Science, Medicine & Engineering
Landmark
Dora Akunyili
1954 – 2014
Took on the counterfeit drug trade at NAFDAC
Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the Nigeria Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
As head of Nigeria's drug regulator she went after the counterfeit medicine trade at genuine personal risk — her offices were burned, and she survived a bullet through her headscarf.
Dora Nkem Akunyili was a pharmacologist and professor at the University of Nigeria. Her sister Vivian died of diabetes in 1988 after being given fake insulin, which is the reason she took the job she took.
Appointed director-general of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control in 2001, she inherited a country in which a large share of medicines on sale were counterfeit — chalk sold as antimalarials, water sold as antibiotics, children dying of treatable illness. She published the names of offending companies, banned imports from suppliers who would not open their plants, had consignments burned in public, went after the big open drug markets, and prosecuted.
The trade fought back. NAFDAC laboratories and offices were burned down in Lagos and Kaduna, staff were attacked, and in December 2003 gunmen shot at her convoy near Agulu; a bullet went through her headscarf and she survived. She did not stop, and independent surveys recorded a large fall in the proportion of fake drugs in circulation over her tenure.
She later served as Minister of Information, and in November 2009 broke publicly with the cabinet by demanding that it declare President Yar'Adua incapacitated during his long absence — a stand widely credited with preventing a constitutional crisis. She died of cancer in 2014.
Appointed director-general of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control in 2001, she inherited a country in which a large share of medicines on sale were counterfeit — chalk sold as antimalarials, water sold as antibiotics, children dying of treatable illness. She published the names of offending companies, banned imports from suppliers who would not open their plants, had consignments burned in public, went after the big open drug markets, and prosecuted.
The trade fought back. NAFDAC laboratories and offices were burned down in Lagos and Kaduna, staff were attacked, and in December 2003 gunmen shot at her convoy near Agulu; a bullet went through her headscarf and she survived. She did not stop, and independent surveys recorded a large fall in the proportion of fake drugs in circulation over her tenure.
She later served as Minister of Information, and in November 2009 broke publicly with the cabinet by demanding that it declare President Yar'Adua incapacitated during his long absence — a stand widely credited with preventing a constitutional crisis. She died of cancer in 2014.
Spotted something wrong? Tell us and we will check it.