ADIEU CHIKE AKUNYILI

The death yesterday of Dr Chike Akunyili was heartbreaking for me. A first class graduate of medicine from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, he was until his death running St Leo’s Hospital, Enugu. Although my wife and children were not as close to him as they were to his late wife (‘grandma NAFDAC’ as she was called in our house), he and I communicated regularly. Throughout the glorious career of his wife (first in Lagos, and later, Abuja), Dr Chike Akunyili chose to stay in the Southeast where he served his people with everything he had.

The fact that he chose to stay in background while the wife was riding waves of fame as Director General of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) was a testimony to his strength of character. I had it on a good authority that he would quietly sneak into NAFDAC building whenever his wife needed his help, render the requested assistance and leave without any fanfare. This unassuming man not only stayed out of the limelight, he never used his late wife’s ‘connection’ to peddle influence. Instead, he chose to stay in the Southeast to render his service to his people. It was therefore tragic that his life would be terminated so gruesomely in Onitsha as it was yesterday morning.

This tragic incident raises two concerns. The first is the situation in the Southeast where assassins, in the guise of ‘unknown gunmen’, seem to have been let loose. As we inch towards the November gubernatorial election in Anambra State and the 2023 general election, nothing can be more dangerous than allowing these killings to continue. I hope that critical stakeholders in the region will help in taming the madness wherever it may be coming from. The second concern is the lack of empathy for persons in crisis in Nigeria. Some of the videos being circulated in the social media reveal that Dr Chike Akunyili was still alive for a while after the shooting. Bystanders were apparently more interested with recording and sharing videos than helping to rush him to a hospital. While it is not in doubt that so many people may have gotten into serious legal problems simply because they render help to victims in distress, we should not lose our humanity. I hope the National Orientation Agency (NOA) will use this tragedy to commence reorienting the populace on the primary role of bystanders and reemphasizing the principle of a good Samaritan.

While I join in calling on the security agencies to apprehend the killers of Dr Chike Akunyili and bring them to justice, I pray God to comfort the children and other members of his family and give them the fortitude to bear this huge loss.

Olusegun Adeniyi, Abuja