Posted by By Jasper Okpalafulaku on
A lot of people are under the impression that the task of defending Nigeria's interests and projecting a positive image of the country before the international community is the responsibility of only government officials formally saddled with the duty.
A lot of people are under the impression that the task of defending Nigeria's interests and projecting a positive image of the country before the international community is the responsibility of only government officials formally saddled with the duty. This impression is wrong. There is, for instance, private diplomacy. Jesse Jackson, the famous civil rights leader in the United States of America who has run colourful and spirited campaigns to become the Democratic Party presidential candidate, has employed private diplomacy to achieve American foreign policy objectives. Despite the reservations which Washington expressed about his trip to the Middle East in the 1980s, Jackson's visit resulted in the release of American pilots shot down and arrested by the unfriendly regime in Syria.
The Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Professor Dora Nkem Akunyili, is one person who has done so much for Nigeria's image abroad. Still, her activities may not be classified as falling within the realm of private diplomacy, since she is a government official. She has since her appointment in April, 2001, been winning respect for Nigeria from the international community in the manner Professor Wole Soyinka, Professor Chinua Achebe, Professor Bart Nnaji, Dr Phillip Emeagwali and a host of others, have been doing. On September 5, this year, she will address the American Congressional Hearing on the Dangers of Internet Medicine. Nigerians living in different parts of the world were thrilled on July 6, 2005 when The New York Times, perhaps the greatest American newspaper, splashed her picture on the front page and ran a beautiful story on her heroic effort to stem the tide of counterfeit drugs, in spite of all odds. The Herald Tribune, which prides itself on being the world's leading daily, lifted the story, using NAFDAC as an example of the success of the ongoing reforms in Africa.
'This is a remarkable departure from tradition", notes Okey Ndibe, a novelist and professor of English in Connecticut who writes for both American and Nigerian newspapers. 'When Africa hits the front page of an international newspaper, it is often about coups, famine, wars, official graft, business scams, etc. It is, therefore, heart-warming to read The New York Times's generous story on Mrs Akunyili". This positive story on the NAFDAC boss is no isolated report. 'Akunyili now is winning a holy war against killers in a crusade that speaks to one of Africa's worst ills: endemic corruption", wrote Tom Masland of Newsweek International. 'It is a problem long-recognised by Western authorities. When Paul Wolfowitz took up his new post as head of the World Bank, he announced plans to lead an immediate mission to Africa. ‘‘Corruption is the greatest threat to democracy since communism,'' he warned.
But it is homegrown activists like Akunyili, who by revolutionising a moribund agency, is forging a paradigm for how deeply corrupt societies such as Nigeria's, can begin to turn around." Akunyili's NAFDAC has in several places been cited as a model of how a Third World government agency could be turned around within a short period simply by appointing the right kind of leadership and allowing the organisation to do its job without undue political interference. Sharon LaFraniere of The New York Times has made this point in her recent report. The NAFDAC turnaround has caused the health authorities in Ghana, for example, to lift the ban on the importation of Nigerian drugs which was placed in the pre-Akunyili days; and, once again, Nigerian drugs are all over West and Central Africa. In fact, the Ghanaian drug regulatory agency now regards NAFDAC as a role model and has been benefitting from Akunyili's experience.
Against this background, it is no surprise that the transformed NAFDAC has become a subject of intense study in organizational turnaround and restructuring. Prof. Eyitayo Lambo, a professor of Economics and Management Science, who is the Nigerian Minister of Health, has noted how NAFDAC is making a rewarding study in management. In fact, some post-graduate students of Public Administration at the Lagos State University and Nnamdi Azikiwe University, are doing their theses on NAFDAC, examining its transformation from the perspectives of human resource management, change management, communication and organizational theory.
Research students of marketing, brand and reputation management as well as leadership studies also should find the agency a fine case study.
Despite her immense administrative commitments, Akunyili has since 2001 delivered more papers within Nigeria and abroad than most academics who are not holding down administrative jobs. She has since her appointment delivered 316 papers within the country and 19 elsewhere. And the topics have included areas outside pharmacy, drug and food regulation. At the world famous Wharton Business School, she spoke on ''Reinventing Business In Africa"" and followed it up two days later, November 17, 2003, at the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League institution, with a talk on ''Women Leaders In Emerging Democracies"".
One fascinating feature of Akunyili's papers is that they are enthusiastically received. Consequently the interest of the international press is excited. The Geneva Tribune of Switzerland called her ''the energetic Dr Akunyili"", after watching her performance at the first world forum on fake drugs in which 200 persons and institutions participated. It was held on September 24, 2002, at Calvern, the headquarters of the World Health Organisation and also capital of the pharmaceutical industry. On May, 2005, Erik Almquist of ''Uppsala Nya Tidning of Sweden wrote positively about her following her frank and original contributions at a lecture organised by ''Pharmacists Without Borders"" at the Biomedical Centre , Uppsala. Akunyili, wrote Peter Aldhous, news and features editor of Nature, an American-based monthly, ''has spent the past four years facing down corruption and tackling Nigeria''s rampant problems with fake drugs. This crusade has been phenomenally successful"". The report ! was printed on March 10 2005.
Enthused at her remarkable work, the BBC invited Prof Akunyili to speak on July 14 2005 to 40 BBC correspondents at the Real World seminar held at Cambridge. Two days earlier the BBC Channel 2 did a television documentary on her, describing the NAFDAC DG as ''a dynamic regulator and the uncrowned queen of Nigeria"". Producer Ian Overton was to say of her : ''the best person I have ever filmed…….a remarkable person"".
Quite remarkable about Akunyili is her use of simple but very effective methods to achieve her goal of ridding Nigeria of dangerous drugs and consequently safeguarding the health of the nation. Convinced that the mere arrest and prosecution of fakers would hardly make a dent on the problem, given the lethargic nature of our justice system, she used organs of public communication to enlighten the public, but also to ''scandalize"" the names and activities of those perpetrating the illegitimate business. The result has been electrifying. Observed Michael Peel of Financial Times of London on July 10, 2003: ''……dealers may be more likely to respond to social pressure than to prosecution"". For years the agency could not prosecute drug fakers because it did not have the executive fiat to do so.
By 2001, up to 60% of drugs available in Nigeria were expired, substandard, counterfeit or unregistered. But today only less than 20% of such drugs still obtain. Prof Akunyili has done a fantastic job in less than four years, and the legitimate pharmaceutical industry in the country has grown in leaps and bounds. We expect foreign direct investors to respond appropriately to the sanitised pharmaceutical environment. Finally, let me join millions of Nigerians to wish Professor Akunyili who has just marked her 51st birthday the very best in life as she continues her service to God and humanity. Recepient of 243 major awards worldwide, she is a supreme example of what a public officer should be. A quintessential image maker and ambassador of
Nigeria.
Okpalafulaku, President of Association of Anambra State Pharmaceutical Importers,
Onitsha, sent this piece from New Delhi, India.