NAFDAC, NCTC renew commitment to fight drug, chemical abuse

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and National Counter-terrorism Centre (NCTC) have renewed their commitment to combat the menace of drug abuse, misuse of chemicals and alcoholism with their associated dangers to the well-being of Nigerians.

They made this known during a courtesy call by the management of NAFDAC led by Mojisola Adeyeye, Director General to NCTC headquarters in Abuja with a view to enhancing and strengthening the already existing robust working partnership.

“The purpose of the visit is to strengthen the working partnership between the two agencies which have similar interests including but not limited to the fight against drug abuse, chemical misuse and alcoholism which have been traced as major contributors to acts of terrorism”, said Adeyeye as she expressed the agency’s readiness to work with the Centre to achieve a common goal.

The NAFDAC boss said the Agency is now using what is called ‘’Track and Trace’’, using the Traceability tool. NAFDAC has so far been recognized as the leading Agency in Africa in terms of the use of barcoding to trace where the medicine goes from the manufacturer to the end user.

Exuding self-confidence in the system, she said “Unless the user is not on planet Earth, we can trace it. We have global positioning systems that can pinpoint the medicine to the nearest location’’.

Adeyeye pointed out that this is important because the use of narcotics can alter the minds of its users and can lead to extremism, terrorism, loss of lives and loss of livelihood.

While congratulating the National Coordinator of NCTC for the monumental achievement in building a new Centre, she said “To me, this shows commitment to integration”, noting that silos mentality was what we were doing or sometimes we still do it. We cannot work in silos. It is when we work together, that we bring agencies of government together and we get a lot of results”.

She pledged that the collaboration is guaranteed in terms of NAFDAC’s commitment and for this Centre in terms of research.

She further added that “we can only do research in collaboration with other agencies or the academia which has been a major contributor to the growth of NAFDAC to higher grounds.’’

Read also: NCC grants Routelink virtual network operating license to improve service delivery

“his new Centre to me shows integration. We cannot work in silos. It is when we work together, we bring agencies of government together that we get a lot of results’’.

She pledged that the collaboration is guaranteed in terms of NAFDAC and this Centre in terms of research, adding that ‘’we can only do research in collaboration with other agencies or the academia. The growth of NAFDAC is leading us to higher grounds’’.

Yaminu Musa, the national coordinator of NCTC and a rear admiral explained that the essence of the partnership is to establish cohesion between the duo.

According to him, the two agencies had some engagements in the past and some decisions were taken, asking rhetorically ‘’to what extent have the decisions been implemented and what are the factors mitigating against implementation of those not implemented that can be reviewed because we are starting a new race?

He further said this is the right time for the two agencies to review previous activities and be able to re-strategize and inform the new government on areas that need further push whether policy or strategic categorization of plans.

“If we do it now and we do it right we will be setting the new government on that pedestal to understand us better and for us to be able to deliver more for the government”.

He gave the history of the centre which started as a directorate under the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) and is now established as the National Counter Terrorism Centre.

He highlighted the milestones of the “Centre” and recognised NAFDAC as a formidable stakeholder in the centre’s evolution and development of some of its policies in addressing some issues of insecurity in the country.

The centre intends to partner with research-based institutions like NAFDAC in many areas and access global support to be domiciled at relevant institutions that require it for the purpose of operational use, training purpose, and research.