By Chioma Obinna
The National Chairman of the Association of Community Pharmacists, ACPN, Pharm. Wale Oladigbolu, has said that 12 years after the country crafted the much-needed National Drug Distribution Guidelines, NDDG; to sanitise its drug distribution system the government has failed to implement even per cent of the guidelines.
The NDDG was released in 2012 to entrench a distribution system that ensures that the medicine that gets to the consumers is effective, qualitative, safe and affordable.
Oladigbolu also accused the federal government of not mustering the courage to implement its policy.
In a chat with Vanguard, he lamented that despite the fact that NDDG was well crafted to attain medicines security in Nigeria; successive governments lacked the political will to fully implement the guidelines.
“Nigeria is a very big country made up of very intelligent human resources so crafting an idea is not our problem. NDDG was a good idea that was well crafted but the implementation is zero. We have not implemented one per cent of NDGG.
“The NDDG says when medicines are manufactured they should pass from one registered premises to another registered premises. From one licensed place to another licensed premises. If it is well implemented why are we having open drug markets? So it is not about crafting the idea, it is about implementing it.”
He queried the recent call for review by the Ministry of Health, saying, “You are asking for a review of a programme you have not even implemented up to one per cent. There is no political will to do what is good for the people in this country. If there is political will there should not be an open market across the country.
“Government should come out and muster the will to do things for Nigerians.”
Continuing, he said it has become an emergency to implement the NDDG to stop the killing of Nigerians instalmentally.
“How come you see the increase in kidney damage among Nigerians? Was it like this before? It is because the majority of the medicines as supply chain excursion have deteriorated over time and people still take them as if they are still good. Government should use the political will to implement the NDDG.”’he stated.
He said if NDDG is well implemented, the cost of medicines will come down and there will be fewer falsified medicines in the system. He added that with the NDDG, people will not die needlessly and will recover from ailments.
He appealed to President Bola Tinubu to do the needful and sanitise the country’s drug distribution channel.
“For me it is not money or resources, it is just for the President of this country to say I am ready to do what is good for the people. All we need is political will. You will remember that Onitsha Head Bridge was closed for almost one year. Heaven did not fall that is political will. It takes only an announcement from the government that such markets are closed down. People will now open registered premises without any problem. Go and check those markets, how many of them have electricity? But we have products that are sensitive to light and should be stored at a certain level. Some antibiotics are being sun-dry, they are kept under the sun, and we know it. Some are vaccines and these are vaccines that should be kept at a certain temperature level in the cold chain.
“Government needs to muster courage. The pharmaceutical council of Nigeria should be concerned. They should bring out regulations and implement their own regulation. But they cannot do it in isolation. They cannot do it alone because the problem has been left for too long.”
Source: Vanguard