Nigeria’s former Minister of Information and Communication, Dora Akunyili, had described former President Goodluck Jonathan as a slow-moving and undecided leader who was destined to fail.
This was made known in an biography of the former director general of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control titled, ‘I am because we are’ and authored by Chidiogo Akunyili-Parr, the daughter of the late Dora Akunyili.
Bibian Anekwe News reports that the 382-page book published by Safari Books Limited was presented in the first person narration as though she told the story herself.
Akunyili-Parr quoted her mother as saying she knew the Goodluck Jonathan administration will fail after the former president announced his cabinet.
She stated that her mother had expected to be made the minister of health following her outstanding work at NAFDAC but she was instead tasked with overseeing the Ministry of Information.
She wrote, “I was not the only square peg in a round hole. The announcement of his cabinet of mismatched candidates and portfolios was one of the first signs of the woes that would cripple Goodluck Jonathan’s government.
“The very talent for which he was chosen to be vice president to (former President Umar) Yar’Adua was marring his presidency. Nigeria needed a decisive leader who was willing to rock the boat as needed. Instead, we got a quiet, slow-moving man with distaste for speed and a preference for neutrality to the point of inaction.”
According to Akunyili-Parr, her mother resigned from the Jonathan administration after sensing an ominous failure.
“I cited my official reason as being ready to begin a new chapter of my life. Unofficially though, I wanted to have more authorship on the direction of my journey, free from the whims of a seated president,” she added.
In the book, Akunyili’s daughter touched on the assassination attempt on the life of her mother and other attacks carried out against NAFDAC.
Akunyili-Parr recalled an attack on the Lagos office of NAFDAC, which was burnt down, “everything was destroyed including office equipment and sensitive files with data on registered products. Someone wanted to cripple the agency and erase all its records.”
On March 10, 2004, barely 72 hours later, the laboratory complex in Kaduna, which was critical for testing large quantities of medicine and food, was set ablaze and also razed to ashes.
“The entire building, laboratory equipment, chemicals and reagents, furniture and office equipment were destroyed by the fire. The destruction was valued at about N228m, a colossal loss to NAFDAC and a setback to our operations,” she added.
Bibian Anekwe News
