By Onche Odeh
Dr. Abubakar Jimoh needs little or no introduction to media practitioners in Nigeria. He has been the man behind most of the stories that emanate from Nigeria’s foremost food and drug regulator, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), an organisation he joined as a very young man since it was formed in 1994.
Jimoh
Although Jimoh has risen to become, Director (Special Duties) at NAFDAC, the story has been far from as rosy as it seems now.
Looking back in time, he decided to use the occasion of his 50th birthday to tell the story of how he has traversed a path that put his life in danger many times.
Speaking in an interview with Sunday Independent, Jimoh disclosed that he got himself into trouble many times with drug counterfeiters who had all it takes to sniff out the life in him, but by sheer providence, he had lived to see the golden age of 50.
Baptism of Fire
Jimoh received his baptism of fire on the job about one year after he was employed as Head of NAFDAC’s Public Relations.
He said: “Prior to joining NAFDAC, I had worked with the Triumph Newspaper as a reporter, during which time I covered aviation. I got the NAFDAC job after working at the Ministry of Health, as a Protocol Officer.
“At NAFADC, I thought my job was all about doing good press releases and having them published in the papers and the agency’s stories used on the Radio and Television. I later realised that it was far more than that.”
Jimoh said the reality of the danger he faces as a PR officer of the agency dawned on him during an encounter with a Chinese firm that was engaged in counterfeiting of drugs back in 1995.
Narrating this experience, he said, “We got information about this Chinese firm which has a warehouse stocked with counterfeit drugs around Alaba International Market. This was in 1995, a year after I joined NAFDAC as Head of PR. We, having realised that, what the counterfeiters hated most is for their image to be portrayed negatively, decided to begin exposing them through the media.
“So, we arranged for a press conference. But, about 24 hours after that decision was taken, a Chinese man carrying a briefcase bumped into our office, which was then at the Federal Secretariat, Ikoyi, asking if I were Abubakar Jimoh. I consented and he told me he heard of the press conference we have arranged. I was amazed at how quickly the information had gotten to them.
“He requested that we talk in his car so that he could give me some money in the brief case. At that point I started shivering and asked for his complimentary card, which I took to my boss, then, Professor Gabriel Osuide.
“I told him, sir, we must hold this press conference. This people are dangerous. And he said, alright, go ahead and arrange for it to hold. I rejected the huge amount of money offered by the multi-billionaire Chinese man who had lived in Nigeria for over 17 years and even held a chieftaincy title conferred on him by Ogun State.
“We held that press conference, NAFDAC team evacuated that warehouse, destroyed the counterfeited products and the man was exposed and charged to court.”
With this event, Jimoh soon realised that the job, which he thought was all about writing good and publishable press releases, actually comes with more hazards than imagined.
This was confirmed by another encounter he had with an Onitsha-based drug baron.
Jimoh said: “The man in question was so powerful and so grounded in the business of counterfeiting that no one could dare him. But, I and my colleagues took up his case. We exposed him. At a time we met him, the man threatened to unleash all sorts of ills on me and my colleagues. He told me that my colleagues and I will die in seven days. But, we stood our grounds and his warehouse was raided and the products evacuated.
Looking back in time
For many newsrooms, any release from NAFDAC needs little editing before publishing, especially when it is signed by Abubakar Jimoh.
Jimoh, who gave some insight on what has made the agency’s communication thick, said, “Being a journalists helped me a lot. It taught me to know what is news worthy, when to hold a press conference, deadlines among other workings of the newsroom.
“Beyond that, NAFDAC has enjoyed splendid communication because of the visionary and focused leadership it has been blessed with since inception.”
Although the agency became most prominent during the days of Late Prof. Dora AKunyili as Director General, Jimoh said, it would be unfair for Nigerians not to celebrate the pioneer DG, Prof. Gabriel Osuide.
He said: “It was Osuide, who laid the track for most of the achievements that NAFDAC went ahead to make. I say this because I have worked with all DG since inception of NAFDAC.
“The dark spot in the life of the agency, however, was when the tenure of Prof. Osuide expired and Civil Servants had to take over. It was like part time business. Until Akunyili came, which marked another period of take-off for the agency; And like a plane, she lifted the agency. Paul Orhii came to cruise it to another altitude. I must confess that the agency has been blessed with great leadership.”
Always ahead, but hardly celebrated
Jimoh had a regular background that is interspaced with outstanding achievements that were rarely celebrated, as he told Sunday Independent.
He said: “My father told me that I was born on the evening of Sunday October 18 in 1964 in Okene, then Kwara State (Now Kogi Sate), where I attended the Native Authority Primary School, known as Local Government Education Authority (LGEA) School. From there, I moved to Lennon Memorial College in Okene.
“There I graduated as top students. In the school, every top graduating student was celebrated with special award on a prize-giving day. But, this did not happen in my time because some of our mates had been involved in a protest, and the school said there would be no prize-giving day. I was sad.”
This was his first disappointment of not being celebrated for Jimoh, but not the last. He got admission to read his dream course of Political Science at University of Ibadan and graduated with just an inch away from making First Class.
Although he was best graduating student of the Department and Faculty of Social Science, the first in many years after the last, he was not gifted his desire to be part of the lecturing team of the university.
Speaking on this, Jimoh said, “Having graduated as the best students from the department and the faculty, I sought to know if I could be part of the academia, which was the norm. My Head of Department asked where I came from, and I told him Kwara. He said I should go to Kwara. Of course I was disappointed, but got reprieve with the media job I got.”
Jimoh had bagged a certificate in Basic Studies from the Kwara State College of Technology (now Kwara State Polytechnic). Then, got admission at the University of Ibadan in 1984 to study Political Science, graduating as the best student in the entire Faculty of Social Sciences, with a Second Class Upper at the age of 22 in 1987. He obtained a Masters degree in International Relations at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) and recently bagged a PhD from the Benue State University.
“My first love was to become a Professor of Political Science and targeted to become one before the age of 35,” he said.
NAFDAC’s successes
Whatever the time has brought, Jimoh said he is glad to have been part of all the strides made by NAFDAC since inception.
Speaking on some of these, he said, “For the first time ever, we had a celebrated conviction. The company that manufactures ‘My Pikin’ a drug mixture that led to the death of babies. If you are familiar with these things, you will know that judicial process is slow. You cannot get judgment in the split of the moment. A suspect has to be proven guilty.
“We have over 40 convictions recorded in the last five years under the leadership of Professor Paul Orhii, and the late Akunyili. We have recorded several landmark cases and a lot are still ongoing,” he disclosed.
He, however, stated that the penalties are not stiff enough, adding, “This is one area Orhii is seeking to address.”
He also cited pervasive ignorance made worse by poor literacy levels and poverty, especially among the people as a big impediment to NAFDAC’s work, a reason he said the agency has continued to embark on enlightenment using the mass media.
At 50 Jimoh said, “Like a football game, I am just half way through in life. It is not yet time to quit. I will continue to do my best to be relevant to mankind.”
This he said he intends to do through charity, especially in education, and other ventures that directly touch the lives of people.
The post A drug baron once threatened to kill me in seven days –Jimoh, NAFDAC official appeared first on Daily Independent, Nigerian Newspaper.