Former NAFDAC DG, Dora Akunyili is dead

June 7, 2014



The Akunyili family has officially confirmed the death today in India of Prof. (Mrs.) Dora Nkem Akunyili. She was 59.
A statement signed by former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, on behalf of the family, said she died at 10 a.m. Nigerian time in a Specialist Cancer Hospital following a two-year battle with the disease.
“In spite her illness, Prof. Akunyili was unwavering in her belief in a better Nigeria,” Mr. Obi said. “That was why she defied her condition and was part of Anambra State Handover Committee and the National Conference.”
He recalled that the he visited her in India, she went beyond her own need for prayers, expressing concern for the abducted Chibok girls, security and other challenges facing the country. She remained prayerful for the release of the girls and for God to help President Goodluck Jonathan to overcome all the challenges facing Nigeria.
Dora-Akunyili1
“She therefore urged all Nigerians to remain prayerful and committed to building a better society for our children,” he said.
Mrs. Akunyili died four weeks after she was flown to Bangalore, India for further treatment, following ongoing treatment in Abuja, where she was participating in the National Conference despite her obvious condition.
She is widely acknowledged for her groundbreaking work as the first Director-General of the National Agency for Food & Drug Administration & Control (NAFDAC), where she helped to break many drug cartels in the country, and as Minister of Information.
News Express reported today the former Minister spent her final hours in the peaceful presence of her husband, Dr. Chike Akunyili, and her brother, Dr. Francis Anayo Edemobi. It was learned that both of them traveled to India with her on May 11.
“Popularly known as The Amazon, Professor Dora Akunyili was a first class patriot who deeply loved Nigeria and served the country with all she had, irrespective of whatever risks [were] involved in doing so,” the newspaper eulogized. “She demonstrated this in all her assignments – from the classroom at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), to the Presidential (Special) Task Force (PTF), Presidential Committee on Flood Relief and Rehabilitation, and the on-going National Conference in Abuja, of which she was a member until her death.”

BUSINESSDAYONLINE

Ozumba named new UNN VC as Okolo bows out

on June 07, 2014 at 5:03 pm in News
By Tony Edike



 ENUGU – Renowned professor of gynecology, Benjamin Chukwuma Ozumba, is now the new Vice Chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
Prof. Ozumba, former provost of the UNN medical school, defeated more than forty other contestants, including current Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic, Prof. Polycarp Chigbu., to emerge victorious.
The erudite scholar, who had contested in 2009 for the post of vice chancellor, following the expiration of the tenure of Prof. Chinedu Nebo, now minister of power, attended Government College, Umuahia, before proceeding to the University of Lagos, UNILAG, where he studied medicine.
After joining the services of the university, Ozumba rose rapidly and was elevated to the academic status of Professor after seven years of teaching. Apart from publishing more than 300 books, Prof. Ozumba, had training in different foreign universities, since after graduating from the University of Lagos and belongs to several local and international professional bodies.
After serving as Dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences, UNN, Prof. Chukwuma Ozumba, was subsequently appointed Provost of the UNN College of Medicine in 2004 to 2008 and would be remembered for instituting the Prof. Chukwuedu Nwokolo annual lecture series for academic excellence, as well as founding the University of Nigeria College of Medicine Alumni Association, UNNCOMA.
Meanwhile,  the immediate past Vice Chancellor of the university, Professor Bartho Okolo has said that he was leaving the university “better, richer and stronger” than the one he inherited at inception of his tenure five years ago.
Speaking during a farewell ceremony organised by the University of Nigeria for Okolo, the 13th vice chancellor of the institution, Okolo said he was leaving office a happy man, knowing that all the choices his administration made were for the best interest of the University.
He said that some of the decisions his administration took might have been despised by some people, but the results of his choices would impact positively on the University in the years to come.
“I have no doubt in my mind that I am handing over a university that is better, richer and stronger than the one I inherited five years ago. Even detractors and pessimists acknowledge the far reaching developments that have taken place in our university”, he said.
Prof. Okolo said that although his administration was maligned by some disgruntled individuals in the University, he bears no grudges against anyone. “It is my wish that no other Vice-Chancellor experiences the kind of distraction, disrespect and impudence that I had to endure in the course of my tenure.
However, for the records, I do not bear grudges, largely because the dramatis personae are not deserving of my long term emotions”, he said.
He implored the University community to support the in-coming administration to enable it achieve greater development for the University, stating that UNN is not likely to go back to where it used to be.
Chairman of the occasion and former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Prof. Oleka K. Udeala described Okolo as “an award winning Vice-Chancellor, a magician of no mean repute and a man who sees danger as his business”.  Udeala, a professor of pharmacy, was the first alumnus to be appointed Vice Chancellor of the institution.
VANGUARD

Skill acquisition will empower youths for job creation—Oni

By MOSES NOSIKE
Greg Oni is the Chief Activation Officer/CEO, Connect 2 Consumers Limited. He is an icon in the Nigerian brand world. Oni was Director Development at Towncriers.
satHis 16 years of working experience with multinationals in experiential marketing has put him in a good position to connect consumers to brand. In this interview with Saturday Vanguard Business, he reveals how his company has created jobs for a lot of youths. Excerpts:
Can you explain the focus and vision of your company?
Connect 2 Consumers is an experiential marketing agency. The basic thing is connecting consumers to brand and connecting the brands to consumers – creating a connection between them.
Taking the brand to where the core target audience is by creating unforgettable experience. Based on our experience, our business is to bring brands to life.
All over the world now, the position of brand managers has not really changed from managing brands only, but has been extended to the frontiers of being called or recognized globally as activation managers because the major thing they do is to bring brands to life.
Our vision is to build our clients’ businesses through tested, proven experiential marketingtechniques using Cutting-edge innovations in both conventionaland unconventionaltactics in modern day brands activation.
You see, traditional marketing theories and practices are rapidly changing, becoming less relevant, moving forward experiential marketing is a fundamental basis for the future of                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         marketing strategy.
How were you able to create jobs for youths in your company?
The kind of jobs and business we do is one that involves third party. In the area of creating jobs, we have engaged the youths successfully. For instance, we engage them in the area of job employment on various projects at different occasions depending on the magnitude and scope.
By engaging them constructively it helps to reduce youth restiveness in the society because it is said that “an idle mind is the devil’s workshop”. So, in our own field of operation, we do create both temporary and permanent employment for our youths.
At the same time, while we employ them to work on specific projects, they are adding value to their lives by acquiring experiences and skill that would enhance them in the future.
How do you see brand activation world today compared to five years ago when you started working with multinationals here and outside the country?
There is tremendous improvement compared to what we had then. Those days brand activation had been in existence but it has not been in the forefront, because if we go by what Ogilvy said that a time would come when all advertising agencies would become direct marketing agencies.
It’s happening now because if you look at managing brand itself, it’s not managing brand alone but to ensure that you reach your core target audience and how do you reach your core target audience? It is by creating the necessary experience and engagement.
It’s like when you say, “I hear, I see, I remember and I don’t forget” it’s experience and you spread that interaction. Now, it has moved on from the conservative system of managing brand to a global approach, going back to what Ogilvy said, it’s happening right now. Globally in terms of project spread for brand management, there is a global shift.
Every brand manager which I prefer to call activation manager because apart from managing brands they bring brands to life. Everybody is looking out for return on investment; I need immediate result. How do I get immediate result? By creating direct marketing communication platform to reach your consumers wherever they are at the right time.
Your company is proposing an empowerment skills for secondary schools, tell us how it will work?
We discovered that many children or students have lost interest in going to school as they feel or think what do I benefit from going to school? So, we found out that secondary schools are more affected.
Because of this lack of interest among them, we are coming up with a programme that says, if I go to school early and meet up with the attendance, at the end of that term I get rewarded. If you take a look around Lagos sometimes, secondary school students don’t get to school early. So the programme is a way of encouraging promptness among them. As I speak now plans are in top gear to work with some multinationals that have similar plans towards this direction.
A lot of them have been doing a lot of activities in schools but they have not looked at this motivational aspect of it that would serve as motivation and encouragement to attend schools.
Moreso, we are going to use the print media – social media and it would be driven via activation to create the experience and engagement across those selected secondary schools from JSS1-SS3. However it is first of its kind in the country.
What do you think our youths should be engaging themselves in even outside the school curriculum to equip themselves for the future?
I can say here that time has really changed because I remember then as a young man, the basic thing back then for us was to acquire experience and how do we improve ourselves with it? We were not looking at the immediate gratification or reward of money or fantastic office.
But experience! We were all looking out to learn new things and acquire experience and become a professional. But today, many youths are not ready to study and learn new things that would improve the quality of their lives. They are not ready to acquire skills and experience.
You don’t wait for government or anybody to push or establish you. If you acquire the skills, you can be an entrepreneur and also be employer of labour in the country.

VANGUARD