Akunyili’s love story
By ONUOHA UKEH
Saturday, August 22, 2009

Prof Dora Akunyili Photo: The Sun Publishing

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Looking at Prof Dora Akunyili, Minister of Information and Communication, it may be difficult to believe that behind this Spartan look, she is as emotional as she is loving. In fact, the love story of this woman, who, in eight years sanitized the country’s drug market, would make a best seller.

Recently, Prof Akunyili spoke to Saturday Sun, as she has never done before to any media in the country. In what could pass for her mini-biography, she told the story of his life: Her current rebranding project, aimed at cleaning up the image of Nigeria, her days in the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NEFDAC), the assassination attempt at her life, her son’s kidnap, her days with her grandmother and the dramatic way she met her husband, among others. Indeed, as she talked about her love life, especially with her husband, her voice fluctuated and came low, in a show of emotion.

In the interview, Prof Akunyili was at her best. It is vintage Akunyili: Frank, blunt and unequivocal.
Excerpts:

How has the rebrand Nigeria project been so far? And at what stage is the project?
We have recorded tremendous success, even though we are not yet there. The number one success factor is that everybody is discussing it. The fact that everybody is discussing rebranding makes it a big success factor. Even gatemen, when they open the gate for you, they say Madam Rebranding. So, it simply means that Nigerians are interested. We have generated a slogan and logo, even though they are mere drivers. These were brought forward by the Nigerian people through a competition. We have launched it; we’ve had two town hall meetings in the townships of Bauchi and Imo and in their local government areas. The state commissioners for information will carry on. We’ve had meeting, with corporate Nigeria to help us in funding, knowing that a little money that was voted for Heart of Africa would not be enough to do the rebranding. One thing branding experts, in all their books, have agreed is that country branding is very expensive.

We have had meetings with authors and writers because we believe in the saying that the pen is mightier than the sword. We have had meetings with Nollywood, which is now the second most vibrant film industry in the world, after Bollywood. We have overtaken Hollywood; we are going to the next level, but we want to get their commitment so that they can help in projecting Nigeria positively and managing our negative stories responsibly. We’ve had meetings with traditional rulers, religious bodies, like the Anglican synod of Enugu diocese, with all the pastors, bishops and leaders of the laity.

We’ve had meetings with JNI in Kaduna. The Sultan of Sokoto graciously agreeing to attend and to receive us with all the other prominent Muslim clerics and religious leaders. We’ve had private meetings with different groups, such as musicians. We’ve tried to explain to the musicians the necessity of using their music to project Nigeria positively. And we always remind them of how Jamaican musicians sold Jamaica to the world. Somebody like me even thought that Jamaica was a paradise until I visited there. In fact, one of the most popular musicians in the country, Idris Kareem, even performed free for us on the launch day and actually pledged his support. He promised that he will never sing a song like Nigeria Jagajaga again because of the negative impact of that kind of song on the image of the country.

Our rebranding committee has been meeting. They have produced a blueprint, which we are going to follow step by step. We will continue to intercede with Nigerian people and remain on the same speed with them because we want Nigerians to drive this rebranding so that it will succeed, so that it will not go like other image making initiatives that government had embarked on in the past. Because part of the problem why they were not sustained is that it doesn’t seem as if they belonged to the people, the buy in of Nigerians were not secured. This time, we have started by securing the buy in of Nigerians by ensuring that Nigerians brought forth the slogan and logo.

We internalize before we start thinking of what to tell the global audience. Yes, we need to internalize it so that we can carry Nigerians along, because we have many beautiful stories to tell the world. We have many success stories in this country. But there is no way we can start telling the world our success stories without first working on ourselves, without changing the way we do things today, reorientation, revival of our cultural values, which are beautiful and instillation of spirit of patriotism and pride in ourselves as Nigerians. We need to believe in ourselves; we need to define who we are before we can tell our stories because for too long we have left others to tell our story. And we have beautiful stories for the global audience.

Think of Nigerians, who have excelled in their various areas of endeavours. They are countless – Clark, Chimamanda Adichie, Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Kanu Nwankwo etc. There are millions of Nigerians working round the clock who can never be compromised no matter how difficult things are for them. They are across the country, unsung and unrecognized. Basically, Nigerians are good people.

We have few criminals in our midst. But we don’t want those few criminals to define who we are, such that wherever we go anywhere in the world, once the green passport is sighted, like lepers, we are asked to stand aside; we are not even given the benefit of the doubt because we have left a few criminals to define who we are and we have tacitly agreed that we are criminals. Because we have never, on any platform in the history of this country, challenged the world to say that Nigerians are generally good people. We are not criminals; we are not scammers; we are not fraudsters. Nigeria is not a country where nothing works. Yes, our cup could be half-full but definitely not half empty. Look at what Nigeria did in West Africa – Liberia and Sierra Lone – through the instrumentality of ECOMOG.

We are still fighting in Congo and Darfur. We liberated these countries; we are still liberating more and nobody is telling the story. This is because we are not telling our story and sending the message. Look at what Nigeria did in South Africa. We were in the forefront of dismantling apartheid. We are one of the frontline states, even with the distance from South Africa because of our commitment. Even Nigerian civil servants and students union leaders mobilized and we gave part of our salary that was sent to South Africa to aid in the struggle. Nobody is talking about it. Look at what Nigeria has been doing under the auspices of the Technical Aids Corps; sending professionals all over sub-Saharan Africa to help them develop. They get developed and even join the western world in calling us criminals, after they have benefited from us.
We have beautiful places to show. Yankari Games Reserve, for instance, is the only games reserve in the whole world that has a warm natural spring. We have the Argungu Fishing Festival, where massive fishes are caught by human beings without any sophistical instrument.

We have Osogbo Osun. We have Igue festival in Benin. Even the Eyo (masquerade) festival in Lagos. If you have that kind of thing in Ghana, people would have flown to go and see it. We want to advertise these things to the world. However, we are not trying to wash away our failures or problems. We are not saying that all the roads are okay, that there is electricity everywhere or that there is water everywhere or that we have all infrastructural facilities on ground. No, we are saying that even when the government is working hard to provide these concrete deliverables for Nigerians, we can still stand under the platform of rebranding to tell the world that we are not all criminals and fraudsters. And that most Nigerians are good; it is only few of us who are doing things that they shouldn’t do and we continue working on those people to stop what they are doing, so that together we can actually answer that name we have chosen for ourselves – that we are really good people of a great nation because you are what you call yourself.

The slogan is, good people, great nation. Nigerians believe that they are good people but can we really say that Nigeria is a great nation, considering the fact that there is lack of infrastructure, among other factors?
Nigeria is a great nation, but we have things to fix. We are the sixth largest oil producing country in the world and people are still saying that we are not great. You see, let us dwell on our cup being half full rather than half empty. We are the most populous black country in the world and you say we are not great. We are the only African developing country that has courageously and humbly accepted that corruption is a problem and set up ICPC and EFCC. We are moving. We are in the forefront of fighting of drug counterfeiting. The whole world is looking up to Nigeria. Even developed countries are in a quagmire on how to handle this hydra-headed monster because it is already a problem to them.

We have the second most vibrant film industry in the world. Anybody who says that Nigeria is not worth rebranding or that we should not brand is being unfair to God’s blessings on us. The unfortunate thing is that we have not handled well God’s blessings on us. That’s why I said we have our failures. We have our challenges. We have things that we need to fix. We need to even fix ourselves, as individuals and institutions. Even the way we think, even the way we talk down on Nigeria. Have you heard some people talk down on Nigeria as if they have another country that they can call their own? They say Nigeria is useless. And they say it before our children.

What are we imparting on those children, both here and in the diasporas? The fact that we don’t have good roads, constant electricity and so on are different things, in that they can run concurrently; they can run alongside rebranding and rebranding will be complimenting them. Very importantly, rebranding is not distracting or reducing from government paying attention to those concrete deriverables because the money that is going to be used for rebranding is the money that was voted for Heart of Africa, which was N150 million for this year and N20 million has been used in offsetting debts owed by Heart of Africa. Right now, from government coffers we are going to get N130 million.

In some topographies in this country, N130 million cannot tar one kilometer of road. So, it is not in anyway distracting government because if I stop rebranding today, I am not going to start working on roads; I am not going to go and start working on water pipes. We have efficient and able ministers who are working on those area. We all need to aggregate our efforts. While I am talking about image, somebody is working on road; somebody is working on electricity and together we achieve the Nigeria of our dream. The rebranding is rather complimentary to provision of concrete developmental deliverables by government. It is not distracting, it is not removing.

What are the challenges you are facing or is it just a bed of roses?
No, no, no. I’m going through a lot of challenges right from the ministry. The staff of the ministry were very comfortable with the Heart of Africa because it enabled them to be going overseas all the time because Heart of Africa was first launched overseas. Since I came we have never traveled overseas for any programme. I’ve never even gone for any meeting. I’ve only gone for my son’s wedding. Of course, that was privately sponsored. Fortunately, they are coming on board gradually; they are feeling more and more comfortable with me. Then there is another challenge. We are rebranding and once in a while things happen that set us back. Like what happened in the North – Bauchi, Borno, Kano and Yobe. They are not helping the rebranding exercise. They are setting us back because when you are saying rebranding, we are saying we change our attitude; we project ourself positively; we responsibly manage our negatives. Then some groups of people just come together and start killing and destroying. It is a set back and from time to time we have such set backs. It depresses me, in particular because I see these things as anti-rebranding, because they are negatives. You cannot wish that away.

Again, not having enough money is a problem. All the country-branding experts say one thing in common in their books – that country branding is very expensive. You cannot rebrand Nigeria with less than $1 million. It is not possible. We can’t even take adverts on CNN or BBC. Some people might say, why advert? Why not? Angola that is coming out of a 21-year-old civil war, that has nothing, are all over the world telling us ‘Angola I believe.’

Everywhere you see ‘South Africa is possible.’ India, USA and other countries are doing it. We have no perfect country in the world. But I repeat, we are not wishing away our challenges because this negative perception was actually given flesh by our bad behaviour and failure of leadership at various levels. So, we should all be addressing them at the same time. That is why when we say rebranding, we are talking to everybody, including myself. You search your conscience. Ask yourself is you are getting to the office at 9.00 am on the dot to resume duty? What made me get to the office after 9.00 am? It is all part of rebranding; Soul searching. Nobody should start saying he or she is perfect.

There is no perfect person on earth. It is only God who is perfect; so rebranding affects everybody – the leaders and the led. Some even say, go and talk to the leaders and I ask them, is it the leaders that hide files in offices? Is it the leaders that throw away garbage in the streets? Is it the leaders that do the little things that destroy the system? Yes, the leaders and the led need rebranding. But when people start separating, saying it is the leaders and the people, I say this finger pointing is not going to help us. We need to tell ourselves that we have gone astray.

And we need to reposition this country. No foreigner will reposition this country for us because it is not their country. In fact, foreigners are here to make money. It is the bitter truth, whether anybody likes to hear it or not. Let me just say most of them are not here out of love; they are here to make money. And when they come here to make money, some of them even gain from the confusion because in every confusion somebody is gaining. If this building I’m sitting with you collapses, an architect will gain from designing another one. A contractor will gain by getting contract to rebuild it. So even the confusion we find ourselves today, some people are enjoying it and that is one of the challenges that I’m going through. Some people don’t even want rebranding of Nigeria because they feel that when things remain the way they are today, it okay for them.

Again, some people are so angry with the system that they don’t even want to listen to understand what rebrandingn is all about. Even if you explain it 20 times, somebody will still be asking what is all these nonsense is about. I was born and brought up in Nigeria; so I appreciate the frustrations. But we cannot because of frustration say we will not do anything. If we don’t rebrand, what do we do? If you get angry from today until you die and you are not doing anything to help for us to come out of this ugly situation. We want to rebrand the Nigerian passport, not changing the look of the passport but rebrand ourselves in such a way that that passport can be taken to the bank, that citizenship can be held proudly. It bothers me that many people are still not appreciating the meaning of rebranding. Those of them who say it is a money making venture are wrong.

When we call corporate Nigeria to help us sponsor programmes or produce campaign materials, we kept emphasizing that they should not give us money. They should just do things they want to do with us and pay whoever they want to pay. And that this little money we are getting from government will be published twice a year to show what we spent. We have said all that at least to show them that we are sincere. That, this is not about money making. Whoever has any alternative to rebranding should bring it up. But I don’t want anybody to come and say the alternative is fix the road. Rebranding is not disturbing the fix the road exercise. What is the alternative programme you want the ministry of information to carry out? I cannot go to fix the roads. The road is being fixed? Government has given more road contracts this season than it has ever been given in the history of this country. I believe that by the grace of God, we should start seeing some positive results. The challenges are many, but these are the ones I can remember right now.

Some people were not favourably disposed to your appointment as information minister, saying that another ministry, like health would have suited you better. How are you coming in the ministry?
Thank you very much. When my portfolio was announced, I was also jolted because I never expected it. About one and half years before this happened, my elder sister dreamt that I was minister of information and I asked her to go and take anti-malaria. I told her she was having hallucination. I also had a friend who had a dream that he came to the minister of information’s office and I was sitting there and he said what is wrong with my sister, why is she sitting here? He looked around he didn’t see anybody; he woke up and told his wife. God revealed it to a number of people. But even without those revelations I know that nothing happens without God’s approval. So as soon as the announcement was made, I was jolted. I nearly cried, but I held myself.

I smiled to put up a good face so that the press will not take me up the next day and say she squeezed her face, she was angry or she cried or that I didn’t want it and I succeeded. So, when I came on briefing that same day, I got myself together and the press started asking me questions. I remember I told them that this ministry is a very important one; it is the soul and image of this country and I want to sell Nigeria positively to the world, but it is only a good product that we can sell. And that was when I started thinking of what to do because if we don’t change the way we are today, it will be difficult to sell us to the world. I went straight to the ministry, had a meeting, and started restructuring, told them in the ministry that files cannot be on any table for more than 48 hours without any cogent reason.

There was no website for the ministry, none for the country. I said we must put up a website that is up and running in the next three months and that was done. Right now, we have started running polling on the website. The one for July is, immunity clause: Yes or no? I also told them that whoever had three mobile phone lines or whoever had a free DSTV or whatever should return them. I gave them two or three weeks to return all those lines so that we can effectively regulate. I also gave directives to the parastatals to go and set up their websites and get them up and running. NTA was asked to set up a website because they had none at all. Others were asked to upgrade their websites. NIPOST was asked to establish a zip code for the entire country and they have done that. Right now, Nigerians have been asked to go to the nearest post offices in their place and check what their zip code is, so that when you travel or when you write letters you should be able to add zip code. We never had it in the past. We are repositioning NIPOST. We are repositioning NTA to be like CNN, in both content and quality. We are repositioning FRCN, making sure that stations come on ground.

We are repositioning NAN; we are repositioning NCC to ensure that the operators feed Nigerians better, that tariffs are reduced. We have said consistently and we are staying on the message that quality of service must improve because we have over 60 million users of mobile telephones in this country. Our tariff should not be similar to what Ghana has because the country is just comparable to Lagos. We are making the archives totally electronic so that we will better preserve what we have.

As spokesman of government, have you ever come to a dilemma speaking for the president, which is distinct from speaking for yourself?
I think it is natural. That is very natural, but I don’t want to speak on it. Please, leave that question; I beg you.

What is the difference between what you are doing at the moment an what you did at NAFDAC?
The job I did in NAFDAC was risky but at a lower level, lower scope than what I am doing now. What I’m doing now is a lot larger. The ministry is big, most of the parastaltals are as big as NAFDAC. I don’t have to run them day-to-day; it is not the law, it is not even correct; it is not possible. But the minister’s name is added to any parastatal that is not working. So, for us to be overseeing 12 parastatals is a lot of work. Their files are packed everyday in dozen; the files of the ministry packed in dozens. But in NAFADAC, it was only NAFDAC. Now I know that NAFDAC is small. I thought that NAFDAC was big, but now I know it is small. But it is just that NAFDAC was too risky. However, here, I am not relaxing on my security even though I know it is not as risky as NAFDAC because those who felt that their businesses were destroyed by NAFDAC are still very angry. That is why I still maintain the same level of security.

Talking about security, can we recalled when you were almost killed. Having that in mind, did you ever consider quitting as NAFDAC DG?
Of course, yes. It was not easy. I was threatened. My husband was s threatened. Many times they tried to get me something happened and made me escape. In fact, we got to hear about all these after the shooting, when witnesses started coming up and giving testimonies of what happened in the past. And that shooting is something that I always try to forget. It happened December 26, 2003, in my village. Actually, we did not even go to the village for Christmas because they had threatened that by the end of the December there would be no NAFDAC. That was the statement of one of the traders. They said that by the end of December that years there would be no NAFDAC.

We painted our house in October; we wanted to go in December but because we had heard from different people about the threat we didn’t go again. My husband wanted us to go to America but because one of my daughters’ friend, an American, visited, I felt I should stay with them, but we would not go to the village. We were miscalculating, that we would stay in Enugu. But on December 26, I said how could we be held hostage in our own house? I said let us go to a ceremony at least, let them look at masquerade from the road. We passed, we greeted my mother in-law, passed on to Orlu. On our way back we didn’t know that we were being trailed. Just before we entered my mother in-law’s house, they opened fire. I didn’t even know it was shooting.

I thought it was Christmas banger because the noise was so much until the back windscreen collapsed on my body. The noise and the pain was so much. My orderly in front of the car kept shouting, ‘don’t stop, don’t stop’ to the driver. My brother was sitting on my left side; my husband went to America because he didn’t want to stay back. We continued to the police station. The pain was so much that I told the police officer to, take me to the hospital first, that there was bullet in my head. The police officer said, ‘shut up, if there is bullet in your head would you be talking? It is a brush.’ Eventually, we saw that it was like hot water burns on my scalp; there was a swelling that eventually scaled off. It did not enter my skull, as I thought.
We actually saw that they had done their worst, but three months after, there was synchronized burning of NAFDAC facilities across the country.

Everyday a place was burning, starting from Lagos. My last child was in Igbinedion college, because all his siblings had gone to America based on my winning the American visa lottery and we said he was too young to travel. But two young men went to kidnap him. They actually called him out that his uncle was looking for him. When he came out, looked around and didn’t see his uncle, he turned back and they held him. As they jolted him, the only thing he told them was: ‘Dr (Mrs) Akunyili is not my mum.’ They didn’t ask him anything. How it came into his head I don’t know. He told them, ‘I know her but she is not my mother.’ So they asked him some questions. They had a little doubt. The way he talked, God made them believe him before they left him. When we heard it, we then let him travel to join his siblings since he had a green card. It was actually my last born that started saying that I must leave the job, that it was a bad job. We kept saying don’t worry, it is only five years, it remained two years for me to finish, it will not be good for the nation and the fight against fake drugs for me to leave midway; it would be victory for the drug counterfeiters.

When it was our fourth year anniversary, my husband was thanking the people for assisting in this struggle, saying that by the following year my tenure would come to end and that would be it for the job. If it was known to me, I wouldn’t have allowed him to announce it. Some people got so angry. Some people even abused me in the press. It went on and on. Individuals and groups said that I should stay. The president, Olusegun Obasanjo, was very kind. He even invited my husband to talk to him, encouraging him to make sure he continued encouraging me. So, I stayed on.

And everyday it was a struggle for me – whether to continue or not. It was such that two years into my second term, I did not renew. My renewal was done two years after my second term because the NAFDAC council insisted. In one of our meetings, one of the members of council, Mr Omotayo, a man who knows the nitty-gritty of public service, he has been in public service for a long time, he said that I must renew my appointment. I said I was not ready. But when he explained the implications to me, I got it renewed. So, my family, including those abroad, have been told to be very careful because some people had been too hurt about the way their illegal businesses were ruined and they can stop at nothing. But thank God, it has ended well. When my husband announced that I was going to leave, there was popping of champagne at Onitsha market. They rejoiced, shouting, partying and running around.

And that also was part of why I convinced myself that I should stay because if they rejoiced so much, what were they up to? Again, if I left at the end of first tenure because my husband had said publicly that the pressure was too much, it would be victory for the counterfeiters. It would discourage any good person from taking up that job. It would discourage all NAFDAC staff because when the commander of a brigade runs away, what do you want the soldiers to do?

Again, that job, which is the truth, had even become my security. If I had left NAFDAC in the morning or in the afternoon, I must be ready to leave Nigeria at night because if I left without agreeing with my employer, my security would be withdrawn and if my security is withdrawn in this country, today or tomorrow I will be in trouble. So, there is no way I will even allow myself to get into a situation of my security being withdrawn, whether I am in the job or in government or out of government because people are hurt and they are hurt very deeply.

Looking at NAFDAC from outside now, is there anything you did that you could have done another way?
Yes, I regret that I did not push the zonal drug distribution centres, the drug market. I regret that I gave up because people fought against it because it would have been the best thing that would have happened to drug distribution in this country. In this era of privatization, government would have owned them, but it would have still been of the best of pharmacy profession and for the good people of this country, Part of the problem we have with drug counterfeiting thriving in this country is chaotic drug distribution system. I brought up that zonal drug distribution system, whereby we have air-conditioned warehouses conducive for drug trade in all geographical zones of this country supervised by pharmacists, where drugs would be sold on wholesale basis. Subsequently, Onitsha, Idumota and similar markets would be closed down so that we have an orderly distribution system. Some pharcists actually kicked against it. There was a big media war. I had meetings with my staff and my family and eventually we felt that the media war was becoming a distraction. I dropped it. N800 million was already appropriated.

I had to go and have meetings with senators and with members of the House of Representatives to tell them that we were giving up the idea. If we did it, that would have gone a long way to dismantle Onitsha drug market, which, each time I think about that market, I worry even though we cleaned it to some extent. We asked some criminals to leave the market; they left the market. Right now, I cannot vouch for what is happening in that market because I’ve heard some reports which I am not in a position to go and start investigating. But believe me, it is almost impossible to close down those illegal markets indefinitely without having a better alternative. If there is no better alternative, nobody can indefinitely close down Onitsha, Idumota and similar markets because they will ask you where would they go to. The drug manufacturers will ask you, where do we sell? Buyers will ask you, where do we buy from? So, that is the issue
I regret that very deeply, that I did not carry on.

I did not close my ears and move on. It is a lesson to me that when I bring up a crusade or a programme that I believe in, that is 100 percent current and I have backing of the legislature and the executive as I had that time I would just move on. Because you can easily be distracted by people who are gaining from the confusion. As I said earlier, in any confusion, some people are gaining. In the present chaotic drug distribution system, the counterfeiters are gaining.

You are a workaholic, waking up early each day and running till night. What is the secret?
It is the grace of God. Again, I always do things that I believe in. In fact, it is in my nature to work. I got used to working hard when I was with my grand mother. I got used to getting up very early in the morning and it is still in my body. As soon as it is 6.00 am or thereabout, I must get up. I go for mass if I have the possibility of going for mass. In Lagos, it is not easy because the drivers live far away, then I start working quite early and I go to bed late. I feel strong. Once in a while, every human being has health issues but they are so minimal as to stop me from working. I believe that this is the grace of God. The way I work is a surprise to many people, but to me working is part of me. In fact, resting is difficult for me and I am beginning to be frightened about it because it may not help me when I’m getting old. I can’t rest; it is not easy.

It is easier for me to work than to rest. And that was the training I had in the village because in the village there is no room for resting. Even when it is raining there is something to do indoors, such as producing ukwa, making palm oil and others or even harvesting water from the rain. If it is raining in the village at night, even if it 1.00 am, people have to run out to harvest water because that would save you from going to the stream for some few days. So I am used to working and I enjoy the work I do. Wherever I find myself, I immerse myself in the system and believe in what I am doing. I guess that is what is propelling me. If I don’t believe in anything I won’t do it.

How do you cope with your busy schedule and the home front?
I am very lucky that I won the visa lottery in 1996. Consequently, my children were entitled to green card; they went to America and I was left with my husband and my last-born. Eventually my last born went to join them after he was nearly kidnapped. My husband is a medical doctor and I always joked with him, telling him that he is married to his patients. He is very passionate about his patients. He is very busy and I am also very busy. He also visits at weekends. He will soon be here; he is coming this weekend. So, once in a while we visit and we talk over the phone every day. But our getting old is also helping us. The older you get the easier it is. It would have been more difficult 20 years ago.

What is the relationship between your husband and yourself?
We are very close. My husband is a very peaceful person by nature. And he is prepared to work hard in any way for my progress. When I tell some woman they are surprised because there are some men who even get jealous of their wives. That is not in my husband’s character. He is very understanding. He has a beautiful spirit. He is peaceful to a fault. In fact, if my husband owns that camera ( brought by the reporter) and you take it from him he would leave it for you. If it is my camera and you take it, I will not let you go. That’s why I say he is peaceful to a fault. We respect each other. We have six children.

We love each other; nobody forced us into the marriage; that love has sustained us. We are bound together even more by those six lovely children. Five of them have graduated, all with First Class. My first daughter got master’s degree scholarship from here to America to study Engineering. From Engineering she got another scholarship to University of Pennsylvania to do Comparative Literature. Then she got a scholarship to Harvard. She went to work in World Bank; she has resigned from World Bank, got a very big scholarship to go to medical school.

My first son is the first African to be a Shearer Scholar in Kent State University. He was again celebrated few months ago as one of the best in the medical school in University of Chicago. The only black to be so celebrated. My third child is also studying Medicine. She made a First Class. The fourth one, who just wedded, made a First Class. She is doing her master’s degree. The fifth made a First Class. She is in China. She is into languages; she wants to do Law. She is, of course, fluent in English having studied in America. She studied French, German and Chinese. She is now working in China to get some working experience before going to do Law. My last child is into basketball. He now has a professional coaching him. He is so brilliant that we want him to finish, since he said he likes to do Medicine and he likes to do football professionally. We said no, you cannot do professional football and do Medicine. You have to do one. My husband is for him to do Medicine, I am for him to do whatever he wants to. So, they are all doing very well. With all these children doing very well, my husband progressing in his profession and I have been making a lot of progress with his great support, we are okay. Our love is growing rather than dwindling.
I thought that love dwindles with age, but our own grows with age because with age we understand ourselves better. Indeed, we understand ourselves better today than 30 years ago.

Time is flying, it was in 1978. You know, when marriage starts, even when you start living together it takes a little while for you to know yourselves so much that you become like brother and sister. Well, we are still in love but we are more of brother and sister after 30 years. I am grateful to God. I don’t think I deserve what God is doing for me. I believe that whatever we are enjoying in this life is by His grace not by our merit.

You met your husband over 30 years ago and you’ve been together since. Can you recall how you met your husband and how he proposed to you?
That one is a serious story. Actually, it’s such a beautiful story. It began in my third year. I never believed in boy friends. I was very religious. I went to a convent school. I believed and still do that young girls should not have intimate relationship until they get married. So I had no serious boyfriend. Everybody regarded me as a bookworm. When I went to do long vacation job in the hospital, my husband came to the hospital and said he was looking for me. I asked why he was looking for me. He said that he met me at Nsukka but I told him I could not remember. He insisted that he met me but I still could not remember. I don’t know whether he made it up. Up till today he has never told me. The next day he came back and said he wanted more drugs. Actually the first day he wanted a few medication. I said ok and gave him small medication. Then he said his sister wanted to see me and I asked who his sister was. He then said Josephine. I said, ah Josephine Akunyili was my school mother and he said he knew that she was my school mother. But whether they discussed for him to look for me he has not told me.

He said Josephine was in Coal Camp with his parents and she wanted to see me. I said I must go and see Josephine; she was so nice to me. So the next day or thereabout, I went to see Josephine. When I went there I saw the father, we greeted, he gave me Coca Cola and biscuits. After eating I left and the father called Josephine and told her to call Chike for him.

My husband came early in the morning, on his way to the hospital. He didn’t really know why his father was calling him. He said, ‘my son, I will never deceive you. Don’t ever think that it is outdated for people to get wives for their sons. I have seen somebody that you will marry.’ My husband asked who that person was. He said she came here yesterday, she is from Nanka, she is this person’s child, and she is studying Pharmacy. My husband said, ‘Ok, I will see her. Where is she?’ His father told him that Josephine said I was in the hospital. So, he came to me and invited me to the canteen to eat with him. He told me that his father found a wife for him. I said, ‘really, how can your father find a wife for you at this day and age. Does that make sense?

Is that in the village or in the township?’ I made some jokes I cannot remember exactly. I wasn’t worried about that story, I was not in love at the time. He said no, it was not a joke, that his father had found a wife for him and that he would accept his father’s choice. I said, well, the important thing is that you are happy. If your father’s finds a wife for you and you believe you are going to be happy with her go ahead. I asked if he had you seen the girl. He said that he had seen the girl. I asked, how was the girl. He said it was me. So there was no proposal. I asked who? What does that mean?

He said I was his father’s choice, therefore, I am his choice. I said this was ambush; what is going on? It was a joke for a few days until I accepted to go and visit him. It continued to be a joke even on the proposal day, but he would continue to say going by what his father told him, he would obey his father. I asked him if it was in obedience to his father that he was proposing to me or because he liked me? He said both. My father in-law took the pride that he had an obedient son, who obeyed him to marry somebody he found for him despite his sophistication; so everybody kept away from him the fact that we knew ourselves and until he died he didn’t know the story. He prided himself as having an obedient child who obeyed him and married a wife he was proud of. You see, the story is like a drama.

There was no serious proposal; it was always in a joking way. He would say, ‘well, since you are my father’s choice you are also my choice.’ I told him it was getting ridiculous, that he should stop saying that. He said that was the truth, that he had told his father that he had accepted and asked when we were going to see him.

What would you want to be remembered for?
I want to remembered for any good I have done. I want to be remembered for facing these criminals without budging for almost eight years in NAFDAC. I want to be remembered for repositioning various agencies and paratatals under the ministry of information and successfully carrying out a rebranding Nigeria project that will project us better to the world so that eventually people would look back and say, thank God, we started this rebranding exercise. I want to be remembered for being a good mother to my children so that when people see my children they would also know that at the home front I tried my best to make sure that they were well brought up.

I also want to be remembered as somebody who did whatever I could, which I’m still doing, to ensure that my family is happy. Above all, I want God to remember whatever good I’ve tried to do on earth because that is what will earn us eternity.

What kind of Nigeria would you like to see in the next 10 years?
In the next 10 years, I’m looking forward and praying, because it is only God that can make anything possible, to a Nigeria where we will have constant electricity, we put taps in our homes and water will be running; we have roads without potholes; we have an efficient police force; we have people in the ministries and parastatals working the way people work abroad, not talking or chewing gums and watching television and so on. I want to see Nigerian public and civil servants working like people who are very serious. When you enter many offices in Nigeria, you start wondering what is going on. The one that is disturbing me most today is the culture of television in every office. In fact, I’ve entered some offices in the ministry and I felt like crying. Television will be at the highest volume and you see people talking, chatting, watching television. Sometimes I go round and I open doors and when I open each of the doors I ask, what is happening here, what is going on?

What are the things that drive you?
I love this country from the bottom of my heart. I have reasons to feel indebted to Nigeria. All through my life, I went to school on scholarship. In secondary school, I had Eastern Nigeria scholarship because I had a Distinction in my primary school. In the university, I studied on scholarship because I had a Grade One distinction for my high school. I read straight to a PhD programme. I did not only have a scholarship, I was paid. I went to University of London for my post-doctoral on Commonwealth fellowship programme because I am a Nigerian and Nigeria is in Commonwealth. So, the country has actually pampered me all through my educational career. Even during the civil war, I was going to school. So, I owe this country a lot. I don’t even think I’m doing enough, but I can only do what my strength can allow me because the country has made me who I am today.

How do you see the Nigerian woman, in terms of achievements and failures? What advice will you give them?
My advice to Nigerian women is to depend on their brains and their capability in any job. Let no woman feel that a man can make her rich or a man can promote her. The basic thing is believing in ourselves because in the schools we have the same opportunity. At work, as a woman, you have to prove yourself 10 times over because any woman coming to a job is viewed with cynicism and skepticism because people start by saying she can’t do it, especially enforcement jobs. But women are in a position to show that they can do any job and do it effectively.

Those of us in high government positions or high positions in the private sector should remember that the good work we do will encourage government or private organizations to give more women a chance. Anything we don’t do well it is also going to work against women in future. Let us remember that women empowerment, women ascending in both public and private sector depends on the examples we are showing. We should be the people who will be encouraging organizations to give women a chance. We should also mentor other women as much as we can.

Most importantly, we should trust in God, hold our families very well and respect our husbands. If a woman is not happy in her home, she would not be able to operate optimally, because that emotional aspect of life is actually closely tied with your output. You cannot have a good home if you don’t respect your husband. In fact, the higher you go in life the more respect you should give to your husband so that your husband doesn’t feel threatened. Once a man feels threatened, his ego is punctured; you can never be happy with him. And if you are not happy in your home, you cannot perform optimally.

In fact, I always joke with my children that if I were a primary or secondary school teacher today, I would not be serving my husband the way I do. I even put in more for him to continue to feel comfortable. Even if I don’t have time to cook the food, I do a few things to let him know that if I had the time I would cook, like going to bring the food personally to give him, sitting down to ask him whether he is comfortable with the food, asking him if he needs any other thing. You see, the higher a woman goes in life, the more effort she should put in ensuring that her husband is comfortable and happy with her. Once a man’s ego is punctured, then you will lose his support and if you lose the support of the man, you will not go far. You can’t go far because you will get emotionally destabilized. When you are emotionally destabilized, it directly affects your output.

A newspaper report had it that you said that your husband blamed you for your daughter’s wedding to a foreigner. What exactly happened?
It wasn’t exactly how I said it. I cannot quote myself, but I would rather say that the point is this: My children are abroad, the people they go to school with are mainly whites and it is those people that they see they would be close to. It has happened to many families, not just my family. When they get close to these people and they tell you that they want to marry, it is not wise for any family to tell them no, you will not marry. Because, if eventually, the girl leaves the young man and doesn’t marry again in her life, you will blame yourself. If she married and she is not happy in the marriage, she will blame you as the parent who forced her not to marry somebody she really loved.

My husband had a different stand. My husband’s position was no since he is not a Nigerian. But that was not my own stand. My own stand was that these children should marry whoever they feel they will be happy with. If it is a Nigerian, of course I will be happier.

There is no family that doesn’t want their child, male or female, to marry a Nigerian. But if it doesn’t happen that way, what do we do? So, that is the issue. Our stands are different but my husband is so understanding that when you bring a superior argument he accepts. However if we said no and they decide to marry abroad and send a message what would we do? It can happen. It is not impossible. Yeah, they can marry overseas and say, ‘sorry we’ve married in the church, when you are ready for traditional marriage we come.’ Will you go abroad and go to court? When we put all these things on the table, my husband said I was right. We talked to her.

She met this young man many years ago. For three years, we were talking to her, come to Nigeria and do your youth service. It is difficult for me to say this but I need to say it. I told them come to Nigeria and do your youth service. And many families do that today. It is not because of youth service, it is because they want their children to get exposed to Nigerian men. My two daughters had come to Nigeria and spent one year to do youth service because we wanted them to get exposed to Nigerian men. So we made effort. They also come on holiday very often. So every family want their children to marry or be married by Nigerians but we can’t force it. Children should marry whoever they love. As parents, we can only talk with our children, explain to them the necessity of marrying your own people. But when all these things fail and they insist that this is the person they like, I think we should let go.