Uche Anichukwu
31 December 2008
opinion
Lagos — I received a rather rattling phone call from a journalist friend who covers the Villa on the Wednesday that the 16 new Ministers were sworn in and assigned portfolios.
I ignored the call, hoping to call him immediately I got to my destination which was nearby. Hardly had I finished I parking in front of a friend's office, than he called for the umpteenth time. "Uche! Uche!!" he shouted almost breathlessly, "They have taken your 'idol' to the guillotine. What is it this country wants? Will we ever do things right?" I was confused all the more, but he even sounded much more confused than me. He had never sounded this frantic before. On further prodding, he managed to explain that Professor Dora Akunyili was assigned the Ministry of Information and Communications. She, according to him, was too clean for such a dirty job of lying for Government. For instance, he said she would now face the arduous task of justifying why the Federal Government would have to deal with Mallam Nuhu Ribadu. He also said she had no experience for such portfolio and, worst still; the masses had lost a great opportunity to sanitise and reposition the entire health sector. My legs wobbled as I walked to a friend's office.
Except the Presidency and its favourites, there is hardly any Nigerian that would deny shock at the appointment of Professor Akunyili as the first Minister of Information and Communications. What, with all uncountable and highly coveted national and international awards she had gathered in the Health Sector as the Director-General of the National Agency for Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC. However, on a second thought, it is obvious Yar'Adua knows what he wants about Nigeria's image and the consolidation of the relative gains garnered in the communications sector, and who was best suited to deliver the needed results. There are two persons that have won my administration among the women that have found there way to the top, namely Prof Dora Akunyili and Senator Joy Emodi. These are the incorruptible duo that can hold their own anywhere anytime. These are two lionesses that would respect you, but would nevertheless look you straight in the face -eyeball to eyeball- and tell you the truth you may not like to hear, irrespective of how highly placed you are. Dora Akunyili, it could be recalled, was the same woman who had shut down the factories of the high and mighty which had ran foul of the NAFDAC codes. In fact, my respect for her skyrocketed the more the day she shut down the factory of one of the richest black men and a member of the OBJ kitchen cabinet at the time. I was afraid she had touched the virtually untouchable. But the thing with her is that while you fear for her, she doesn't even give a damn, but rather does her things confidently, passionately, patriotically, and in professional panache even at the risk of her own personal and political safety.
At the risk of digression, her failure to make Yar'Adua's maiden Cabinet which had a high dose of OBJ's could be counted as one of such political hazards if people like Lamidi Adedibu were saying the truth when they publicly claimed to be the ones that anointed ministers into that maiden Cabinet. Adedibu, it could be recalled, was at war with Akunyili for bluntly refusing to succumb to the caprices of his thugs whom were alleged to be in the habit of forcefully reopening factories/warehouses around Ibadan each time they were shut down by NAFDAC for unwholesome practices. The Adedibu vs Akunyili war which stretched into late 2007 (at least publicly) was the story of an unfortunate, yet preventable system breakdown. It was the story of a system where lawlessness and banal impunity substituted lawfulness; where to be a master rigger was to be a master strategist and; where to be brutal and bestial was to be a strongman. It was, in fact, the story of Babacracy- a kind of garrison politics where ruthlessness, lies, blackmail, impunity, coercion, and corruption could be rules rather than exceptions. My take on Akunyili had always been that not even a million truckloads of Adedibu or all the gangs of enemies of progress in this world (including those who publicly called for her to be dropped over My Pickin saga) could stand in her way whenever God thought she should progress to the rank of Minister in the Federal Cabinet.
Therefore, I see her appointment first as a divine promotion and call to higher service, then as a thoughtful compensation for hard work and an eye for quality on the side of President Yar'Adua. As such, while the Presidency might have quite a lot of explanations to do to Nigerians over her portfolio which has generated so much controversy, ranging from an alleged agenda to rubbish her to the main issue of her suitability or otherwise, I support her view that she is where God wants her to be now. The right person for that image-managing Ministry is someone who has credibility and also the courage to tell the truth. This is Akunyili's high point. She has written her name in gold on both the sands of times and hearts of Nigerians. Dora is celebrated world over for her competence, courage, conscience, love for humanity. I am one person who believes that the message is as good or bad as the messenger. Or how does one believe a message if he/she does not first believe in the messenger? That has been the bane of our national image and information management all the while. Most often, the critical task of information management is left in the hands of people whom the public and the international community believed all they had in their mouths were lies, even before they had spoken.
Talking about experience, nobody who has followed the Professor's successful campaign against fake and adulterated drugs would question her competence in information management. In fact that was the key to her success at NAFDAC. Her first press interaction after the appointment had all the ingredients of competent information manager- intelligence, philosophy, diplomacy, confidence, and truth. Despite her relative experience in information management, it is nevertheless heart-warming that in that maiden press briefing, she started her new job from the point of team spirit. Her attitude could be summarised as "I don't know much about, but you all can help me succeed attitude." That humble disposition is a winning attitude very different from that of a former Minister who said he was going to fix the power sector in six months only for the power sector to plummet. And come to think of it, if it was all about experience, Noah's Ark would have sunk. But it didn't! Instructively, it was built by armatures, whereas the Titanic was the product of professionals. Again, the health sector has been run aground over the years by successive medical doctors, some of them Professors of Medicine. The same applies to the nation's oil sector, especially NNPC. Besides, who says there are no experienced hands and enough technocrats in our all our Ministries? Much of what is lacking is that incorruptible, patriotic, and transformative leadership to lead the way in insisting that things must be done right. Gladly, these are the qualities she is taking to that Ministry.
A flank of that Ministry that will benefit generously from her no-nonsense attitude is the communications sector. The era of "The more you look, the less you see" might as well be over. In fact, my friend who works with one of the foremost GSM companies confessed it was time to sit up. Engineer Ndukwe now has someone that will give him the momentum to ride roughshod over defaulting telecommunications companies. For a woman who had successfully withstood threats, blackmail, and assassination attempts, and inducements from drug barons and their accomplices in high places, the repositioning of the communications sector is indeed a moi-moi case.
Nevertheless, I do not in any way underestimate the great challenges the former Madam NAFDAC faces. Is the terrain capricious and slippery? Yes. Is she trading a territory she knows like the back of her hand? No -she confessed that much in her maiden press interaction. But can she succeed as Nigeria's first female Minister of Information and Communications? Oh Yes! She Can!!
Anichukwu wrote from Abuja
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