History Made, as May and Baker Plc Appoints Senator Daisy Danjuma As Non-Executive Director ..............Enter Her Robust Profile
“Women have to find their own personality, their own style,
and what suits them the best”-Words of Francois Nars
HISTORY was made last night when globally rated top brand, May and Baker Nigeria Plc officially notified The Nigerian Stock Exchange (The Exchange), the Company’s shareholders and the investing public that Senator Daisy Danjuma is now a Non-Executive Director of the Company.
Danjuma will thus be bringing to
the board of the healthcare company more than four decades wealth of experience
in legal, administrative and public service.
She is on the board of several
companies. She was chairman, South Atlantic Petroleum Limited between
1999 and 2003 and currently the Executive Vice Chairman of the company. Between
2003 and 2007, she served as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. As a
Senator, she was Chairman, Women and Child Rights Committee of the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Chairman, Senate Committee on Women
Affairs and Youth Development and a member of the Commonwealth Parliamentary
Association. She also served as a member of the Senate Committees on Health,
Education, Finance, Land and Transport.
SENATOR DAISY: A BRIEF BUT ELABORATE PROFILE
BY MIKE DE CERUTTI 
E:chiefcerrutti@gmail.com
WASAP +234 7042631895
Edo state top philanthropist
of global standard, Senator Daisy Ukpomwan Ehanire Danjuma was born on the 6th of August 1952 in Benin
City, Edo State. She is a 1976 law graduate of the Ahmadu Bello University
Zaria and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1977. She served her NYSC as a
State Counsel in Lagos State Ministry of Justice (DPP) and was a pioneer legal
counsel to the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria. She later worked as an Executive
Assistant at Nigerian Acceptances Limited (NAL), a Merchant Bank from 1977 to
1978.
She was Company Secretary/Legal Adviser to the Nigerian
Television Authority (NTA) from 1982 to 1992. Distinguished Senator Danjuma was
elected Senator of the politics Federal Republic of Nigeria (2003-2007)
representing Edo South.
While in the Senate, she was a member of the Commonwealth
Parliamentary Association (CPA). Chairman, Women and Child Right Committee of
the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS Parliament). Chairman,
Senate Committee on Women Affairs and Youth Development. She served as Member,
Senate Committees on Health, Education, Finance and Land Transport of the
National Assembly.
While in the Senate and even after leaving the Senate, Senator
Daisy Danjuma provided free Cancer Screening Centers for women in her
constituency. These Centers also provided free medical checkups for women and
children. She has been responsible for the surgical operations of numerous
people in and out of her area of responsibility (Edo South).
Senator Danjuma has been
influential in the eradication of female genital mutilation in Edo & some
other parts of Nigeria & West Africa. She has also provided Eye Screenings
and provision of glasses and cataract surgeries for affected persons through
her efforts and that of the T Y Danjuma Foundation. She
provided Micro (macro) Finance and ran ‘Skills Acquisition Training Programs’
for women in Edo South.
She is an alumnus of the Lagos Business School and is a member
of;
The International Bar Association (IBA),
The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and the
International Federation of Female Lawyers (FIDA).
She was the Chairman of South Atlantic Petroleum Limited
from 1999-2003, and is currently the Executive Vice Chairman of South Atlantic
Petroleum Limited.
She is married to General Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma and she has
five children.
May & Baker,
Nigeria Plc was founded on September 4, 1944 as Nigeria’s first pharmaceutical
company. It has its origin in England, the United Kingdom where in 1834, three
chemists founded Grimwade, May & Pickett, a firm for manufacturing
chemicals for pharmaceutical products. In 1839 Grimwade, May & Pickett
transformed into May & Baker United Kingdom Limited following some changes
in the ownership. May & Baker UK Limited transformed into a mega European
conglomerate through a web of mergers and acquisitions over years. Consequently
the name of the company has changed at different times and today, only the
Nigerian offshoot is known by the original name.
In Nigeria the company
started as May & Baker (West Africa) Limited at 17A Tinubu Street, Lagos in
1944, a trading outpost to serve the West Coast of Africa. The company
relocated to its present site at Ikeja, Lagos state during the Nigerian civil
war. In 1976, it built its factory at Ikeja where it began local manufacturing
of pharmaceuticals. That same year it changed from May & Baker (West
Africa) Limited to May & Baker Nigeria Limited
In 1979, following the
indigenisation decree which required that foreign interests in companies
operating in Nigeria be of a minority nature, May & Baker, United Kingdom
relinquished 60 per cent of its equity holding in May & Baker Nigeria to
Nigerians while retaining 40 per cent. The company’s name was changed to
Embechem Nigeria Limited but this was dropped later and the name reverted to
May & Baker Nigeria Limited.
May & Baker
Nigeria Limited became a publicly quoted company following its listing by introduction
on the Nigerian Stock Exchange on November 10, 1994 and became May & Baker
Nigeria Plc.
For many years
expatriates sent by the parent company managed May & Baker Nigeria but in
1997, the first indigenous Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Joseph
Ikemefuna Odumodu, was appointed.
In 2002 the foreign
partners decided to divest. However, represented by Aventis SA, France, they
remained technical associates of May & Baker Nigeria Plc. Following the
merger of Aventis and Sanofi, another French firm to form Sanofi Aventis in
2004, the technical relationship transferred between May & Baker Nigeria
Plc and Sanofi-Aventis of France. But that relationship was renegotiated in
2005 to give May & Baker Nigeria, the leeway to have its own products.
The company thereby
began an aggressive expansion and diversification programme since 2005 which
has culminated in the creation of new businesses and subsidiaries. In 2005,
Biovaccines, a local vaccine production subsidiary was set up in partnership
with the Federal Government of Nigeria. In 2006, the company constructed a
multi-billion naira food processing factory, constructed a local plant for the
production of anti-retroviral drugs in Nigeria while the construction of a
World Health Organization Standard Pharmaceutical production facility was
constructed and commissioned on June 27, 2011
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