Date Published: 02/09/10
DORA AKUNYILI: YET ANOTHER HOPE FOR NIGERIA By David Augustine
That Nigeria has practically come to a cross road is no longer news.
The country has got to a point where even the most optimistic among us
is beginning to lose hope. The descent to the pits of despair has been
with us for a long time, but in all these years, we have not realized
how easy it could be for a few power hustlers to hold the entire
nation to ransom. Never in our wildest dreams have we thought that a
few individuals could kidnap a whole country and hold her hostage for
so long, but today, we are the wiser. Nigeria is a hostage to a cabal
we all love to call the kitchen cabinet.
These guys have made us a laughing stock among nations. We have become
the butt of international jokes. In that kitchen where the absurd is
hatched to checkmate Nigeria and Nigerians, they call all of us fools;
they take us for idiots who can neither think nor reason. Our
Attorney-General thinks no other person has gone through a law faculty
and so he has the sole knowledge to interpret our constitution. The
minister were more interested in what they would miss as ministers
than what we would all miss if the country collapses or if this hard
won democracy crumbles to anti democratic forces. All that was
paramount was their loyalty to an individual.
It was therefore gratifying to hear that there could be even one sane
voice among the lying tongues and deceiving hearts that make up the
Executive Council of the Federation. They have carried on as if they
loved Nigeria than any of us. They felt we are from the outer space,
and only those of them in power are the true Nigerians that can
determine what is good for the country. But thanks be to God that
Prof. Dora Akunyili has come to the rescue. She has risen to the
occasion. She has become a counter voice to the maddening crowd of yes
men and women that people the Federation’s Executive council.
Prof. Akunyili had no choice. She had exhorted us to love our country;
she had drummed it into our ears that the country is bigger than any
one person; she had told us we had a duty to recreate our country,
paint it away from the evil that internally and externally, people
believed she was; she had given us the task of being the best we can,
because we are a good people from a great nation. She had a task she
set out for herself. She campaigned for the recreation, if you like
the rebranding of Nigeria. It was difficult for us to distinguish this
rebrand evangelist from the congregation of liars and perfidious
nation wreckers that have for the past two months further thrown our
image closer to the dogs.
Dora Akunyili, must have seen herself in the very terrible side of
history and decided to retrace her steps from the dance of the devil
that has been going on in the cabinet. She knew that no person will
ever listen to her rebrand sermon if she did not act. Nobody will ever
believe our president again when he comes mouthing the sermon of rule
of law, because we now know that rule of law has the colours of the
rainbow when it comes to implementation.
The good old Amazon had to rebel. She had no choice if she wanted us
to keep the memory of the woman we knew in NAFDAC. She had no option
than to retrace her steps back to the Nigerian people who supported
her in NAFDAC and have all this while watched her curiously in her
current position. She broke ranks from the deceitful lairs who would
want us to believe that a man on life support machine can still be in
charge. It is impossible to see some of them and not think of the
shame of adult lies. What will these people teach their children? How
do they talk about morality to those under them? How could such men
and women continue to pretend as leaders? What manner of leadership do
we have here when the basic ingredient of leadership is visibly
missing?
Dora Akunyili knew so well that she is a mother. She knew that she
probably may not have any answer if her kid asks her what happens to
her employee who has been on sick leave for two months and counting.
She knew that all those groups all over the world, who had honoured
her would be asking question about their choice. Akunyili had no
choice. She still has some active conscience. She can never be an
Aondoakaa! She has no such character; a character without conscience.
He was supposed to be the chief law officer, but has ended up the most
vicious violator of our laws; helping escaping corrupt officers with
state cover and providing enabling environment for corruption to
thrive and bloom. History reserves a place in political damnation for
him.
Reading through her memo to her colleagues brought some sense of hope
to me that after all, the nation could still be saved; that we have
gone too far off the mark, yet there is still hope that we can retrace
our steps because we still have people of conscience and character.
There is hope that this nation can still emerge from the woods and
join the race to development. Infact, the current crisis has been an
eye opener to some critical observers of the country we call our own.
We have seen people leave all vestiges of ethnic, religious,
geopolitical and political cleavages and come together in unison to
demand for the restoration of the health of our country. Arewa,
Ohaneze, Afenifere, voices from the south-south and all over Nigeria
clamouring for what is good for our country. Perhaps this crisis may
weld us even closer than ever.
As Akunyili rightly stated, everything good about the president has
been rubbished by this pigheaded clinging to power at the detriment of
the nation and the president himself. It is un-African for people to
wish others death, but lately Nigerians no long mind. It is a shame to
all the people who have brought this calamity on us. They do not care
whether we survive as a country or not. What they care about is how
long they will last as ministers. Shame will be theirs when the right
thing is done.
I salute the courage of this woman who had in the past done heroic
things, risking her life to save Nigerians from dying in the hands of
fake drug merchants. She is a patriot who has in the short while in
the consciousness of Nigerians endeared herself to the young and old,
irrespective of ethnic or regional origins. Her boldness and
forthrightness is an indication that all is not yet lost for our
country. Let us learn more things from our present experience. Let us
learn to discomfort ourselves in trying to serve; let us learn that
the misfortune of the nation is our collective lose; let us learn to
saddle only men and women of integrity with leadership
responsibilities in Nigeria. Let Akunyili’s example serve to remind us
that the nation is greater than all of us.
Augustine, wrote from Uyo, Akwa Ibom state
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