Some drugs on display at the Murtala Market, Abuja
The presence of hawkers selling fake drugs on the streets of Abuja portends grave danger to residents of the city, writes FRIDAY OLOKOR
Indiscriminate and illegal sale of drugs
in public places has continued unchecked in the Federal Capital
Territory, Abuja, in spite of previous warnings by the National Agency
for Foods, Drug Administration and Control, as well as other regulatory
agencies in the country.
The peddlers of fake and expired drugs
have resumed their illegal activities on the streets. Nowadays, they are
in every nook and cranny of the city, selling their illicit wares to
unsuspecting buyers. At the popular Kano Market and Byanzin Market in
Kubwa, drug vendors are on the streets. The story is the same in
Gwagwalada, while the situation is worse in rural areas.
Investigation shows that many of these
hawkers sell drugs without regard for rules and without consultation
with qualified pharmacists or doctors. Many of them are in business
simply to make profit, though they are aware of the enormous danger,
which the proliferation of fake drugs poses to the society.
The peddlers operate in the open markets
and the numerous shops or kiosks that dot the landscape. Our
correspondent gathered that the majority of them store their wares in
ways that could affect the potency of the drugs in their possession.
Many of the sellers know very little or
nothing about how to administer any drug for a particular illness. As a
result, those who patronise them often stand the risk of getting wrong
prescriptions, which could in turn endanger their lives.
The development shows that some Nigerians have not learnt any lesson from the My Pikin
teething mixture saga, which claimed the lives of over 80 infants in
2009 and led to the sentencing of two employees of a Lagos-based firm,
Barewa Pharmaceutical Company Limited, manufacturers of the drug, to
seven years imprisonment by a Federal High Court in Lagos.
The court jailed the employees, Adeyemo
Abiodun and Ebele Eromosele, for their roles in the production of the
killer mixture. The presiding judge, Justice Okeke, found them guilty on
two counts, while he acquitted them on four others.
The manufacturing company and the
affected employees were later arraigned on an amended six counts, after
the death of the company’s chief executive officer, Gbadegesin Okunlola,
last year.
A recent study of the activities of drug
peddlers in one of the major cities in the country reveals a
frightening dimension in the street trade in fake drugs. The result of
the research was published in the Nigerian quarterly journal of hospital
medicine.
Some critics have blamed the activities
of the peddlers on the growing demand for low-priced drugs. The average
Nigerian buyer, they say, places much premium on accessibility, cheap
prices, convenience and affordable supplies.
Also, some stakeholders blame the trend on the failure of the Federal Government to sanitise the drug distribution channel.
The Founder of the Dora Akunyili
Foundation and former Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Dora Akunyili,
who aligned with this submission, also traced the source of fake and
counterfeit drugs to the unregulated and chaotic markets.
She said, “These markets have been in
existence since the 1960s and have grown in numbers and complexity over
the years. They have survived the efforts of various governments in
Nigeria to forcefully dismantle and close them due to lack of regulated
structure to replace the markets.”
Despite these challenges, NAFDAC says it
is prepared to deal with the presence of unregulated drug vendors on
the streets. According to the agency’s Director (Special Duties), Mr.
Abubakar Jimoh, the problem has to do with poor education and poverty in
the society.
He said, ‘‘Most of our people are not
discerning and they are very careless. For instance, you see a man
hawking drugs in a luxury bus and people will just start rushing to buy
because it is cheap.
“Buying drugs from hawkers is like using
your money to buy poison. It is very dangerous. You should be concerned
about the quality of the drugs that you are buying. This is very
important. You also find out that the issue of drug hawking is common in
the villages and remote areas where the people are vulnerable.
“Drug hawkers are merchants of death.
Nobody should patronise them or have any dealing with them because there
is no guarantee on the drugs they sell. Never patronise roadside or
mobile drug sellers because you might be digging your grave.”
Jimoh added that NAFDAC was
collaborating with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, the Nigeria
Security and Civil Defence Corps and other law enforcement agencies to
strengthen the fight against fake drugs in Nigeria.
He said, “We have arrested 44 drug
hawkers in Sokoto. Most of them were from Niger Republic. We are using
diplomatic channels through the ambassadors to help us talk to their
citizens. We also held consultative meetings with luxury bus owners and
told them that NAFDAC will not hesitate to ground their vehicles if they
don’t stop hawkers using their vehicles.”
To wipe out drug counterfeiting in its
entirety, he said, the agency was cooperating with local government
councils in the use of public address systems and town criers to
disseminate regulatory information in their various dialects, such as
dangers of drug hawking and illegal advertisement of herbal drugs.
NAFDAC, he also said, had embarked on
enlightenment campaigns in the media to sensitise the citizens on the
dangers of fake drugs.
He said, “We organised grassroots
sensitisation campaigns in the villages, taking the campaigns to the
doorsteps of the people, who are vulnerable. Whenever we go for such
grassroots sensitisation, it is not just about hawking of drugs. We have
a checklist of messages that we pass. We talk about Vitamin A
fortification, salt iodisation, the issue of correct application of
herbicides and chemicals in the harvest of agricultural products and
storage.
“We also have NAFDAC/NYSC sensitisation
campaigns. We are leveraging on the National Youth Service Corps members
to carry out these campaigns across the country.”
The agency has taken other steps, such
as the establishment of NAFDAC/Consumer Safety Clubs in various
secondary schools to check the circulation of fake and substandard
drugs, medicines and other foods.
A legal practitioner and President of a
United Kingdom-based Non Governmental Organisation, African Rural
Community Development Initiative, Mr. Martins Bakare, told our
correspondent that what Nigerians needed was proper information and
education on the dangers of patronising itinerant medicine dealers and
other unregulated merchants on the streets.
Bakare said, “NAFDAC has actually been
doing a lot in this area. The truth is that information is the key. It
is unfortunate that many people do not read newspapers. We need direct
information in many indigenous languages. It will enable the people to
know what to do because health is wealth. They do not know that fake
drugs could cause them grievous harm. I know that we Nigerians value our
lives a lot and I think that if this information gets across to the
people in their villages, many minds will be changed.”
The Federal Government, through NAFDAC,
has since drawn the battle line with these ‘merchants of death’ and
their collaborators. Stakeholders, however, also say the time has come
for all Nigerians to assist the agency in its crusade to salvage the
situation and address the anomaly finally. But can they succeed without
excessive interference from vested interests? Perhaps, only time will
tell.
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