Special Duties Minister, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa has apologized to the Minister for Information and Communications, Dr. Dora Akunyili over a statement credited to him in an interview with a national daily where he asked Akunyili to “… go confront herself with what happened in NAFDAC.”
Akunyili had issued Aondoakaa a seven days ultimatum to clarify the statement or be dragged to court for libel.
But Aondoakaa who was recently demoted from the exalted position of Attorney General and Minister for Justice to Special Duties Minister in a letter dated February 9, 2010 where he addressed Akunyili as “My Dear Sister” he said he was only praising the performance of the Information Minister at the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, where she served as Director General.
According to the embattled former Attorney General, “while much of the quoted words can be rightly ascribed to me, the import of the last sentence to the effect that “let her go confront herself with what happened in NAFDAC”, was meant to be in the positive
“The correct import of the above quoted words is that the Hon. Minister had already earned a reputation for herself while at NAFDAC and needs not seek to do more by embarking on the present course of action to the detriment of a resolution already adopted unanimously by members of the FEC.”
It would be recalled that Aondoakaa had described Akunyili as a self-seeking office holder who wants to make herself a cheap hero.
Aondoakaa said: "Well, first, she did not understand the constitution and she is not following events in the country. I think she was just trying to make herself a cheap hero out of that. If you see what the Senate said, the Senate made an appeal. She does not need the FEC to make an appeal; she can also make her appeal.
"The Senate said it was appealing. You saw the spokesman of the Senate eventually came out and said they have no power to compel the man. Now, there is even a court decision that says that transmission of letter shall be voluntary. It is within the President.
"Bringing the memo to the FEC is just to make herself an angel. She wants to be seen as a populist. Whatever she wants to gain from it is still personal. None of the FEC members has disrespect for the Vice-President. As far as we are concerned, the VP is our leader and he is leading us. What she is trying to do is self-seeking; let her go and confront herself with what happened in NAFDAC.
"We are working as a team and the AGF is there. You cannot just come out as an island and take a decision and try to rock the boat without even consulting your colleagues. Just because the next day the press will bring you out and make you a hero and others as villains.
"But you will discover that out of the ministers, others are working assiduously to make the VP have full presidential powers without talking to anybody. In fact the public does not know that they are the ones working to make the VP assume full powers to carry the country forward. They don’t go to pages of the papers to talk but they are working tirelessly to make sure that this thing works and the country moves forward."
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