TABLE OF
CONTENTS
Title page -
Certification
Dedication
Acknowledgement
CHAPTER ONE
Introduction
Notes and
References
CHAPTER TWO
State of
Regulatory Activities in Nigeria
Notes and
References
CHAPTER THREE
Challenges
and problems Facing NAFDAC
Notes and
References
CHAPTER FOUR
Achievements
and Gains of NAFDAC Under Dora Akunyili
Notes and
References
CHAPTER FOUR
Conclusion
and Recommendation-
Bibliography
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Women have
contributed immensely in areas traditionally mapped out for them before
venturing into areas dominated by men. The greater involvement of women in key
positions of government has been regarded as a new development. The belief of
many people is that the greater women's involvement in areas hitherto preserved
for men, the better, the society will be. However, the recognition and
significance of the place and roles of women in the contemporary society is a current
social preoccupation. The rise into limelight of a vocal and articulate class
of women of distinction, purpose and idea is itself indicative of the coming of
an. age when the lot of female will improve, such that equality of
opportunities between both sexes will be an established reality. Especially, when one realizes the
tremendous contribution
being made by women in the developed economies, with particular reference to
the United States of America, one cannot but be hopeful that Nigerian women, given
the right atmosphere of freedom and equal opportunity can make even more useful
contribution development process and nation building,
Suffice it to
say that, if not for the resolute thoroughness, mettle and relentless crusade
of Prof. Mrs. Dora Nkem Akunyili (OFR), Director General, National Agency for Food
and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), the era of fake, adulterated;
unwholesome and expired food, drugs, cosmetics, chemicals/detergents, medical
devices, packaged water including alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks and other
regulated products, would have continued unabated in the country.
The scope of
this mandate puts the responsibility of safeguarding public health or the
Agency and this touches on the life of every Nigerian. Before her assumption of office in 2001, the
agency had existed for about seven years.
During this
period it was difficult to point at any impact it made in stamping its
authority it the areas of its mandate. It existed in name and as one of those
public organizations.
It is
instructive to note that as at the year 2000, Nigeria was rated as one of the countries
with the highest incidence of fake and counterfeit drugs, and other unwholesome
regulated products. Consequently, drugs made in Nigeria were officially
unaccepted in other West African countries with strong regulations like Ghana, Sierra
Leone etc.
Equally, some multinational drug manufacturing companies had
divested and left Nigeria out of frustration.
The local
drug and food manufacturers were also closing shop while the country became a dumping
ground for all manners
of products. Gladly, when Dora Akunyili came on board NAFDAC in 2001, she saw
the appalling state of regulation as a national emergency that demanded
immediate intervention. She was then put under pressure.
Until she
assumed leadership of the agency on April 12, 2001, there was little to write
home about the state of regulatory activities in Nigeria. Although NAFDAC had been
established way back in 1993 with the backing of Decree 15 of the same year (as
amended) to control and regulate the manufacture, importation, exportation, distribution,
advertisement, sale and use of every imaginable regulated consumer product in
the country, very little was known about the agency and its activities until Akunyili
came into the picture.
Before her
debut, the nation wore the unenviable tag of being one of the countries with
the highest incidence of fake
and counterfeit drugs on earth. In the face of a failed regulatory process of
more than two decades, Nigeria had become the world's largest dump for
substandard drugs.
Illegal drug
markets which sprang up all over the place rapidly grew into formidable
strongholds in the trade of drug distribution. There was chaos in the
distribution channels, where potent and often lethal drugs were marketed like
any other commodity of trade.
Suffice it to
say that charlatans who knew next to nothing about regulated products had a
field day and controlled vast distribution networks for products of
questionable origin, safety and efficacy. As bad as all these appeared, it was
just a tip of the iceberg as no one knew for certain how bad the situation
really was.
Undaunted,
this veritable amazon who qualifies as a woman of raw courage and unshakeable
integrity, set a goal for herself and the new management of NAFDAC.
Their onerous
task was to ensure that fake drugs and other substandard regulated products are either totally eradicated or
brought to the barest minimum in Nigeria within the next few years.
With a vision
statement “To safeguard public health” while its mission is to safeguard public
health by ensuring that only the night quality product are manufactured, Towards
realizing this ultimate objective, Akunyili's approach has been nothing short
of outstanding. With pin point accuracy and a no-nonsense but a result oriented attitude,
het successes in the enforcement of regulation laws remain unprecedented
in the history of the nation. The level of her impact is such that the parlance
in the drug industry is that "the fear of Akunyili is the beginning of
wisdom”. Apart from successfully dealing a mortal blow to the antics of fake
drug merchants, Akunyili was largely instrumental in the transformation of NAFDAC's
former dowdy reputation as an obscure government establishment to that of a
respected modern day professional scientific body with international
recognition.
Right from
her days at the Queen of Rosary Secondary school, in Nsukka, Anambra state,
Akunyili has been an embodiment of excellence, distinguishing herself with a Grade
1 distinction in the WASC of 1973. Being a fully qualified consultant
pharmacologist, and holder of a Doctor of Philosophy degree including Post
Doctorate
Fellowships
of the University of London and the West African Post Graduate College of Pharmacy,
her exploits are widely acknowledged locally and internationally. But it was in the driving seat of the
new NAFDAC, Spearheading an aggressive war against fake drugs that the real
essence of this towering achiever really came to the fore. Thanks to her, an appreciable degree of sanity has
gradually come into the health industry.
Having
analyzed past intervention to eradicate the menace of fake drugs in Nigeria she
quickly arrived at the conclusion that: they were all adhoc measures with unsustainable
impact, if any. To achieve this, there were a clear vision, set goals and
strategies. Since then, the vision has been to safeguard public health. The
mission to safeguard public health by ensuring that only the right quality
products are manufactured, imported, exported, advertised, distributed, sold
and used in Nigeria" and the goal “To eradicate fake drugs and other substandard
regulated products". Akunyili deemed it more effective to embark on
massive enlightenment campaign, dialogue, education and persuasion in pursuit
of her regulatory activities.
Enlightenment
was a strategy she utilized superbly credibly well and had endeared her to the
delight of many Nigerian. Today NAFDAC's crusade against fake drugs is at
household level. Everyone from all walks of life is celebrating the voluntary
change of heart, which is none result oriented and complimentary to the confrontation and prosecution
approach-utilized by the Agency in the past, Workshops, seminars and meeting; for
producers of "pure water", patent medicine dealers, Cosmetics
Manufacturers and Ethics Association of Nigeria and Herbal Medicine
practitioners amongst others are now regular features. Enlightenment campaigns
in the form of bi-monthly publications of identified list of genuine and fake
products, jingles in radios and TV and international consultations with
Directors General of Food and Drug Agencies of other countries were common place.
NAFDAC also
held regular consultative meetings with state commissioner of health, the
Inspector General of Police, the Comptroller General of Customs, ambassadors of
some countries identified with fake drug importation amongst other concerned
groups. This strategy, she argued, was necessary because it addresses the
fundamental issue of behavioural change.
It is
gratifying to note that the strategy yielded tremendous results and in its
wake, NAFDAC had shut down illegal drug outlets, prosecuted fake drugs dealers
and seized and destroyed large caches of fake drugs across the nation.
Interestingly, most of the seized drugs are voluntarily handed over by
repentant traders, and a good quantity recovered on tip off by traders.
Undoubtedly,
Prof. Akunyili remains a national pride, an icon and beacon of Hope to our
nation. Her unwavering and dogged crusade in her area of assignment; has won her
national and international awards and honour. She remains a shining light
before the international community and a rare breed of the vanishing tribe of patriotic,
honest, hardworking and transparent Nigerians.
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The purpose
of this study is to examine the activities of the National Agency for Food
Drugs and Administrative Control under the stirring leadership of Professor
Dora Akunyili. Similarly, the study seeks to examine the state of regulatory
activities in Nigeria, the challenges and achievements of the agency in curbing
the incidences of substandard products in the country.
SCOPE OF
STUDY
The scope of
this study covers between 1999-2007. This period however is carefully choose
because it marked the height of an era of adulterated, fake and expired
products in Nigeria, a practice which had continued for so long a time
unabated. Similarly, the period also coincided with a time when the agency was
brought out of its obscurity to functional lime light.
LIMITATION of
STUDY
This work is
limited by the inaccessibility to get officials of the agency to answer
questions pertinent to this exercise. Also the lack of fund, absence of written
records as well as time constraint are part of the limitations to the study.
RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY
In the course
of the research, materials will be collected from both primary and secondary
sources. The primary source will rely more on oral interviews conducted to get
the opinion of renowned personalities on the issue.
Similarly
too, secondary source of information will equally be adopted in the study.
These include information and data generated from library research, published
and unpublished materials, official gazettes, government publications, academic
journals, newspapers, and periodical among others.
LITERATURE
REVIEW
According to
Akande J. Oyekanmi, The National Agency for Food, Drug
Administration and Control (NAFDAC), a creation of the military government had
been a docile, ineffective and powerless before the appointment of Professor (Mrs.)
Dora Akunyili as the Director General in 2001. She argued further that the
government agency was a toothless bulldog that could only bark but could not
bite. Although, the decree establishing it empowered it to seize and destroy fake
and adulterated drugs, the high level corruption that pervaded the agency staff
gave importers of deadly food and drugs the audacity to carry on with their
nefarious activities. However she posited that the victims of such activities
were invariably women and children and that one of such victims was Professor
Akunyili sisters who died as a result of counterfeit drug.
Consequently,
this first female Director General of NAFDAC, Professor (Mrs.) Dora Akunyili
had fought tooth and nail to ensure that the Nigerian society was free of
counterfeit drugs and those importers of fake drugs face the full wrath of the
law.
Similarly, in
the words of Ighodalo, he opined that one should not be under the illusion that
NAFDAC has had an easy battle with fake drug dealers. At first, these peddlers
of death resorted to bribery. Thinking that it was business as usual, they
offered in April 2001, the NAFDAC boss, fifty million naira bribe which she
rejected. Stunned by this unparalled honesty and integrity, Ighodalo stressed
that the peddlers sent assassin to her at her Abuja residence which she
narrowly escaped Ten years after the. Incidence, the
police is yet to bring the culprits to book.
Thus, since
2002, importers of fake drugs had been sending death messages to her and her
family members, but she remained undaunted. Needless to say that the
indefatigable woman of NAFDAC remained unyielding as she introduced innovation
and combative measures to clamp down on fake drug importers. However, the enlightenment
Campaigns have yielded the desired results as counterfeit drugs are
disappearing fast from the Nigerian market, thanks to the doggedness of Professor
(Mrs.) Dora Akunyili. Also
Okojo stressed the fact that before the ascendancy of Akunyili as the Director
General of the agency, it was common knowledge that Nigerian market was
forfeited with dangerous drugs which caused complications in medical circles.
There are companies in Asia and Eastern Europe that were mass producing
sub-standard drugs and foods and were marketing them in Nigeria. For such
drugs, labels are no indication of actual content. It is also true that some
Nigerian merchants arranged with such companies to maximize profit. It is
worthy of note that, following the death of some members of a family after a
meal of pastry food in 2005, the production of such pastry food was put on hold
until NAFDAC was satisfied that the necessary amend and control had been
effected. Her heroic deeds have won her several honours, awards and accolades.
It is believed in many quarters that she deserves the highest honour the
country can bestow on her.
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