he day Nigerians woke up to the announcement that Professor Dora Akunyili's name had been forwarded for a ministerial position, our thoughts of a new hope, a new direction and a new dawn to public service were awaken. But disappointingly, very disappointingly, when the professor of pharmaceutical sciences' portfolio was announced, our hopes for opportunity for better quality of life and greater development of Nigeria became hopeless. Dora Akunyili (you remember the agile, strong-willed, honest, hardworking, committed and result-oriented woman who headed National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC) is to look after Nigeria's Ministry of Information and Communication.
First, Professor Akunyili's appointment is a slap on her own face, in that she has been assigned a portfolio less befitting for her professionalism, character and vision for Nigeria.
Second, this appointment has brought to all Nigerians, home and abroad, a deep sense of disillusionment in the promise of the government of Nigeria to deliver good life to Nigerians. With this cabinet assignment, the government of Musa Yar'Adua has once again demonstrated to the whole world that it is either ignorant of the strategic relevance of professionalism to public service management, or has grossly underestimated and misjudged the ability of Professor Akunyili to Nigeria's development if she was assigned to one of the critical ministries such as Health or Environment.
Coming from the background of the zeal, honesty, commitment, management competence and leadership that Akunyili demonstrated over the last few years as the Director-General of National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), it will not be out of sense to say Professor Akunyili will benefit Nigerians much better if she was assigned to Education Ministry or even Police Affairs, where corruption is endemic with the resultant negative effect on internal security throughout the length and breadth of Nigeria.
Third, the rest of the world is disenchanted seeing this government, putting one of our hard working, most reliable and zealous characters, with a robust profile of professionalism, management and leadership in a position of minister of information and communication, where her job is, not professionally to dissuade the public, but will be merely reduced, by the power in Aso rock, to propagating government activities (Note that past ministers in this position had merely engaged in propaganda and defence of government positions, good or bad. They had failed to position the Nigerian media to match the international standards of BBC, CNN, or Aljazeera network).
Clearly this cabinet assignment is a round peg in a square hole. It smacks off some mere trickery. With Akunyili's personality, credibility and hard work at NAFDAC, and her commitment to Nigeria's progress and development, it will be unreasonable if she allowed her hard-earned global integrity to be screwed deep into the mud by accepting to be a mouthpiece for dishonesty and to cover up lies of this government. But we pity the professor because she will, in the spirit of ministerial collective responsibility, and in her capacity as the information and communication minister, be constrained to behave dishonestly; she will have to defend the indefensible of other ministries that she knows nothing about, including the presidency; she will find herself, against her will and conscience, covering up and being economical with the truth.
Now, in the performance of her duties as minister of information she will, in front of international press, be pressured to tell lies and half-truths on behalf of the government in her attempt to create a non-existing good image for the government of Nigeria. She will now have to defend the likes of Mrs Farida Waziris, the Mike Okiros, and the Aondoakaas just to mention three of them, who have already lost their dignity in the face of international community. As a result of this it is not wrong to speculate that Akunyili will gaffe because she will be doing the job that she is not naturally or professionally coined out to do, a job that does not fit her person and character. The sycophant manner with which Femi Fani-Kayode, the ex-Aso Rock Bull dog in Obasanjo's civilian government, ran that ministry is still very fresh in our memory.
We sympathise with Nigerians in general, but in particular with professor Akunyili for this act of gross misuse of good resources. We have pity on this articulate woman because she is a perfect round peg who is just being treacherously put in a square hole. It cannot fit well for the Nigerian people. Our Education sector is currently in its worst state in history (Nigeria's best University ranks number 350th in the world); Our Health ministry is next to ministry of mortuary (if there was one); Police affairs is riddled with corruption, aiding and abetting notorious criminals and armed robbers in our society; the Ministry of environment is doing next to nothing to reduce carbon emission and noise pollution in order to improve quality of life for Nigerians.
Nigeria needs Dora Akunyili's expertise and experience in the most relevant ministry that will impact on the lives of ordinary Nigerians. By assigning her to Information and Communication Ministry, the government of Yar'Adua has failed to discharge it responsibility to the Nigerian people, instead, it has chosen to use a pure and stainless personality to act as a propaganda tool for covering up its excesses and limitations. We then ask Mr President, where is the leadership that we all hoped to see from him? With this sort of misuse of resources, what hope do we have for sustainable development toward 2020 target and beyond? The truth is that this singular cabinet appointment can only achieve one thing - strength in the opinion that a blind sailor without a sense of direction is captaining Nigeria's ship to future development. The result? Your guess is as good as mine.
advertisement
