Prof. Dora Akunyili, Former NAFDAC Boss, Passes On.

Former Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and ex minister of Information, Professor Dora Akunyili, has died according to family source.

Dr Akunyili made an indelible impact during her tenure as Director General of Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and her legacy will live on.

After Akunyili took over leadership of NAFDAC, she established as a top priority the eradication of counterfeit drugs and unsafe food. Before Akunyili assumed duty, Nigeria became a place where fake and substandard foods and drugs were being dumped without any form of regulations.

She became angry because “so many of (her) countrymen and women (were) fighting killer diseases like malaria and tuberculosis with little more than sugar syrup and chalk tablets, cynically packaged to look like the real thing.” Although Akunyili  faced considerable risk to her personal safety in order to combat the issue of fake drugs, “She danced with danger and received different awards all over the world.

Some of the awards she received are Time Magazine Award 2006( "One of the eighteen heroes of our time"), Silverbird Person of the Year 2005 Award, just to name a few.

Dr. (Mrs.) Dora Nkem Akunyili, who assumed office on the 12th of April 2001, as the Director General of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), was a Pharmacist, Pharmacologist, Erudite Scholar, Seasoned Administrator, and a visionary leader. She was a Senior Lecturer and Consultant Pharmacologist in the College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Nsukka (U.N.N.), Enugu Campus, before she became the NAFDAC boss.

Dora also moved on to become the Minister of Information and Communications, before going on to run for election as Senator for Anambra Central on the All Progressive Grand Alliance[APGA] platform in April 2011 where she was defeated by Chris Ngige of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN)

Shortly before her death she was a member of the ongoing National Conference ,and she was flown to India to receive urgent medical attention few weeks ago.

Dr. Akunyili died in an India Hospital after a long battle with cancer. She was aged 59.

NigerianEye