Tackling the Amazon

Professor Dora Akunyili

Professor Dora Akunyili, Minister of Information and Communications seeks to stamp her formidable philosophy on national politics, but members of the Federal cabinet and the cabal threatening Nigeria’s unity rallies their rank for an epic battle
By Igho Akeregha
The advertorial by Arewa Youths Forum published on page 68 of THISDAY Newspaper of March 4, 2010 and signed by Gambo Ibrahim Gujungu, national president of the Forum, clearly exposes the decay of the Nigerian state. The advertorial was a reaction to comments made by Information and Communications Minister, Professor Dora Akunyili who urged her colleagues in the Federal Executive Council to abide by the constitution and disclose the true health challenges faced by ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua.
Nigeria remained bellicose and without political authority since November 23, 2009 when President Yar’Adua was hurriedly flown to the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Saudi Arabia following acute pericarditis, a condition leading to covering of the outer chambers of the heart and difficulty in breathing. The power vacuum created by the sudden illness of the President has since been exploited by top politicians in the country, including the immediate family of the President, to create tension and heat up the polity. While receiving treatment at the Saudi Hospital, no one was allowed to see Yar’Adua except Hajia Turai, his wife, his ADC and Chief Security Officer. A number of high profile delegation from the National Assembly, the Presidency and the citizenry made abortive efforts to see the ailing President.
For over three months that President Yar’Adua stayed off duty, the country came to near boiling point. His deputy, Goodluck Jonathan, could not assume the reins of governance because the President did not comply with section 145 of the constitution which required him to transmit a letter to the National Assembly informing the lawmakers of his vacation and inability to attend to state matters. Full compliance with this provision would have seen Vice President Jonathan preside over the affairs of state. Saddled with national comatose occasioned by the constitutional breach, the last few weeks presented a grim picture of a country in direstrait. The National Assembly and Executive Council of the Federation (ECOF), foot-dragged for over two and a half months before respite was eventually restored as the National Assembly proclaimed Jonathan Acting President last month.
Akunyili, a professor of pharmacology and former Director-General of the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), is known, long before her appointment as Minister of Information as a fiery defender of truth. Her Memo to the EXCOF on February 3 did not, therefore, come as a surprise. In the 14 paragraph memo titled, ‘State of the Nation’, Akunyili noted inter alia, “ I believe that in the choice of all of us , as individuals and group, Mr. President must have considered our ability to guide him aright to serve our people better, promote and protect the constitution in line with the oath of office taken before him in this chamber by each and every one of us. President Yar’Adua is very dear to me just as he is to all of you”.
Continuing, Akunyili observed that “we are all aware of what has been happening in Nigeria, especially as it concerns the issue of making the Vice President an Acting President. There have been debates for and against”. And then the shocker; “I wish to call on the Federal Executive Council to act now in the best interest of our dear president and dear nation. We need to do what is morally right and constitutional for the President to officially handover to the Vice President to function as Acting President. If he does not, we can evoke whichever aspect of the constitution that should make the Vice President an Acting President”. This became the sour grape for most of the Ministers, who, before the memo spoke tongue-in-cheek.
For speaking the truth, Akunyili has come under fire. Not only from her colleagues in the cabinet, but from those who staunchly believe that the foundation of nationhood must be rooted in deceit. Former Justice Minister, Michael Aondoakaa had led the onslaught against Akunyili, but many other Nigerians rose in her defence. Even when democratic institutions in the country have affirmed Jonathan as Acting President, the call for Akunyili to be censored and clipped remains high. Sources informed the magazine that those breathing down Akunyili’s neck have so much to hide and are thus worried that she had demystified the secrecy of the Nigerian cabinet, which has lately become associated with safeguarding class interest rather than that of the country.
Since Yar’Adua’s absence and his controversial return penultimate week, the country has been divided by succession arguments. Unexpectedly, key voices in the North spoke in favour of Jonathan ascending the throne as Acting President. Even the pro-North Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) called on Yar’Adua to step down for Jonathan to man the ship of state. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, believed to have foisted the ailing president on Nigerians inspite of critical opposition, also recently urged President Yar’Adua to take the path of honour – and bow out.
But Gujungu and members of the Arewa Youth Forum think otherwise. For them, Akunyili is a threat to national unity. They believe that her memo and television interview, where she lambasted those she called cabals who prevent Nigerians from knowing the truth, constitute a greater danger to the country’s stability. The AYF noted that the situation has become a veritable platform for some people to pursue their narrow, devilish and primitive interest. Claiming that the Forum had had enough of what it described as blackmail, the AYF called on Akunyili and her “cohorts to immediately resign their appointment and tender unreserved apology for plunging the nation into a state of anxiety, uncertainty and ridicule in the eyes of the international community in pursuit of their personal interests”.
The group stressed that the Minister’s utterances and description of other Ministers as a ‘cabal’ was capable of exposing them to hatred and challenged her to disclose the names of the cabal, the details of what they have been doing and the role played by each of them. In the advertorial, most of which was devoted to sundry personal issues, the AYF argued that it was irresponsible for Akunyili as a Minister of the Federal Republic to turn into an agent of destabilisation and a threat to national unity. Although, most Nigerians clearly feel that the AYF position is ludicrous, The Source could not get Akunyili’s response last week before she jetted out to New York, United States of America, as part of Nigeria’s delegation to the 54th session of the United Nations Special Commission on the Status of Women, popularly known as Beijing Plus 15 expected to round off this week.
When The Source contacted Julius Ogunro, a Media Assistant to the Minister, he declined comments but confirmed that Akunyili was already in the United States for the UN Summit. However, a former gubernatorial candidate in Delta state, Chief Ogbe Onokpite informed the magazine that he was solidly behind Akunyili. According to the politician who contested the 2007 governorship election on the platform of the Congress for Popular Participation (CPP), “the time has come for Nigerians to wake up from their slumber and reject fraudulent and deceitful leaders who are prepared to tell bare-faced lies about the health of the number citizen of Nigeria”.
Onokpite, who is based in Toronto, Canada disclosed that he had to fly into the country with some other notable Nigerians in the Diaspora to join hands with other patriots to move the country forward.
He praised the effort of Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark for remaining consistent on the side of the common people of the country and warned that it was time to do things differently for change.
“Very soon, Nigerians shall see good democracy dividends. Those of us from Delta state are mobilising our ranks to free the state from the grips of fraudulent politicians and this will be replicated across the country,” he said.
Apart from Onokpite, more Nigerians cutting across social classes are queuing behind Akunyili. Niger state Governor, Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, commended the Minister for her memo to the FEC. Governor Aliyu said with her actions, the country will be saved from further embarrassment. He observed that if Akunyili failed to speak out as government mouth-piece, who then will do it for us.
“We cannot continue to remain the way we are, we must move on,” he said.
According to him, “Many of the people calling for the head of Akunyili for speaking out are not doing so because they love Nigeria, but because, like a cabal, they have vested interest”.
In the same vein, a former Minister of Aviation in the First Republic, Chief Mbazuluike Amaechi, early February warned that any form of attack on Akunyili over her memo to the FEC will be resisted, adding that her action was courageous and should be commended. Sounding uncomfortable with the current trend, Amaechi noted that “as one of the remaining founding fathers of this country, I cannot remain mute when I see clear signs that the nation, which great nationalists and patriots shed their blood to found, is gravely threatened. What is happening now is an ominous threat to corporate continuation of the Nigerian Federation.”
Last week, the FEC meeting was a heated spectacle as cabinet Ministers unleashed their frustration on Akunyili who many Nigerians now perceive as a heroine. The EXCOF shunned calls for the invocation of section 144 of the 1999 constitution to determine the president’s health. A day before the FEC meeting, The Source was reliably informed, the Governors Forum had prevailed on Acting President Jonathan to halt any move to invoke the section of the constitution that will finally remove President Yar’Adua from power. It was learnt that many of the governors who attended the Tuesday, March 2 meeting thought that if that section of the constitution was invoked by the cabinet, it could awaken fresh crisis in the polity that managed to gain some stability by the close of the week.
But at the FEC meeting which held during the week, Acting President Jonathan bowed to pressures from the cabinet members who appear to be in the majority and who wanted Akunyili cautioned over what they termed, as her persistent inflammatory remarks.
Before the FEC meeting, most of the governors allegedly sounded it clear to the Ministers, most of who were their nominees, to reject any call for the invocation of relevant sections of the constitution to remove Yar’Adua from office. It was however not to be as the meeting ended after two hours, with President Yar’Adua retaining the chance to come back to office after full recuperation. This is heavily dependent on the outcome of how those around the president handle his health issues in the days and weeks ahead. Before he was allegedly flown back to Nigeria in the wee hours of February 24, 2010, inaccessibility to credible information had led many to believe that the president had died in Saudi Arabia. The fear surrounding the president’s safety is yet to abate as the Aircraft that purportedly brought him into Nigeria was an Air Ambulance which taxied to a recluse area of the tarmac before another ambulance sped off from the Air Ambulance amid tight security.
On February 7, 2010, Akunyili opened up on why she wrote the memo. In an interview published in the Sunday Sun of February 7, Akunyili said she got tired of the situation and when she could no longer bear what was going on, she prayed to God following a night of depression and lack of sleep before resolving to shed the burden off her by writing the memo to her colleagues.
A Lagos-based legal practitioner, Gabriel Giwa-Amu told the magazine, that those who are criticising Akunyili are unpatriotic, Giwa-Amu insisted that it was the Akunyili memo that broke the deadlock and freed the country from chaos.
It is expected that the weeks ahead would determine the fate of Acting President Jonathan and the cabinet. For Akunyili, her critics insist that she brews controversy wherever she is. They point to her fracas with the Nigeria Communications Commission, (NCC) over allocation of Broadband licenses and her brush with the top management of the Nigeria Television Authority, (NTA) over the purchase of broadcast equipment for the station ahead of Nigeria’s hosting of the 2009 FIFA Under-17 World Cup. But what appears to be working for Akunyili is her ability to read the mood of the nation and the expectation of her people. Although bogged by controversy, her Rebranding Nigeria Campaign is a project aimed at frog jumping the country’s image. However, with the recent development in the polity, Akunyili and her teeming admirers now know where it pinches.



Akunyili on Yar’Adua
“We were not told officially that our president was coming back. It was even Al-Jazera that broke the news, but I didn’t hear it because I had slept. They broke the news that he was leaving Saudi Arabia for Nigeria. They also broke the news of his arrival. But I heard it on CNN.”

“…the President Yar’Adua I know is very peace loving. He preached the rule of law and I believe he preached it from his heart. I never saw him as somebody that will come back to bring instability… I believe it is people around him that are gaining from the confusion. They want to continue dishing instructions even when the president did not say so. The cabal should stop heating up the system and pray for President Yar’Adua to recover.”

“if he (President Yar’Adua) were brought in like a president and Nigerians had information that he was coming back, we would all go to receive him as many people as would make it and he wants to be brought in as a president with honour and dignity and when he comes in, prayers will continue.”

“I never said he (Yar’Adua) should resign. I said it is better to find a way to encourage him to hand over to Dr. Jonathan so that the system will be stablilised and our hard earned democracy will not be truncated.

“I don’t think they wanted to cover the president. Too many lies beget lies and this was done for personal gains and for people to gain fame, power and money.”

“It’s not about President Yar’Adua. Presidency is an institution. The president is in the presidency. Look at what Condoleezza Rice came to tell us here. I’m not angry with her. We made ourselves the mouse for the cat. If you make yourself mouse, the cat will eat you.”

“Do I look like somebody that anybody in this world can teleguide? Some people said Obasanjo, and others said Ojo Maduekwe. I found it funny because it all boils down to a fact that people don’t know me.”

“What went wrong? We love our president but we should remember that he is not infallible. Before he left Nigeria, he had a moral and constitutional obligation to officially inform the senate and hand over the mantle of leadership to the Vice President pending his return and recovery. That did not happen. Yes, the mistake had been made by our boss and our brother. Mr President is ill and did not choose to be sick. But while we continue to pray for his recovery, we should try to right the wrong.”

“The name of the president and all his achievements are being rubbished by the unfortunate debacle. The president and his family are also being put under undue pressure. If we fail to act now, history will not forgive us. I rest my case.|
“If you can talk, you should come out and talk. If you can write, then write so that people that are not doing the right thing will stop because our dear president may not be in a position to control what they are doing.”