saving lives.