Dora Akunyili was full of uncommon passion and she exuded same to the fullest when I interviewed her on her pilgrimage in NAFDAC sometime in 2004. I recall she noted with a strong feeling of melancholy how a sister of hers had died from complications resulting from ingesting counterfeit drugs. That was the incident, she noted, that galvanized her into that frenzy with which she pursued her mandate at the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) between 2001 and 2009.
All that is now history. History written in gold. But it is somehow a tragedy of history that in 2014, Dora Akunyili was to die from the wake of a wrong diagnosis of ailment; an event that has a strong parallel – albeit no direct correlation – with counterfeiting of drugs against which she fought tirelessly and dangerously. What a paradox.
When in 2001, Dora Akunyili was appointed the Director-General of NAFDAC, Nigeria was a pariah nation in the comity of nations in terms prevalence of unwholesome drugs and other controlled substances. Various studies and surveys put fake drugs prevalence rate in Nigeria at close to 70 percent. Among West African countries and sometimes beyond where fake drugs where serious problems, origins were most times traced to Nigeria. Perhaps the most disturbing was the fake meningitis vaccine incident that caused a stir in many West African countries in the mid nineties. This culminated in the banning of drugs of Nigerian origin throughout the sub region beginning from 1996.
How Akunyili restored the integrity of Nigerian drugs was not only brilliant, it was bold and very dangerous. She introduced the registration of all drugs and controlled substances sold and consumed in Nigeria, assigning codes to them. For drugs being imported, she went to their sources and instituted well organized pre-shipment checks for them except for certain substances (mostly food and cosmetics) that were designated with universal registration statuses.
The late Akunyili did not stop there. She strengthened the apparatus of operation of NAFDAC with the creation of new and relevant departments that followed the integrity of drugs right from conception through production, distribution and dispensing. The process was a direct affront on the business of quacks that hitherto held sway at every point in the Nigerian pharmaceutical value chain and also at every point in the supply chain. This ranged from makers and importers of fake drugs to quacks who sold drugs both over-the-counter and ethical drugs in all kinds of sties and squalid places including makeshift kiosks, open market places where they were dispensed in large basins and busses.
One major factor Akunyili identified as responsible for the madness of drugs in the hands of unauthorised persons was the chaotic drug distribution system in the country. To address this, NAFDAC under her leadership had proposed an organised distribution network via drug marts which would ensure that drugs would not only be in the hands of authorized persons alone, but would also ensure that drugs were tracked for ease of identification of possible problem areas including ease or recall if necessary. This however did not see the light of day due to the politicization of the idea among stakeholders in the pharmaceutical industry.
However a major breakthrough innovation in the fight against fake drugs was the initiation of the TRUSCAN project by Dora Akunyili. The system whereby a prospective buyer of a drug can with the aid of a text message, instantly know a drug’s status in terms of its integrity is today a big relief to most drug users and easily one of the most successes of NAFDAC to this day.
Equally very successful was NAFDAC’s massive public enlightenment efforts which must stand out as perhaps the most effective of its kind by any public institution. Within months of the then new dispensation under Akunyili, NAFDAC became a household name, not just as an agency of government but essentially for what it stood for. And with all that, people began to take caution and to ask questions regarding the integrity of the entire administration of the drugs they used.
So much for NAFDAC. Akunyili must also be remembered for her show of uprightness and pursuit of equity, justice and truth when she admonished the Federal Executive Council, as a member, to tell the nation the truth regarding the state of health of the immediate past President Umaru Yar’Adua. That singular act of courage – when the rest of men and women played to the gallery – arguably saved the nation from what may have ended most unpleasantly.
Indeed for all that she stood for and showed with so much passion, Nigeria must not let the legacy of Dora Akunyili fizzle away. It is in this light that those she left behind in NAFDAC and equally those she left behind at the Federal Executive Council, must see the tasks ahead of them. May her gentle but firm soul rest in perfect peace.
Keshi is Publisher of the health Journal Pharmascope
Chuba keshi
