Dear Reader,

Last week, we shared a feature of one of Nigeria’s greatest public servants. Today, we share the story of another: Professor Dora Akunyili. Both are associated with the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and both worked under President Obasanjo, during Nigeria’s golden age of public service.

Her story is one of sheer courage and it starts with the loss of her 21-year old diabetic sister from fake drugs.

It features something that is unheard of in Nigeria: returning £12,000 of unused government money. It involves death threats, assassination attempts, of nearly a thousand awards won in recognition of her work and the support of a president.

It’s the portrait of the sort of leadership Nigeria desperately needs, that it can’t seem to find.

It’s the story of how one person with integrity, backed by unwavering determination and clear vision, could revolutionize an entire sector that affected millions of lives.

Here’s the story told in full.

The Story of Dora Akunyili’s War On Counterfeit Drugs

Dora Akunyili’s war on counterfeit drugs was inspired by a personal tragedy. In 1988, she watched helplessly as her 21-year-old diabetic sister died from hyperglycemia. But it wasn’t diabetes that killed her; it was instead the fake insulin she had been given to treat it. The counterfeit medication not only lacked the life-saving hormone but was contaminated and caused abscesses that wouldn’t respond to antibiotics.

As Dora held her sister’s hand through those final, agonizing days, she could never have imagined that this event would eventually fuel one of the most remarkable public health campaigns in modern African history.

👉 Full story here: The Story of Dora Akunyili’s War On Counterfeit Drugs

ICYMI: How Charles Soludo Transformed Nigeria’s Banking Industry Against All Odds

By 2004, Nigeria’s banking landscape resembled a house of cards waiting to collapse. The country operated 89 banks, most of them severely undercapitalized and poorly managed. These institutions, despite their numbers, were collectively smaller than South Africa’s fourth-largest bank. As Soludo would later reflect, “All the banks put together were smaller than the fourth-largest bank in South Africa, and none of them was in the top 1,000 banks in the world.”

The statistics told a grim story. Total bank credit as a ratio to GDP stood at merely 20%. Bank loans accounted for a meagre 4% of the country’s GDP. An estimated ₦400 billion, which represented 4% of GDP, sat outside the formal banking system. Much of it was literally “stashed under mattresses,” as confidence in the banking sector had evaporated.

As Charles Soludo observed, “Talk about a private sector-led economy was simply a slogan, as there was no financial system to power that. We came to the conclusion that the system needed to be brought down and recreated from scratch.”

The banking revolution of 2004-2005 led by Charles Soludo, is one of the most dramatic and consequential events in the modern history of Nigeria. It has it all: the unwavering determination of one man, death threats, political sabotage, institutional resistance and the goodwill of a president.

👉 Full story here: How Charles Soludo Transformed Nigeria’s Banking Industry Against All Odds

Till next Saturday.