Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has regretted the death of former Information Minister, Prof Dora Akunyili, in an Indian hospital.

He described her death as a “passage of one of the jewels” of his administration.

Obasanjo noted that Akunyili’s death “is a great loss to Nigeria”, which needs men and women of high integrity, industry, patriotism and honesty to make it great again.

The former President noted that such virtues enabled the late minister to make a change in the nation’s Health sector.

According to him, Akunyili’s death from cancer in India is “traumatic and a transfiguration of once active and vibrant personality”.

Obasanjo recalled that Akunyili’s courageous and successful crusade against fake drugs, when she was the Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), saved Nigerians from sundry dangers associated with adulterated drugs and foods.

The former President, who spoke on phone with reporters, added that the former Information Minister and Director of NAFDAC’s war against fake drugs saw her traversing the length and breadth of the world, preventing the circulation of unwholesome substances that could have proved fatal to unwary Nigerians.

Obasanjo said: “Her death is shocking. She was one of the jewels in the glamour of my administration. I am shocked, because she could not survive the traumatic and transfiguration of a once active and vibrant person.

“Her death has left a vacuum to be filled and the country has to search and motivate such person to achieve the standard she left behind. There are two things involved: One is to search for the person. Men and women of such standing abound.

“Secondly, after the search, we have to tap them, motivate them and ensure that they are well directed. Akunyili was a workaholic member of my administration. I sincerely appreciated her service. Her life made a great change in one specific area – the fake drug. She was there, everywhere, to fight the fake drug war, which could have been fatal if she had not taken the bull by the horn.

“I commiserate with Nigerians, particularly the people of Anambra State, for the loss of this great icon of this country. She threw everything she had to the service of her fatherland. May her soul rest in peace.”

•Text courtesy of The Nation. Photo shows late Prof. Dora Akunyili.