Young pharmacists have been advised to seek tutelage and ways of enhancing knowledge of their professional practice as well as exploring opportunities around them. This admonition was given at a mentoring programme for young pharmacists organized by the Nigerian Academy of Pharmacy at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry Exhibition Centre, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos, on Tuesday, March 22, 2016.
In a welcome address, pharmacist and former Lagos State gubernatorial candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Jimi Agbaje, said that the programme was meant to guide young pharmacists on what path to take in their careers. He urged pharmacists to always strive to make pharmacy the enviable and respectable profession that it is.
Chairman of the occasion and President, Nigerian Academy of Pharmacy, Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi, in his opening address, noted that the future of the profession rests on the shoulders of the young practitioners. He also called on senior practitioners to be willing to mentor younger colleagues. He, however, warned that the young pharmacists should be disposed to learning and seeking guidance from accomplished senior colleagues.
“A profession that does not take care of the welfare of its younger generation has no future. The future of this profession is in the hands of younger people who dare to do things differently,” he said.
The occasion also served to remind pharmacists, young and old, of the need to uphold best practices always. Speaking on the subject, the registrar, Pharmacists Council of Nigeria, Elijah Muhammed, noted that “The Academy of Pharmacy (NAPharm) has identified gaps affecting professional development of young pharmacists with their attendant negative effects on the image and progress of the pharmacy profession” in the country. He also decried the get-rich-quick syndrome among many promising young pharmacists, which he said often makes it difficult for them to learn the ropes of the profession, thereby denying themselves success.
“While mentoring is a long-term relationship, the survival instinct of the young pharmacists in contemporary age is get-rich-quick,” he remarked.
Muhammed stated that the mentoring programme for young professionals, which is being launched to shape the future of the profession, will benefit about 10,000 young pharmacists in three years and is intended to groom future leaders and improve the standard of pharmacy practice and image in Nigeria. He stated further that the scheme will “establish rewarding relationship between young pharmacists and accomplished senior colleagues through the provision of wise counsel, technical knowledge, assistance and empathy.”
He also appealed to young pharmacists to be patient and try to understand how pharmacy has evolved as a professional enterprise.
In a presentation, Special Adviser to President Muhammed Buhari on New Media, Tolu Ogunlesi, counseled the young pharmacists on the need to pursue their passion in life alongside the chosen profession. Citing his own experience as a pharmacist, who veered into the media, Ogunlesi advised them to stay focused, have an open mind in order to enable them explore opportunities where they never existed and see success as a journey and not a destination. He also told them to pursue further studies and not shy away from involving themselves in their professional associations’ politics.
Delivering a goodwill message from the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, the President, Alhaji Ahmed Yakasai, urged young pharmacists not to relent in their quest for knowledge, which he said should go beyond university education. “Education is not only acquired in the university; you have to continue reading after the university,” he said.
Other pharmacists, who made presentations at the occasion, included the Managing Director of GlaxoSmithkline (GSK), Lekan Asuni, Ike Onyenchi and Ifeanyi Okoye.
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