Dora Akunyili bares her mind in this interview with The Sun newspaper. She speaks on Iss ues ranging from NAFDAC to the REBRANDING effort, her family life and why her daughter ended up marrying an 'oyibo'. Read on!

Some people were not favourably disposed to your appointment as information minister, saying that another ministry, like health would have suited you better. How are you coming in the ministry?

Thank you very much. When my portfolio was announced, I was also jolted because I never expected it. About one and half years before this happened, my elder sister dreamt that I was minister of information and I asked her to go and take anti-malaria. I told her she was having hallucination. I also had a friend who had a dream that he came to the minister of information’s office and I was sitting there and he said what is wrong with my sister, why is she sitting here? He looked around he didn’t see anybody; he woke up and told his wife. God revealed it to a number of people. But even without those revelations I know that nothing happens without God’s approval. So as soon as the announcement was made, I was jolted. I nearly cried, but I held myself.

http://sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2009/aug/22/national-22-08-2009-03.htm

Hehe, Madam rebranding talking.

I am really happy for her family, but how could she say that she would have been happier if he daughter had married a Nigerian? that's an insult to her daughter and her daughter's husband.

quite an interesting story.

The woman has spunk!! Its good to see someone doing something to improve the image of the country and having the support of Nigerians

Having the support of Nigerians.

davidif:

I am really happy for her family, but how could she say that she would have been happier if he daughter had married a Nigerian? that's an insult to her daughter and her daughter's husband.

her daughter will be ashamed of her! she is really a local champion, these are not thing you should talk about in public!
i bet if her daughter had been married to another tribe she'll probably be saying the same thing!!

he he he. rebranding indeed

her daughter will be ashamed of her! she is really a local champion, these are not thing you should talk about in public!
i bet if her daughter had been married to another tribe she'll probably be saying the same thing!!

Exactly, it is a very shameful comment, i thought she is supposed to be PR expert. What a huge blunder on her part. If the wife had been married to any other tribe i think she would have been displeased also.

She keeps reminding me of a no nonesense school principal

Politics in our dear country has been taken over by opportunists and charlatans,

Dis Guy:

her daughter will be ashamed of her! she is really a local champion, these are not thing you should talk about in public!
i bet if her daughter had been married to another tribe she'll probably be saying the same thing!!

Will you ever be able to comment on Nairaland without making coments that has tribal and anti-Igbo connotations

McKren:

Will you ever be able to comment on Nairaland without making coments that has tribal and anti-Igbo connotations

Yup and I have done so several times

Dis Guy:

Yup and I have done so several times

I hope you continue to do that more times or all the time because its good for us to show others some respect regardless of our pre-concieved prejudices which often times are misplaced.

I lost respect for her when she accepted the Ministerial appointment.
The noble thing to do is to decline such offers and keep her integrity.
She did so much good in Nafdac that i'd have expected her to be appointed somewhere her talents would be properly harnessed . . ."health"
The excuse may be that she is versatile but i see her going down the drain.
Info and communications is ruining her credentials. She's all over the place in this rebranding effort in order to stay relevant but she has lost it.
You can't rebrand Nigeria if the fundamentals/root cause of the problem "Nigeria" is not addressed.
It's not to late for her to resign and go pick up a job at WHO, where she belongs.

My respect 4 her has kind of diminished a little bit. But I must say, she has produced wonderful kids!

davidif:

Exactly, it is a very shameful comment, i thought she is supposed to be PR expert. What a huge blunder on her part. If the wife had been married to any other tribe i think she would have been displeased also.

She is no "PR expert". Never was and unlikely to ever be . This woman as a PR exponent, is at best gauche and at worst a total disaster. All this is a fallout of how illegitimacy at the highest level breeds expedient , rather than meritorious , appointments that regresses nations ala round pegs in square holes.

Adressed to the Minister;

The fact that you gained so much from Nigeria as a student, a fete which is no longer avalable to youths of today, is the more reason you should not have attempted to gain residency in another country, I would have expected you as at 1996 to have the "I will die for Nigeria" attitude, instead you engaged in the visa lottery process. It's much easier to spew those words now, after the plum positions and status you have achieved.

As per rebranding Nigeria, I think with respect, the minister is missing the point, how can ordinary folks continue to see the ostentatious display of oppulence and abundance by our corrupt policians and Government officials, then expect the youth who are really the ones this message should reasonate with, to buy into the goals of the program.  Simply put it will fail. The saying is that children copy from adults, period.

The initial image of Nigeria as perceived by most foreigners most times comes from two sources;

1) What the media reports about our Government and its officials.

2) What our Officials themselves actually do when they visit abroad.


Rebranding is not going to mean a thing to them, when they know that Nigerian government is continually shortchanging  its people, elections are not even conducted free and fair, and when these officials visit, they come with wealth they have stolen from their people to buy themselves and their families a lavish lifestyle while still in office. Image branding must start from the top, let all officials do the right thing, let us see that you are doing the right thing, then surely rebranding will filter down. Independence of  Efcc, Icpc, judiciary, police and other security agencies will go a long way in helping the Minister achieve her objectives.

Until the right things are done, this too shall pass.

The Ghananians do have scammers and fraudsters in their midst, but it is what their government is doing that has rebranded Ghana as a destination of choice in Africa. The fact that Obama went there this year only reenforces that, and by the way, a lot of African americans are moving to Ghana and settling there.

gamechange:

Adressed to the Minister;

The fact that you gained so much from Nigeria as a student, a fete which is no longer avalable to youths of today, is the more reason you should not have attempted to gain residency in another country, I would have expected you as at 1996 to have the "I will die for Nigeria" attitude, instead you engaged in the visa lottery process. It's much easier to spew those words now, after the plum positions and status you have achieved.

As per rebranding Nigeria, I think with respect, the minister is missing the point, how can ordinary folks continue to see the ostentatious display of oppulence and abundance by our corrupt policians and Government officials, then expect the youth who are really the ones this message should reasonate with, to buy into the goals of the program.  Simply put it will fail. The saying is that children copy from adults, period.

The initial image of Nigeria as perceived by most foreigners most times comes from two sources;

1) What the media reports about our Government and its officials.

2) What our Officials themselves actually do when they visit abroad.


Rebranding is not going to mean a thing to them, when they know that Nigerian government is continually shortchanging  its people, elections are not even conducted free and fair, and when these officials visit, they come with wealth they have stolen from their people to buy themselves and their families a lavish lifestyle while still in office. Image branding must start from the top, let all officials do the right thing, let us see that you are doing the right thing, then surely rebranding will filter down. Independence of  Efcc, Icpc, judiciary, police and other security agencies will go a long way in helping the Minister achieve her objectives.

Until the right things are done, this too shall pass.

GBAM!


You have said it the way it should be said. Until we sort out our'LEADERSHIP BRAND'  we are deceiving ourselves. We are only painting a cracked wall.

I will do what my leaders do, not what they say. That is how human minds work.
stop wasting time, money and fooling people who have decided not to be fooled again.

I am sorry for professor. Akinyuli, she is a very good person and her family but on this rebranding nonsense, she got it wrong big time.

NIGERIA; GOOD PEOPLE, GREAT NATION, AWFUL LEADERSHIP

becomrich.:

You cant rebrand Nigeria. What you should do is remove the Yorubas, edo, delta and bayelsa into Republic of Benin. While you rename the rest of nigeria , which would remain biafra. it is an idea that came to my mind just now. it is just an idea. See map.


This way in the new nigeria, the igbos would never be able to shout biafra again. because they just had biafra. so we kill two bird with one stone. We create new benin republic and biafra at the same time.

I take it you have consulted far and wide with Igbos everywhere to warrant your inference that they have no problem joining up with the North to form the Republic of Biafra .

this new map is lovely and a sign of progress in Nigeria.

becomrich.:

The igbos want biafra. go ask Uwazubike, he want biafra and they would get it with this map. it is been smart. and the name biafra is not an igbo name but it is name of the coastal area of nigeria.

You people should be paying me money for given you good idea. I am a Consultant too.

The yorubas, edo, delta and bayelsa are  in the bright of Benin .

With a painful civil war as proof , it is obvious to most that the Igbos agitated for Biafra. That does not give you the right to decietful state arrant lies on their behalf. No Igbo individual has ever told me they want a Biafra that includes the North or any other region for that matter. You probably think that if you repeat a statement many times it may come to pass. That is called wishful thinking . It is okay to be a wishful thinker as long as you draw the lines at speaking on behalf of other and misrepresenting them in the process !!!

You may desperately want a 'Republic of Benin' but that does not mean you hastily join others in 'marriages' they don't agree to. The fallouts from a forced union is what Nigeria is still fighting to date. If you are a consultant , as you claim , then you should know that we cannot move forward doing the same things that got us in this sorry mess in the first place.

becomrich.:

The igbos want biafra. go ask Uwazubike, he want biafra and they would get it with this map. it is been smart. and the name biafra is not an igbo name but it is name of the coastal area of nigeria.

You people should be paying me money for given you good idea. I am a Consultant too.

The yorubas, edo, delta and bayelsa are in the bright of Benin .

Firstly, i think you meant Bight.
Secondly, i have to give it to you. You have been throwing maps all over this site since i joined and you are still doing it. You are either totally jobless or insane.
Anyway, the topic is about Dora Akunyili and not biafra or bight of guinea, benin or whatever becomerich chooses.

Gbawe:

With a painful civil war as proof , it is obvious to most that the Igbos agitated for Biafra. That does not give you the right to decietful state arrant lies on their behalf. No Igbo individual has ever told me they want a Biafra that includes the North or any other region for that matter. You probably think that if you repeat a statement many times it may come to pass. That is called wishful thinking . It is okay to be a wishful thinker as long as you draw the lines at speaking on behalf of other and misrepresenting them in the process !!!

You may desperately want a 'Republic of Benin' but that does not mean you hastily join others in 'marriages' they don't agree to. The fallouts from a forced union is what Nigeria is still fighting to date. If you are a consultant , as you claim , then you should know that we cannot move forward doing the same things that got us in this sorry mess in the first place.

first of all, are you Yoruba as your user id seems to suggest? Just curious.

secondly, the civil war was indeed a sad part of history, but the ancient region called Biafra was actually somewhat further north and towards the far eastern area.


thirdly, strangely enough, northerners were the ones originally agitating for secession. How it came about that the east were the ones to actually secede is what I'm still trying to look into.

One just has to patiently study the events leading up to 1966 and try to make some sense out of them, if thats possible.

Quite a puzzle.

tpia.:

first of all, are you Yoruba as your user id seems to suggest? Just curious.

Yes. Nigerian first, Yoruba second.

secondly, the civil war was indeed a sad part of history, but the ancient region called Biafra was actually somewhat further north and towards the far eastern area.

history is convoluted in how it lends itself to various 'convenient' intepretations - especially from those who were not physically present at historically pivotal moments. My Son/daughter ( unborn) may argue in 20 years time that OBJ did not impose Yar Adua on Nigeria. As a witness , I would beg to differ. Biafra , despite claims to the contrary , mainly means this to most of the World :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biafra

The Republic of Biafra was a secessionist state in south-eastern Nigeria. Biafra was inhabited mostly by the Igbo people (or Ibo[1]) and existed from 30 May 1967 to 15 January 1970. The secession was led by the Igbo due to economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions among the various peoples of Nigeria.

Tpia wrote:

thirdly, strangely enough, northerners were the ones originally agitating for secession. [/b]How it came about that the east were the ones to actually secede is what I'm still trying to look into.

Perhaps . That agitation seems to have coincidentally died down with the Norths realisation that easy wealth from oil was a consideration that overrode all the principles that prompted secession grunts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Civil_War

The north, up until around 1965, had had low-level demands to secede from Nigeria and retain its wealth for northerners. These demands seemed to cease when it became clear that oil in the southeast would become a major revenue source

Tpia wrote:

One just has to patiently study the events leading up to 1966 and try to make some sense out of them, if thats possible.

Totally agree. Consequently , we should try and devise a [b]united way forward from our acrimonious past.It is the only way onwards.

I am really happy for her family, but how could she say that she would have been happier if he daughter had married a Nigerian? that's an insult to her daughter and her daughter's husband.

her daughter will be ashamed of her! she is really a local champion, these are not thing you should talk about in public!
i bet if her daughter had been married to another tribe she'll probably be saying the same thing!!

Nothing to be ashamed about,her daughter must have known her Mother. You See, this is to improve how realistic the woman is,No wonder she has gone this far in her career. In short I love her more for this comment.

Dora is a realist and not one of the many hypocritical and pretencious leaders that strut the Nigerian space. Shame on those who condemn her for saying her mind. Bunch of hypocrits

Politics in our dear country has been taken over by opportunists and charlatans, Grin

Bro, you damn right oooo!!! This is really killing our nation ooo. But I think it's everywhere but minimal compared to Nigeria.
Some German professors just busted out for issuing fake Ph.D to students at a very huge amount.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090822/ap_on_re_eu/eu_germany_university_investigation

If those Germans with fake Ph.Ds would have come to Nigeria, I bet you, Nigerians would ignore local professors with genuine credentials and follow the Germans with fakes ones.

Afaukwu:

Dora is a realist and not one of the many hypocritical and pretencious leaders that strut the Nigerian space. Shame on those who condemn her for saying her mind. Bunch of hypocrits

My guy, this is not about hypocrisy. This is about doing your job well. This is about a spokesperson for a bitterly divided , ethnically intolerant and disunited nation seeming to gauchely and publicly admit to bias when her Job as Information Minister means she must be very circumspect with her utterances !!!! What would happen if  Gordon Brown daughter marries a black man and the British Prime Minister retorts that he would prefer she married her own kind? . Madam rebrand is awful at PR perhaps because she is too emotional to curb utterances that hint at intolerance and naivete. That is the simple truth.

Lets not forget that this same woman intolerantly branded Nigerians in the diaspora as "the worst enemies of our nation" merely because the likes of Jonathan Elendu (Elendureporters) and Sowore (Saharareporters) will not sycophantically shut their trap and endorse lies , like she is now doing,  in an attempt to spin the ugly truth about a heartless, grossly corrupt and anti-people Government.

I lost respect for her when she accepted the Ministerial appointment.
The noble thing to do is to decline such offers and keep her integrity.
She did so much good in Nafdac that i'd have expected her to be appointed somewhere her talents would be properly harnessed . . ."health"
The excuse may be that she is versatile but i see her going down the drain.
Info and communications is ruining her credentials. She's all over the place in this rebranding effort in order to stay relevant but she has lost it.
You can't rebrand Nigeria if the fundamentals/root cause of the problem "Nigeria" is not addressed.
It's not to late for her to resign and go pick up a job at WHO, where she belongs.

I agree with you on all your points. Why didn't she decline the new ministerial appointment? This is an example of putting a square peg in round hole.

@Topic

All this rebranding sef.Na wa ooo!!

You can re-brand a pig and call it "Doris" but it still remains what it is.