One cannot agree less with the position advised in a press
statement by the Con-Soludation Team Int’l, a group of
professionals who believe in the philosophy and leadership
qualities of Professor Chukwuma C. Soludo. Professor Dora
Akunyili, honourable minister of Information and
Communication should properly apologize to Soludo over the
insults the former heaped on him for the better part of the
month July.
The paroxysms of Dora Akunyili against Soludo are indeed a
classical case of misplaced aggression that has to be
properly resolved. In what appeared to be a tacit apology
from the honourable minster, she claimed she has fired her
Senior Special Assistant Media, Mazi Obi Adindu and sent her
Media Assistant, Mr. Julius Ogunro, on suspension over what
she described as unauthorized response to Professor Chukwuma
Soludo. This action, though apologetic and reconciliatory on
the face value, still falls short of what is expected in the
circumstance for the unprovoked vitriolic herself and her
hired hands had unleashed on Soludo. Dora Akunyili has to
properly apologize to put the matter to rest once and for
all.
For a fact, certain things are better denied further access
to publicity for their shameful nature and the said
emotional outbursts of Professor Dora Akunyili, is one clear
example. The fact that Professor Soludo has chosen to keep
dignified silence and bear the assaults with uncomplaining
fortitude does not in any way mean he has taken the puddles
hauled at him by his kinswoman for nothing.
For a recap, Dora’s senior sister, whose daughter happens to
be Soludo’s wife, with whom she was not in talking terms
took ill and was bedridden for long and finally died as a
result in a London hospital. All the while, Soludo
strengthened the wife and stood by her family in the tragic
moments as they fought for the good woman to live till the
very end. He was also there for them in giving her befitting
burial.
In all this Dora Akunyili who popularly describes herself as
‘humanist’, never showed up or as much as put in a phone
call to see how the dying sister was doing; nor asked how
the burial would take place, to say nothing of making inputs
in the burial arrangements. For the avoidance of doubt, in
an open letter to Dora Akunyili, the late woman’s son Engr.
Emeka Ezenwanne, accused Dora of setting up a parallel
burial reception next to their compound, which the family
had no choice than to dismantle for being abominable.
In other words, Professor Soludo had no hand in the matter
since the bereaved woman’s children have since claimed
responsibility and Dora has proof implicating Soludo in any
way. This is the base for the apology Dora should render to
Soludo.
Also of significance is that Akunyili carried the enmity
with her own blood sister unto death and after. This
remained a family matter until she brought
it into the public domain with her
brazen conduct at the burial programme where she came up
with the bizarre parallel reception arrangement designed for
mere cheap
publicity stunt. This action justifiably enraged
the woman’s family and the youths of the town and they took
steps to dismantle it despite the onslaughts from the police
and army. The brutality they suffered as a consequence in
itself was said to be unprecedented.
After this, Dora accused Soludo in a press statement of arranging
thugs to harass and embarrass her and her guests. In the
said statement, she even alleged her guests received threat
text messages. One wonders how thugs got phone numbers of
her VIP guests to send them threat texts.
In the said statement was also her rather naïve claim that
Professor Soludo holds
grudges against her for her antiparty activities in the
Anambra guber election last February. She and her aides
became even more reckless by bringing the late president
Umaru Yar’Adua into it and by attempting to pour scorn on
and downgrade the first class reforms that Soludo carried
out in the nation’s economy, especially in the banking
sector as CBN governor.
In this her pseudo press statement she also alleged that
Soludo wanted to be governor to evade prosecution. One
wanders how such nonsense makes sense even to her
professorial self when the man has walked the streets for 2
years now.
One important thing stood starkly out in this rash of releases
against Soludo: Dora Akunyili inadvertently admitted her
antiparty activities during the Anambra guber polls and
rationalized it as necessary in order to save Anambra state
from what they saw as disastrous implications of
‘Con-Soludation’ should she allow Professor Soludo to become
the governor of Anambra state. Such impetuosity is
unfortunate and the height of impunity for one occupying a
central leadership position of a nation’s federal cabinet.
She has indeed offended civility and her office as an
officer of the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
by dancing naked in the marketplace. More importantly, what
she has done in the so-called show of remorse still smacks
of politics and deception. Many even say checks can confirm
that the so-called aides she claims she relieved of their
duties are amorphous and therefore phantom. This also means
that Dora Akunyili was at least privy to the press releases
she now distances herself from after inflicting the
envisaged damage on Soludo’s name, and may have actually
authored it. The names as Mazi Obi Adindu and Mr. Julius
Ogunro may therefore be nothing but pseudonyms she used to
embarrass Soludo. It stands to reason because the faceless
men are at best, existing in her fringes and worse still,
may not exist at all. If this is true as alleged, then, it
is sad and bad indeed.
Come to think of it, Professor Soludo even by proxy has
never directly or indirectly accused Dora Akunyili anywhere
of upstaging him or aspiring to be governor or manipulating
the process to be selected as the PDP consensus candidate
for the ill-fated guber election, though she has now
admitted same in the press statement she made through her
aides.
It should be granted that Dora has the right to aspire to
be anything but many think she has now formed the habit of
riding the Tiger and she may end up in its belly as many
did.
The strong woman may have been under enormous pressure for
her conduct at the sister's burial and afterwards. She
should expect the anger being expressed in some quarters
because those who procure ant-infested firewood can never
escape the visit of lizards.
The allegation that Dora Akunyili was more interested in
making political gain out of her sister’s death and burial
rather than contributing positively in making the burial
hitch-free is indeed heavy. The deceased sister’s son,
Con-Soludation Team Int’l and Soludo’s media aide maintain
she would not miss her deceased sister sorely, since she
never visited her when she was bedridden both in Nigeria and
London with all the ample opportunities to do so.
The allegations and innuendoes she heaped on Professor
Chukwuma Soludo in her various press statements are
unsubstantiated and unwarranted as she is not in any contest
with Soludo. Professor Akunyili is a public servant and the
image maker of Nigeria, the largest black nation on earth
and should comport herself in a manner that will court less
controversy.
She appears to be garnering the unsavory reputation of
creating enmities where there should be none. Her quarrels
with the late Adedibu, late Umaru Yar’Adua’s kitchen
cabinet and branding the entire Igbo race ‘drug fakers’
during her screening for a ministerial slot in the President
Jonathan cabinet without proof are some notable examples of
her conduct that courted unavoidable controversy as a
public officer.
For Dora to surround herself
with those who could think and write as crassly as the duo
she purportedly sacked, is in itself unfortunate and she
should be bold enough to accept the responsibility for their
irresponsible conduct in the line of due. .
Professor Dora Akunyili
was quoted as saying, “I feel very embarrassed and saddened
by this release issued by my SSA without permission from me.
The release is too demeaning and I can’t talk about anybody
in that manner no matter the level of provocation.”
We adjudge this halfhearted
apology and categorically state that her apology to
Professor Soludo should be undisguised, direct and
unreserved.
This flimsy attempt to divert attention from the issues and
reduce them to the mundane and politics only deepens the bad
blood, which has already been noted is uncalled-for.
Many are justifiably proud to be associated with Professor
Chukwuma Soludo for his celebrated uncommon courage and
vision in consolidating the Nigerian Banks to the point that
at least 2 of our banks, each, is bigger and better than
all the 89 Nigerian banks before the exercise put together!
It is also a fact that without the successful banking sector
consolidation, there would have been no bank in Nigeria
following the global financial meltdown.
The Professor/honourable minister of information should
therefore tender unreserved apology to Professor Chukwuma
Soludo for the embarrassment he suffered, undeserved, in her
hands in the last weeks and take further steps to mend
fences with the man she once called ‘Charlie Banyi’ (my own)
and work generally for peace in Anambra state and the
nation, Nigeria.
· Law Mefor, an author and
journalist, is Director, Centre for Leadership and Social
Research, Abuja. 234-803-787-2893; e-mail: lawmefor@yahoo.com
Published
August 12th, 2010
