A former director-general of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms, Joe Abah, has voiced apprehensions regarding the surge in counterfeit products within the Nigerian market.
Expressing disappointment, through his twitter account on Tuesday, Abah highlighted the apparent inability of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control to effectively tackle this challenge.
Sharing insights drawn from his prior study of NAFDAC, Abah reminisced about the organization’s past successes, notably under the leadership of the late Prof Dora Akunyili.
He recalled an interview with Akunyili, where her hospitality extended to cooking breakfast for his driver during the visit.
Referring to statistical data, Abah noted a regression in combating counterfeit drugs, citing figures that indicated a decline from 10% prevalence in 2011 to a reported 15% in 2022, as disclosed by NAFDAC.
This stark deviation raised concerns about the agency’s capacity to fulfill its broader regulatory roles encompassing food, beverages, water, and cosmetics.
Drawing on his expertise in public governance, Abah expressed skepticism about the sustained excellence of institutions amid systemic dysfunction without consistent leadership commitment.
He underscored the need for successive administrations to prioritize appointing individuals capable of replicating past organizational successes, emphasizing the criticality of certain functions being shielded from political influences and patronage.
“NAFDAC was one of the organisations I studied for my PhD between 2009 and 2012.
“I had the privilege of interviewing the late, great, Prof Dora Akunyili. I remember the interview as if it happened yesterday because I interviewed her at home and she insisted on cooking breakfast for my driver while he waited.
“In 2003, the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development reported that 80% of drugs on sale in Lagos were fake.
“The incidence of fake drugs is officially reported to have reduced from 41% in 2002, through to 16% in 2006, to 10% in 2011. It was expected to fall to 8% by 2013.
“In opinion ratings in Nigeria, NAFDAC was rated to be the most effective government agency in Nigeria for 3 years in a row. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime also rated Nigeria as West Africa’s most effective drug control country, and commended the work of NAFDAC.
“Fast forward to 2022, NAFDAC came out to say that the prevalence of fake drugs is 15%, not 70% as some researchers had claimed.
“Even at 15%, you would have noticed a retrogression from the 10% it was in 2011.
“And even if NAFDAC’s 2022 claim that fake drugs are at 15% is correct, what about its other roles to regulate food, drinks, water and cosmetics?
“I suspect that public perception of prevalence of counterfeit food, drinks and cosmetics would be very near the 80% it was exactly 20 years ago.
“I study public governance and pockets of effectiveness in dysfunctional States. To see NAFDAC retrogress in this way seriously challenges any notion that islands of excellence can withstand the general sea of dysfunction for very long, without a deliberate effort by successive administrations to deliberately seek out and appoint the same kind of person that first turned around the organization in the first place”, he tweeted.
The reflections by Joe Abah come amidst growing public discourse on social media platforms regarding the proliferation of fake products in Nigeria and criticisms directed at NAFDAC’s perceived inadequacies in curbing this trend.
