(President Tinubu And Mojisola Christianah Adeyeye. Photo by Politics Nigeria)
An activist and lawyer has urged President Tinubu to remove the Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control over her alleged failure to stop the spread of counterfeit and substandard drugs in Nigeria.
Deji Adeyanju called for the removal of other regulatory agency heads who he said have also failed to protect Nigerians from unsafe products.
He expressed alarm at how fake and substandard medicines flood the country and are even sold openly in markets under the sun, raising serious questions about how well the regulatory system works.
Adeyanju said NAFDAC appears unable to effectively curb the proliferation of fake and substandard products, with similar concerns extending to the Standards Organisation of Nigeria and other regulatory bodies.
He urged Tinubu to act decisively by replacing leadership at NAFDAC, SON and other failed agencies.
He also called on the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency on counterfeit and substandard drugs and consumer products, and demanded a comprehensive review of Nigeria’s regulatory system so citizens no longer suffer from regulatory failures.
The NAFDAC boss rejected calls for her resignation, saying she came to Nigeria to serve the country after spending 34 years in the United States, including about 30 as a professor.
She said she came because she was ashamed of her country’s situation and wanted to remove some of that shame.
She dismissed allegations she sought financial gratification from contractors and challenged anyone with evidence to come forward.
The NAFDAC chief defended her record, saying she inherited about 3.2 billion naira in liabilities and that 70 to 80 per cent of laboratory equipment was not working when she took over.
She said about 3.1 billion naira of those liabilities had been cleared by November 2018.
She cited reforms including moving NAFDAC from maturity level one to level three by March 2022, becoming an affiliate member of the International Medical Device Regulators Forum in 2023 and joining the International Council for Harmonisation in 2025.
She said countries and regulatory agencies now respect Nigeria under her leadership.
