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Dora: Forever, You'll Live!

June 9, 2014

And finally, it's true; that DNA is no more.

The veracity of the death of Prof. Dora Akunyili came to me as a rude shock.

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And finally, it's true; that DNA is no more.

The veracity of the death of Prof. Dora Akunyili came to me as a rude shock.

For some times now, the report of the purported death of the woman
noted for her gallantry in NAFDAC, had always been in the public
realm.

Right from the very moment I set my eyes on Mrs Akunyili in her
capacity as a delegate in the on-going National Confab, my mind
developed a sudden kind of cordiality with uneasiness that never left;
she was just a shadow of her old self.

The once robust, agile, elegant and beautiful lady was all herself
save in bodily appearance. She looked emaciated, fragile and scraggy;
a condition that left me befuddled each time she replays in my
imaginative.

And with the growing peddling of the death-rumours, the more I'd
always received it with palpitating fear, of an obsessional thrall
fumed by an unending recourse to the enscribed silhouette on my mind;
praying it to be the rumours that has always  suffered shame.

And when on the 7th of June, 2014, the report of the death started
filtering in again, I took it to be a furtherance of the now
established locomotory of doom's poropagandists. However, I was soon
to be proved wrong.

Upset I was ostensibly, when on waiting to receive once again its
rebuttal from her close family, there was none forthcoming. Instead, I
learnt that this time around, it was actually, an insider that
confirmed the sad news.

The worst eventually, has happened!

This reality threw me off my mind's balance; I was jolted, I sobbed.
So, my Dora is dead. The lady with an express audacity in defending
life is gone; the great amazon of the safe drug Nigerian society is no
more.

Nevertheless, one thing is sure even in death; it can never be argued:
that Mrs Dora Akunyili has left her mark on the sands of time, her
legacies would for long remain indelible.

That Dora left the stage at a young age of 56 left me in devastating
sorrow; it's so painful to be denied of her spurring presence and
liveliness. But I was quick to make a swerve; one necessitated by her
litany of achievements ably attested to by her collections of awards
and recognitions.

I will weep; but not in hopelessness, not in regrets. This is because,
though she left early, Prof. Dora Nkem Akunyili did not die a young
woman as would be suggested by her age; for she lived beyond that age.

Dora's effort both in the academia and government betrays her true
age; they are great and epochal. She must have started right early to
make her values felt; an affirmation of her belief that time is too
precious to waste in creating legacies.

Prof. DNA as she's fondly called was a woman, whose landmark
contributions and achievements to nation building outweighs her age; a
real DNA that repositioned NAFDAC; a real DNA that dignified the
Federal Ministry Information; the audacious DNA that set the ball
rolling in the turbulent FEC, when others had reclused in verbal
inactivity to say the needful. And all these shall ever remain even
after her; to project and celebrate her existence.

She has fought the good fight: of faith, of service, of patriotism and
of humanitarianism.

Prof. Dora never dies; she lives on. And I know how: her legendary
achievements echo the fact that she does.

Prof. (Mrs) Dora Akunyili, even in death, remains my inspiration. The
battle of goodwill you left unfinished and which has been your hunger,
shall not end in your demise.

The new Nigeria you lived for and had endeavored consistently to
deliver to us, your children and to your grand children, shall sing
aloud your efforts and commitments to its realisation. You'll look
back in pride and joy that your struggle was worth it.

Rest In Peace, ma'am; we'll ever miss your dexterity and idiosyncratic
disposition.

Ahanonu Kingsley,
Owerri (07038106683)