DORA AKUNYILI AS A POLITICAL CHAMELEON

The announcement by Professor Dora Akunyili that she was resigning as Minister of Information and would contest the Anambra Central Senatorial seat under the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), generated several headlines and commentaries. Dora Akunyili (DA), affectionately called 'Auntie Dora' by her admirers, said she was quitting the Jonathan Goodluck administration to “join my Governor, Mr. Peter Obi, who is doing a great job” in the building of Anambra State.

I read the valedictory statement Dora Akunyili presented at the Federal Executive Council meeting signalling her quitting the Jonathan cabinet. Thanks to Sahara Reporters. Two chapters in that statement caught my attention.

1.I wish to humbly inform Council that I am resigning from the Cabinet with effect from tomorrow, 16th December, 2010.Today is therefore a very emotional day for me in Council. This is because I have been so closely bonded to most of you that my departure is like leaving a family. My heart is so heavy because in this Council, I have found comfort and friendship

2. As I take this step, I solicit for your prayers and other forms of support. I am making this request because you are my people and my immediate constituency. Yes, my colleagues in the pharmaceutical industry are still my people but I have virtually exhausted my goodwill with them in the service of our dear Country, especially in support of the Re-branding Nigeria project. Many drug manufacturing companies spent over N10 million for the Re-branding Nigeria materials because they desperately wanted me to succeed. Therefore, it is you and only you that I can now run to for support. Please, I plead with each and every one of you to sow a seed to my political career, you will never regret it. In the words of President Jonathan, I will never let you down. Yes, I will be in the senate by the grace of God for my constituency and for the nation but you can be sure that I will also be there for you.

Just when you think you've seen the weird part of Dora during the Yar Adua sickness era, gbam! a Dora hits you with another most laughable part of her use and dump syndrome! Oh! ah!! eyah! please! I am quitting PDP. Please don't be angry with me. You are all my brothers and we ' formed a family' Ah! oh, Mr President! Thank you! Thank you! For calling me your sister!! And please, please, never, ever! stop doing so because I can't cope otherwise. Please in the name of God, continue to like me!!!Erm! ah! Remember! Drug companies spent 10 million naira on my rebranding project. Ah! Ori mi o! Ye! oh no!! Please I need to say all this! So you don't deny me the chairmanship of a juicy senate committee for joining an opposing party!!! When i get there under APGA i will decamp to PDP again and dump Governor Obi.Trust me ,you all know me as Madam Opportunist. Ah! Oh! my head! my toe! ye! my body,,,

PURRRGH!!! That is Dora for you, a political chameleon. I wrote articles were i stated why Dora Akunyili should resign and why Akunyili should not be allowed to hold any political position in Nigeria again..To me,Madam Dorotido now worships power with her whole body, her whole heart, her whole spirit and, in fact, her whole being. For her, nothing is too small or too great to do to acquire power and flaunt it. Her love of publicity is part of her endless scheming for power. Once she grabs it, Mrs Akunyili immediately and unceremoniously abandons all who helped her .

Almost everyone can agree that Dora did a tremendous work at NAFDAC including my humble self and it's on that basis that we are criticizing her role now. We cannot because she did well in NAFDAC turn away from what we are seeing now. That will be a great disservice to this country and its people. In Zimbabwe and in Africa, Robert Mugabe used to be a hero but when he derailed, well meaning people of that country had to fight against his tyranny. Our focus is on what Auntie Dora is doing now and not what she did before..

Honestly, when Dora became a Minister she became a shadow of herself. She went about telling Nigerians lies upon lies, defending government failures and deceits with pride. Even when there was billions of naira budgeted by Yar Adua to provide us with darkness, she kept defending the government. Remember when she came out shamelessly to tell the world that as a minister for information, her job was only to help the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) carry their files to the president without making an input at all. This was when she desperately attempted to exonerate herself from the high level fraud that greeted the contract award for procurement of broadcast equipment for NTA for the U-17 FIFA football tournament hosted by Nigeria.

Nigerians can never forget that this Dora was the same person who came openly to defend the so-called Yar Aduas cabal's insistence on President Yar Adua's right to govern from anywhere in the world. That he was medically fit and all there was to be told. But later when she saw that Yar Adua was not getting better Professor Akunyili in her opportunist way of life wrote a memo to her cabinet colleagues asking them to make Vice President Goodluck Jonathan the Acting President in accordance with Section 145 of the Constitution. Nothing was wrong with making Jonathan the Acting president but it was a dramatic volte face for someone who had on two previous occasions after the Executive Council meetings addressed the press where she strongly defended Yar'Adua's fitness for the country's leadership.

Dora made it the first time in our history where council Memo became public knowledge no sooner than it was written, let alone submitted. Even directors in the Ministries who normally prepare such memos swear to an oath of secrecy before working on them. Dora broke the oath of secrecy . Dora's reasons for sending her memo to every media were for her to be seen as a fanatical supporter of Dr Jonathan the new kid on the block so that she could retain her cabinet membership, and to regain her public image which has been declining disastrously since she became the Minister of Information. Not satisfied with the plethora of articles she and her numerous aides were churning out every second eulogising her for her so-called courage in breaking ranks with her colleagues over Yar'Adua's health status, Mrs Akunyili went on a whistle-stop campaign of media interviews castigating her colleagues dubbed by the press as the cabal for hiding the president from everyone. She retained her Ministerial position.

So why did she quit PDP. Obviously because her hope for clinching the PDP senatorial ticket is gone. Was it not the same Doroti that after the 2009 Anambra governorship election which saw the lost of PDP, summoned and sponsored a so-called Anambra State PDP stakeholders reconciliation meeting in Abuja where she passionately regretted the loss of her sweet party ,PDP and begged them to walk together for the progress and interest of PPD alone. Believing she was already close enough to President Jonathan, Akunyili set her sights on controlling Anambra State PDP and called a second PDP stake holders meeting two weeks later in Anambra state where she was booed ceaselessly, pelted with stones and spirited out of the venue by security agents.

Did we not all witness Madam Rebrands partisan actions and utterances during the Ekiti saga? Please !!! She acted no differently to Aondoakaa and others who were all only interested in a PDP victory - whatever the cost to Nigeria and Nigerians. Even Bankole sang disgracefully in praise of the deployment of Military force to bully our Nigerian brothers and Sisters in Ekiti !!!

So what do you think about Dora's ignoble role in the Ekiti shame witnessed by the entire world? What will you say about her bullying role in the saga that saw the people of Ekiti denied their mandate? You must not have witnessed Madam Rebrand shameless attempt to cast aspersion on the character of Mrs Ayoka Adebayo (Ekiti's regional electoral commisioner - REC) merely because she refused initially to announce a PDP win despite it being crystal clear to the entire world that the PDP lost in Ekiti.We are not going anywhere as a nation with so many Nigerians still willing to back and support election riggers. Nothing , I repeat nothing , is greater in a democracy than allowing the electorate to choose its leaders. This is the underpinning block of democracy.

Now she has dumped GEJ and dumped PDP for APGA. Today, to her Peter Obi is now “my Governor” Everyone that have been following her antecedent will doubt and question her allegiance to APGA and to Anambra people or even to Ndi-Igbo . She's just a political opportunist trying to gain relevance in her dwindling public life . She does not have the passion to do things for the people . She never had . She's a stone-cold unapologetic ambitious woman who strives to be the only woman politician in the mist of men .

To Governor Peter Obi : you can send your 'Dora' to go and try to shine in her local government area as a councillor and not the senate .I am not interested in Anambra 'area,' politics. Dora's kind has no business on the federal level so I frown at her senatorial aspirations because she will go there to represent herself and only be seen and not heard. I really would like someone who is articulate enough to convey meaningful messages to the world on behalf of Nigeria and 'real' Nigerians who mean Nigeria well. No one is jealous of her extremely rural personality, not to mention her baffling 'ghetto-looking' physiognomy and mannerisms. Please, hide her in your Igwe's palace . . . where she belongs and only allow her to sit in the portion of the local government as a councillor. I could live with that.

-Kenneth Uwadi
Mmahu-Egbema
Imo state