Fearless With Uduak Amimo SemaBOX Africa

My guest on this episode of Fearless with Uduak Amimo is represented by her daughter, the coach and storyteller Chidiogo Akunyili-Parr. Chidiogo has written a book about Dora Akunyili, her late mother and Nigeria’s former Information Minister. The late Mrs. Akunyili came to fame as the Director-General of Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control between 2001 and 2008 for her fearlessness in confronting the cartels behind fake drugs in the country. Chidiogo’s book, ‘I Am Because We Are: An African Mother’s Fight for the Soul of a Nation,’ goes on sale in January 2022.

*Since recording this interview, Chidiogo has welcomed her first baby and lost her father, Dr. Chike Akunyili, who gunmen killed.

Aidan Eyakuze’s name will be familiar to many of us in East Africa and around the world because of his body of work around open government. He is the Executive Director of Twaweza, which works to enable children to learn, citizens to exercise agency, and governments to be more open and responsive.

Aidan is a member of the Global Steering Committee of the Open Government Partnership (OGP). He sits on the board of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data (GPSDD). And, he is an Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellow, a Board Member of the African Leadership Institute (South Africa), and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network (AGLN).

But it wasn’t this impressive CV that catapulted Aidan into the headlines of 2018. Aidan grabbed media attention because of the consequences he faced for speaking truth to power in Tanzania. He talks about that experience on Fearless with Uduak Amimo.

My first guest is a  trailblazer of many talents and accolades: educator, doctor, international public health specialist and author. Professor Miriam Khamadi Were's commitment to being fearless has been tested over the course of her six-decade career. She created what became the University of Nairobi's School of Public Health,  developed templates for community health policies around the world and helped stop the spread of HIV/AIDS in Kenya. She's stood firm against the winds of racism, sexism and corruption, even in situations where her career and her life were threatened. Prof. Were now sits on the Lancet's Covid-19 Commission. Find out what where she gets her courage from, what inspires her conviction and how her connections have helped her stand her ground on my podcast, Fearless with Uduak Amimo.