The Nigerian State Failed Dora Akunyili And Her Husband

 The Nigerian State Failed In Her Constitutional Duty To Protect Dora Akunyili And Her Husband With the emergency of Professor Dora Nkem Aku...

 The Nigerian State Failed In Her Constitutional Duty To Protect Dora Akunyili And Her Husband

With the emergency of Professor Dora Nkem Akunyili, the Nigerian people got to know of an existing government agency called National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC). And as a detailed, resilient, well informed, conscientious and disciplined Director-General during her reign of service years in NAFDAC, Dora completely opened  the consciousness of all to come to terms with the antecedents of how very unscrupulous elements both resident within and outside Nigeria, have really been facilitating the exit of Nigerians to their early graves through the administration of both substandard and adulterated products. Such are drugs, palm oil, tomato pastes, soft drinks, etcetera.

She firmly resisted compromise and was so persistently hunted by a clique of evil business men and women whose only enterprise was to ensure the elimination of their fellow beings in exchange for affluence. Professor Dora Akunyili's doggedness, hard work and honesty, earned her over ninety meritorious awards. She was eventually poisoned by the Fulani influenced Nigerian government in June 2014, after the death of President Musa Yar'Adua. It was after her sponsored death that her name was most disgustingly and shamelessly engraved in gold.

The gruesome murder of her husband, Dr. Chike Akunyili, recently, at Nkpor, Anambra State, summarizes the height of wickedness that anyone could ever contemplate as a payback for Dora's unrivaled sacrifices and contributions to the growth and progress of Nigeria. For a woman of her pedigree who gave her all to sanitize NAFDAC and save Nigerians from untimely deaths even including the country itself, this honestly, is not and cannot be how to appreciate a worthy personality in her mold. Professor Dora Nkem Akunyili does not in anyway, deserve this heinous treatment. Still reeling in pains occasioned by her poison and death, Nigerians with good conscience, are yet being gripped with the sad news of the gruesome murder of her husband, Dr. Chike Akunyili. This formed the major part of the concluding moments of discussions on the Arise Television program titled: "The Morning Show".

Ojy Okpe, Rufai Oseni and Reuben Akpati, the program anchors, thoroughly bemoaned how the Nigerian state woefully failed Professor Dora Akunyili and her husband, Dr. Chike, both from whom the country has very immensely, benefitted. While Ojy Okpe believed that the ugly development could be connected to the fact Dora, had "that history of being targeted", by those whose illicit businesses suffered under her administration as the Director-General of NAFDAC, Rufai Oseni, began on a rather very sad note. "When you look back, it is a story of Nigeria, failing people".

"Nigeria failed Dora and now, Nigeria has failed her husband. And what these two people have done is quite immeasurable, they have given their lives. This man (Chike), grew up in the North, fought during the civil war, took a bullet that was still left in his skull, started medical outreaches in the North, for affected people; he was indeed a 'healer'. He came back to the South and did the same. He lived his life for Nigeria but Nigeria failed him". In an effort to explicitly state her position, Oseni added: "How did Nigeria fail Dora Akunyili? "It was as if she got all the accolades but the debilitating health care system in the country, could not detect her situation on time. She yet carried on and finally before her case was discovered, it has already gone too late. She eventually passed on".

"I remember that picture of the last time she was seen in public during her speech in the National Conference. She was so frail. The government had said it would find her killers but a part of me says, yes, we always say that. Let us not forget that in the same country, the Attorney General of the federation, Bola Ige, was killed and till date, we have not found the killers of this former Minister of Justice. So what is going on in Nigeria? We cannot keep failing our bright stars. We cannot keep failing people who do everything to make this country work. We must find their killers and bring justice back to them because these people gave their lives for Nigeria".

Previously publlished by Vanguard 

Re-edited by Family Writers Press International