Sleep On, Dora Nkem Akunyili.

Dora Nkem Akunyili

On this day in 2014, Dora Nkem Akunyili, a one time Director General of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) of Nigeria died.

The Nigerian Minister of Information and Communications from 2008 to 2010 was a pharmacist and governmental administrator who gained international recognition and won several awards for her work in pharmacology, public health and human rights.


Following her appointment as the Director General of NAFDAC in April 2001, Akunyili established as a top priority the eradication of counterfeit drugs and unsafe food.

Before her assumption of office in NAFDAC, fake and substandard foods and drugs were sold in Nigeria without any form of regulation.

Akunyili was a devout Catholic and was married to Dr J. C. Akunyili, of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu with whom she had six children. Her funeral, which took place on 27 and 28 August was attended by many dignitaries from within Nigeria and beyond, including President Goodluck Jonathan and a former Nigerian military ruler General Yakubu Gowon.

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