Phili Okose, Onitsha
Worried by the rising cases of drug diversion, illicit trafficking and counterfeit medicines which have serious consequences for healthcare services, the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) has called on the federal government to declare pharmaceutical insecurity in the country.
PSN expressed concern that the government appears to have surrendered the control of the nation’s pharmaceutical supply chain to private interests with the resultant free distribution and dispensing of medicines.
The President of PSN, Ayuba Ibrahim Tanko, said this during the opening ceremony of the society’s 99th Annual National Conference, tagged PSN-IJELE 2026, held in Awka, Anambra State. He added that open drugs markets and the uncontrolled diversion of medicines across the country undermine public health and national security.
He argued that the management of medicines is too critical to public health and national security, and so its regulation and control should not be left outside direct government supervision.
“Drugs are not ordinary commodities. Their misuse carries public health, regulatory and security consequences. Government’s direct involvement in the supply chain. Logistics of drugs therefore remains germane. Drugs are a matter of permanent regulatory control and national security.
“The Constitution places drugs and poisons on the Exclusive Legislative List (Second Schedule, Part I, item 21). The essence of this placement is to keep drug matters under permanent public regulatory control, in view of the security dimensions of drug use in the country. In May 2021, the House of Representatives declined a bill to move drugs and poisons to the Concurrent List. With opponents stressing the need for uniform national control. A model that hands the supply chain of all public facilities in Nigeria to a private company runs counter to that intent.”
He argued that private takeover of the value chain weakens inter-agency collaboration. “Drug distribution is regulated by three principal agencies: the Pharmacal Council of Nigeria (PCN) premises and practitioners, PCN Act 2022). Including National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) product registration and quality, NAFDAC Act and Counterfeit and Fake Drugs and Unwholesome Processed Foods, Miscellaneous Provisions Act and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) (controlled medicines, NDLEA Act and Dangerous Drugs Act),” he insisted.
‘Tanko noted that government at all levels now works with these agencies as a fellow arm of government through joint inspections, information sharing, enforcement and accountability for controlled medicines. A private company’s complete takeover of the drug-utilisation value chain would place a commercial operator between the government and the regulators and compromise that collaboration.
The president stressed that the government cannot transfer its standing at the cooperation and goodwill that NAFDAC, the NDLEA and the PCN extend to Federal Health Institutions (FHIs) rest on its status as Government. The same latitude cannot be granted to a private concessionaire. The moment the Government hands over this birthright to a private entity, it loses that reciprocal goodwill, and the concessionaire cannot inherit it.
‘’Security has a strong link between drugs and banditry. The diversion and abuse of drugs are closely tied to insecurity in the country, Tanko stated.
He warned that the unchecked diversion of controlled medicines, proliferation of counterfeit products and weaknesses in pharmaceutical regulation could deepen existing security challenges in the country.
Tanko, therefore, called for urgent establishment of a Federal Drug Management Agency, backed by legislation, to provide a transparent, accountable and legally protected framework for the procurement. Distribution and management of medicines across federal health institutions, insisting on the replacement of unregulated open drug markets with licensed Coordinated Wholesale Centres. Integration of community pharmacists into the national security architecture and establishment of a Presidential Committee on the Pharmaceutical Sector.
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