By Michael Nnebife
The Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 General Elections, Mr Peter Obi, has advised the Board of Fellows, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria and the entire Nigerians to dismantle the country’s bad leadership, to have access to quality medicines in the country.
Mr Obi gave the advice while addressing the Board as a guest speaker during her 6th Public Lecture, with the topic, ”Access to Quality Medicines in an Unstable Environment”, held at ASUU Secretariat, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, last Wednesday.
Obi, who heaped blames for poor health services in the country, on bad leadership, discussed measures to ensure access to quality medicines in Nigeria.
‘When we talk about access to quality health, it’s down to the way the Federal Government approaches and envisage health delivery, which is the most critical and number one role of the government, to keep people healthy.
‘Whatever we think that’s here, is not rocket science. All that’s required is to have human beings who are committed, competent, and have passion for governance so that we can start investing our resources in critical areas of development.
‘For example, in this year’s budget, the National Assembly Hospital’s Capital Budget is bigger than the Capital Budgets for the University of Ibadan Teaching Hospital; the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital; the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital; the University of Jos Teaching Hospital; and other federal university teaching hospitals put together.
‘Today in Nigeria, our budget for setting up Aso Rock Clinic is 21 billion Naira; that’s 10 times the budget for the National Hospital in Nigeria.
‘That’s what we need to dismantle. Nigeria’s National Library has been under construction for the past 25 years. The budget for our library this year is 180 million Naira, but that of the National Assembly this year is 15.4 billion Naira. So, we can’t continue that way.
‘When I look at our professors, I look at them in pains. A professor of Pharmacy today is paid about 500,000 Naira; in a year he earns 6 million Naira.
‘So if he decides to buy one car like the one given to the House of Assembly People, without even eating, he needs 25 years to do so.
‘This is 150 million used to buy for one person who never finished secondary school, a car.
‘We need to dismantle this, and that’s what we can do to have access to quality health,’ Obi said.
He said, ‘For us to have access to quality health, we have to talk about regulations.
‘A regulator has to understand his job, and be made to be an enabler,’ he maintained, stressing that the government had to support pharmaceutical companies.
Obi, who regretted that the government remembered the manufacturers only when it came to revenue, however emphasized that access to quality health would only come from the overall vision of governance, which, he said, still lacked in Nigeria today.
He added that the present cholera outbreak in Nigeria was due to the failure of the government to invest in health.
Obi said Nigeria built a vaccine facility in 1948, almost 40 years before Serum that, he said, was now the biggest producer of vaccines in the world; yet because of bad leadership and corruption, the facility was not functioning.
In his remarks, the Anambra State Commissioner for Health, Dr Afam Obidike, said the state was setting up a world-class drug manufacturing hub at Ogboji in Orumba South Local Government Area of the state to ensure that Anambra residents had access to quality drugs at cheaper rates.
Also speaking, the Chairman of the occasion, and the Traditional Ruler of Onitsha, Obi Alfred Nnaemeka Achebe, said life was a prime gift from God in which he noted, pharmaceutical profession came in, working with other arms of the Medical sciences and regulatory bodies, for the preservation and optimization of life. He urged the pharmacists to ensure that both the poor and the rich had access to quality medicines.
In his Goodwill Message, the Acting Vice-Chancellor, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Prof Joseph Ikechebelu, stated that the topic of the lecture was germane to Nigeria’s extant medicare predicament where on account of prevailing harsh economic conditions in the country, quality drugs were largely inaccessible, and where available, were not affordable to a number of the citizenry, leaving low quality drugs in circulation.
He expressed the hope that the lecture would be able to address the challenge positively.
In his address, the Chairman of the Board, Pharm Chief Joel Adagadzu, said that the lecture provided the members an opportunity to make relevant contributions to ongoing conversations on issues of national importance and interest.
Earlier in an address, the Planning Committee Chairman, Pharm Martins Igbonacho, noted that the lecture was a platform to forge meaningful solutions to issues around drugs, and expressed the hope that the knowledge and insights shared by the speakers would spark innovative approaches to overcome the barriers facing the Board.
