Operating in a country where the level of pessimism is high with not a few people ever ready to cast aspersions on obvious achievements in the public sector, it has become imperative to highlight those that are doing the right thing when it matters most. This paradigm would serve as inspiration to others-both in the public or private sectors, especially those wanting to bring out the best in them. At the end the entire country stands to benefit.
Besides, we must be imbued with a sense of history to place on record such achievements for the present and future generations to glean from and eventually build upon. Interestingly, one federal government Agency that has been an exception rather than the rule of poor performance is none other than the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), notably from the period it was headed by then Dr. Dora Akunyili9 of blessed memory).It was established by Decree 15 of 1993 as amended by Decree 19 of 1999 and currently the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control Act Cap N1 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
This Act mandates NAFDAC to regulate and control the manufacture, importation, exportation, distribution, advertisement, sale and use of food, drugs, cosmetics, chemicals, detergents, medical devices and packaged water (known as regulated products).
The scope of this mandate puts the responsibility of ensuring compliance with regulations and other international laws governing the use of radio-pharmaceuticals on NAFDAC. The essence of control and regulation is to protect public health by ensuring that only quality regulated products that are safe, efficacious and wholesome reach the market, and ultimately the consuming public.
Part of NAFDAC’s strategy in carrying out its mandate is collaboration and capacity building.Akunyili who was the director-general of the Agency from 2001 to 2009 leveraged on such partnerships. She dared where angels fear to tread. Full of uncommon courage and candour she saw the need to partner first and foremost with the Nigerian public. After all, they should be the prime beneficiaries of safe, unadulterated and healthy food and drugs. Till date, she remains one of the most effective public servants who knew the power of the media in shaping public opinion.
During her tenure, she led high-profile and well-articulated campaigns against fake, hazardous food and drugs in the Nigerian marketplace. It was little of surprise that she won several international awards, acclaim and accolades while she called the shots.
Next came the far sighted Paul Orhii who deployed cutting-edge technology to fight the counterfeiting of drugs as well as processed food items with great success that similarly attracted international acclaim. These include the use of Truscan, the Moblie Authentication System(MAS)/Short Messaging Services (SMS) and the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). Others include the near Infra-red Spectrometer (NIR) and Red Eye to protect consumers from products that are fake, unwholesome, adulterated and hazardous to human health.
Not done NAFDAC, under Orhii recorded another major breakthrough in its regulatory activities with the international accreditation of her two major laboratories. Precisely, NAFDAC’s Mycotoxin and Pesticides Residues Laboratories located at Oshodi in Lagos obtained the ISO 17025 accreditation conducted by theAmerican Association of Laboratory Accreditation.
According to Orhii, the accreditation project which was sponsored by the United Nations Industrial Development (UNIDO) has launched the two laboratories into the league of internationally recognised and respected laboratories. With the ISO 17025 accreditation of the two laboratories, value-added agricultural exports tested and certified by the Agency will now be accepted worldwide without query.
Though often relegated to the background, the significant role that quality laboratories play in ensuring that consumable products that pass through them are safe, free from contaminants, all forms of hazardous impurities and toxins cannot be underestimated. It is therefore, a great stride taken by the food and drugs agency to protect Nigerian consumers from such products.
With the salutary aim to increase the regulation as well as the management of cancer in the country, NAFDAC held capacity building to seek cutting-edge solutions to cancer. Radio pharmaceuticals are medicinal formulations containing radioisotopes for administration in humans for diagnosis or for therapy.They are a very special group of drugs that contain a radioactive nuclide.
After Orhii came Mrs. Yetunde Oni. She was then the most senior Director at NAFDAC. Having served under three past DGs she knew her onions, built on the successes of her predecessor and prepared the ground in 17 months for the coming on board of the erudite of Prof. Moji Adeyeye. From the outset she knew the importance of a well-motivated and trained workforce and made some useful even if painful changes.That brought in the Quality Management System (ISO 9000-2018): The goals for the QMS training are to:
· Meet or exceed customer satisfaction through a set of quality objectives and necessary operational processes
· Focus always on conformance by working to prevent non-conformance through internal auditing of all aspects of NAFDAC’s formations, thus avoiding failures in our deliverables to the customers
· Be Agency-minded, i.e., do all things right that will make Safeguarding the health of Nigerians the priority.
· Maintaining a well disciplined and motivated workforce
· Work toward eliminating substandard and falsified medicines (SFs), unsafe or illicit drugs, unwholesome foods, chemicals and other products
· Aligning NAFDAC with international standards in food, drugs and other regulated products regulation
· Reconstruction of NAFDAC web presence and streamline the submission and approval of dossiers for registration of drugs, food and water.
· Working toward eliminating overlaps among sister agencies such as CPC, SON and PCN
· Engagement of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)
· Transportation and logistics to inspection sites as part of concerted efforts to strengthen our enforcement activities.NAFDAC now has a new motto – Customer-focused and Agency-minded.
There is firmly in place disciplined and motivated workforce. For the first time in the history of the Agency, the following have been made reality for our staff: Hazard Allowance as thestaff risk their lives everyday on the job. AN allowance is the least that can be given to them. There are also severance package for retiring staff, upward review of Laboratory Allowance, approval of Schemes of Service for the Agency.
Under her watch she has created sevenDirector positions; for effective oversight of the six geo-political zones plus the Lagos State Office and for career advancement. Good to note also that she has placed premium on staff development through training in international quality standards.
Even as the public wants more public awareness campaigns to sustain the battle against fake and adulterated food and drugs, which are hazardous to human health, there is a lot to learn from the commendable achievements of the Agency over the past 25 years.
Ayo Oyoze Baje
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