Odunayo Kila
Journalist,
Media and Expert
Press-media advisor to Prof. Pat Utomi
presidential candidate
in the
2007 General Elections.
London, UK.
The foregoing prompts a question that we must answer. Can one
possibly establish or indeed justify a nexus for one person and
the fate of a nation: for Lamidi Adedibu and certification of a
disastrous destiny for Nigeria? The answer is a yes. But for ‘due
process’, let us look at it all the same. Let us look at three of
many things.
THIS ADEDIBU MUST NOT DIE by
Odunayo Kila
“If the black race is
going to make progress at all, it will be spearheaded by Nigeria.
And Nigeria will never make progress when we are ruled by
shameless politicians who are less interested in the common good,
whose god is their bellies.” – Simon Kolawole
Are Black People Less Intelligent?
“At this rate Nigeria is going nowhere”. - Me
Seeing a House of Reps proceedings
Nigeria in the immediate past decades has contended with various
Adedibu-manifestations. Thuggish-Adedibu, anarchic-Adedibu,
political buffoonery-Adedibu, and such others have been the
presentations of the persona.
Recently, the Director General of NAFDAC, Professor Dora Akunyili
in a publicly declared protest described her agency as reaching “a
critical point concerning its activities in Oyo State”, where “if
the obstructive tendencies of Chief Adedibu continue, we are going
to close down the NAFDAC office in Ibadan and leave you people to
the mercy of drug and products fakers”.
For this NAFDAC-Adedibu, Nigeria stands at a crossroads of life or
death. If this particular Adedibu is allowed to die, Nigeria heads
nowhere but to certain death.
The foregoing prompts a question that we must answer. Can one
possibly establish or indeed justify a nexus for one person and
the fate of a nation: for Lamidi Adedibu and certification of a
disastrous destiny for Nigeria? The answer is a yes. But for ‘due
process’, let us look at it all the same. Let us look at three of
many things.
One, Akunyili made her case public, and at that, she spoke of
critical stage. Point; Dora took her case to the people (her
principal concern) because she had exhausted ‘due process’ over a
period so long that it reached critical stage. She must have
petition Obasanjo fruitlessly, and on sensing the same trend with
Yar’adua, she shouted out.
Two, last week two events occurred. A number of opinion pieces
across national dailies dwelt on NAFDAC-Adedibu. Across a divide,
a number of paid newspaper adverts popped up. While Reuben Abati,
Kayode Komolafe, Kola Animasaun, and Bimbo Amole led the op-eds
contributors, Olusegun Obasanjo, Kolapo Ishola, Olabode George,
and (tragic, for me) Oluwole Awolowo signed the sponsors’ lines of
the adverts group.
For the contributors on the one hand, the titling of their
write-ups suffices the substance of their positions: “NAFDAC and
The Adedibu Menace”, “Time for Inquest in Oyo”, “This Adedibu will
be the death of us, if...”, and “There Is Something about
Adedibu”.
On the other hand are the effusions of Obasanjo, Ishola, Bode
George, and Awolowo (!): “Why for God’s sake must we seek to
change a good product.” “He became excellent in the art of
mobilization, de-mobilization, and coercion.” “…I know, that even
angels in heaven will blow the trumpet and sing a special song,”
“your kindness to humanity is exemplary and your leadership
quality unparalleled”, etc.
Point: The Obasanjo-led judgment followed that of the Abati’s,
even smack in the heat of media and public outcry over a
personality Obasanjo describes as ranking foremost among Nigerian
statesmen. Now (inevitably) Adedibu and Akunyili will take
instruction from the picture; he is energized, and Dora, she has
already threatened to remove NAFDAC from the State.
Three, is the vox populi. Nigerians, home and abroad spoke. The
sheer volume and instantaneity of their contributions in web logs,
opinion articles, letters-to-editor, SMS, and so on had a sobering
effect. Please share a few.
“Yes we can bear Adedibu’s political stupidity, it won’t last. But
when it comes to food and drugs, no way, it’s about poisoning; it
could be anyone, even the family of the police (government)
protecting him. Please lets not bring politics into this, Etteh's
case has brought the country to a stand still. This one will kill
the country! Akunyili cannot be wrong about Adedibu.”
“Adedibu is like a tortoise. He is always in the story and never
in a good story. He may have been a product of bad parentage;
probably an area boy as a youth and that culture has sustained him
up to where he is now. But as an old man now, one expects a change
from him. It is most certain these vices are what he is handing
over to his children and followers. Expect many of this type of
Adedibus in future. Government, please call this old man to
order.”
“The worst politics have always been in Ibadan. One day, we the
citizens of Ibadan will get rid of Adedibu and his clan, his
entire family shall be outwitted and dealt with. The Adedibu clan
had shed so much blood; there is not a single family in the west
that has not lost a relative traced to Adedibu's henchmen. What
is Adedibu's illiterate son doing in the senate for God' sake? How
did he get there?”
“I plead with young men of good conscience of Oyo to rise up
against Adedibu and put him where he belongs knowing that he is
trampling on their future, their children, and the progress of Oyo
State. They should wave their culture of respect for elders and
threat him as a fool that he is.”
“What manner of man is this that is always linked with all the bad
things happening around Oyo State? It's high time he be put to
where he belongs. OBJ let him be because of whatever they had in
common but he should know that every day is not sallah.”
There! The constituents, citing violent human losses traced to
Adedibu, an imminent trample on their future, and readiness as
citizens of the war zone, are, while calling for all the help they
can get, proposing that the able-bodied rise to constitute a
militant-force in a bid to outwit and get rid of Adedibu, his
entire family (!), and his clan. They also prophesy a future with
many of this type of Adedibus if we do not stem NAFDAC-Adedibu.
We must note the unenthusiastic pitch in the people’s call for
government’s intervention against their readiness for
self-determination vis-à-vis the state of things in the Niger
Delta region and its recent threatened overspill to Lagos and
Abuja. In this, the seriousness of this issue would be a matter of
opinion, -only in Nigeria.
At any rate, what must we do, generally, to what end in view of
what possible challenges? Firstly, let us join Dr. Abati in
appealing to Professor Akunyili not to shut down NAFDAC operations
in Oyo. Akunyili has reasons for exploring that extreme
alternative. One of which I constantly imagine, would be her
encounter with President Yar’adua’s now renowned incomprehensible
immobilization upon confrontation with issues of momentous
significance.
Secondly and of no less degree, let us implore proponents to
exclude militant-considerations as solution. And this is not that
it cannot be; it is only because there are other more effective
options. A vigilante operation may be; as Chief Awolowo (not our
advert Awolowo) likes to quote, when they “make peaceful change
impossible”.
So, which way forward? There’s the government option. Sadly
however, in view of the status quo, it appears there’s very little
to that platform. Even then, and if only for due process,
Professor Akunyili should effect a petition to the Presidency and
copy the Police IG and relevant committees of the bicameral
legislature. Importantantly, NAFDAC should ensure that copies are
made available to news media nationally.
Formal advocacy is an additional yet strong accompaniment. One
direction of many; Akunyili has in the past three years received
close to three hundred awards. And these are not from flimsy
conferrers. The majority was identifiable local and international
professional bodies, corporations, educational institutions, and
even from faith-based groups.
In view of the nature of this particular battle, NAFDAC may
solicit the support of her awarders to help activate participation
from bodies which include the Manufacturers Association of
Nigeria, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Nigerian Medical
Association, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Nigerian Bar
Association, Mass Media, Standards Organization of Nigeria,
Organized Labour, Consumer Association of Nigeria, and Civil
Rights Groups.
These bodies, and many NAFDAC international partners such as The
World Health Organization, The United Nations Drug Control
Program, The Environmental and Occupational Health Science
Institute, The United Nations Children’s Fund, and others, in
their varied capacities could help in their own ways, compel
action from the Nigerian government.
Then there is us. We should supply strategic support. We must
commit a little our time to make sure this matter gets the right
relevance. We must continue talking and writing about it. We must
make sure everyone around us know that this is one battle we must
not lose.
A recent UN report put Nigeria second-worst globally in health
issues. An index of those kinds of rating is mortality. High
death-rates have strong links with consumption of fake,
adulterated, and substandard foods. For this NAFDAC onslaught,
Adedibu ceases to be an Ibadan problem; he becomes a problem of
the black race, epitomizing why Nigeria may remain a charade.
A charade recently personified by Nigeria’s immediate past
president, where, in a supreme display of contempt for the people,
insensitively sponsors a campaign in support of a person who
ordinarily should be answering the law. If we allow them take this
particular battle, Nigeria may never make progress. They must not
win this war.
We must tell others that we have been provided an excellent
opportunity to rid ourselves of specific decelerators of our
nation’s progress and inhibitors of a potentially wonderful
future. They must not win this war.
We must let everyone know that Nigeria will never make progress
when we are ruled by shameless politicians who are less interested
in the common good, whose god is their bellies. And that if we
allow this Adedibu matter to die, they win. And if they win this
one; Nigeria is going nowhere. They must not win this war.
