• Pharmacy council, patent dealers at loggerheads over relocation
From Desmond Mgboh, Kano
In Nigeria, pharmacists and patent medicine dealers have never been friends. While pharmacists see the dealers as hijackers of their profession, the dealers dread pharmacists as enemies out there to ruin their business.
In Kano State, this ill feeling is playing out. The Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN), subtly backed by the state government, issued a two-week ultimatum to patent medicine dealers to quit Sabon-Garri Market, Kano and other clustered plazas or face the music.
The dealers, as an alternative, were relocated to Kanawa Pharmaceutical Coordinated Wholesales Centre (CWC), Kano Economic City (KEC), outskirts the state capital. But the relocation charge is not good enough. The dealers went to court to prevent the council and their allies from obstructing their business.
Registrar, PCN, Ibrahim Ahmed, said: “The chaotic drug distribution system has been a major factor affecting the quality, safety and efficacy of medicines. It contributes largely to the menace of drug abuse and misuse in Nigeria. The open drug market supports poor storage facilities, which exposes medicines to harsh environmental conditions like high temperature and humidity that impact negatively on their quality, safety and efficacy.
“It contributes to the sales of ethical products without the supervision of a pharmacist which in turn exposes the public to the dangers of wrong use of medicines.”
He confessed completing CWC was not been easy: “One of the challenges is the issue of the cost of the facility. That is why it is entirely a profit-driven project and government has no hand in it. It is something that entails negotiation between the traders and the developers.
“As a government agency, we are not supposed to be a player in the commercial transaction of this facility. We have never attempted to get involved. But we do know that if you look at the benefit of keying into the project, it is a mortgage. It may take time, the sacrifices may be huge but in the end, it is your own.
“Whatever is agreeable should also be something that is agreeable to all. It should also be reasonable to the developer because the developer is in the business to make profit.”
However, an insider insisted that on account of the relocation, patent medicine dealers stand the risk of losing their source of livelihood or losing the primary position they once occupied in the industry.
He alleged: “The relocation order is a subtle policy instrument designed to swap the identities and persons who control the multi-billion Kano drug market. At the end of the relocation, the dominant players would no longer be Igbo medicine traders but others.”
Daily Sun gathered that the dealers last Friday resolved to approach the court. A leading member of the dealers claimed: “There are many unsettled issues in the transaction.” He lamented how PCN, backed by some shadow interests manipulated the situation to the disadvantage of the majority of the medicine dealers:
“Many of our members cannot afford the exorbitant rents of these shops or enjoy primary sales locations within the centre. At first, the PCN constituted a special purpose vehicle to facilitate the project.
“It was registered as Kanawa Pharmaceutical Partners (KPP) Ltd and set up a board. The board included a few patent medical dealers, seven pharmacists and other non-career patent medicine dealers who are sympathetic to the authorities.
“The PCN then sold the idea that we should get a bank to finance the project and JAIZ Bank was contacted. They agreed, while Brains and Hammers Ltd was contacted to construct the project.
“One of the first challenges was that of location, which was hotly contested. A majority of us were at home with an expansive land at the back of the airport, on Jaba-Fanisau Road, because it is nearer to our residences. It is also an area that is fairly populated by non-indigenes.
“Other members of the board, especially those promoting the interest of the state, insisted on the present location within the Kano Economic City. It is a city, which is part of a bigger trading arrangement and interest of the state government.
“The second challenge is the trust factor. Right from the onset, the PCN aligned itself with the age-long policy of the state government, which has all along wanted to check us out of Sabon-Garri Market.
“So, many of us did not trust the whole idea of CWC. With the unfortunate script that is playing out, our initial distrust and fears have been justified. The most unfortunate aspect of the concept is the exorbitant amount of money required to rent or own a shop at the CWC, which they are not making public.
“For example, for you to be a shop owner at the centre, you have to register with a bank. After that, you will be expected to pay N13 million over a period of time.
“The situation is that bad that a majority of our poor members, numbering in hundreds cannot rent a shop there, talk less of owning one. They will automatically become jobless and unemployed in the days to come when PCNs relocation order would come into full force.
“What has happened to us today is that sadly people who are non-career patent medicine dealers, were able to afford and pay for these shops.
They have since increased the rent rates to N25million, N30million and N32 million for our members, thereby making it absolutely impossible for us to rent a shop there.
“How can someone who is doing normal business raise that sort of money? Is this not a subtle means by the PSN and its collaborators to relieve many of us of our means of livelihood, hiding under the excuse that they are sanitising the drug market?
“When you piece all of these particles together, you will begin to get the bigger picture. And the picture is that CWC in spite of seeming advantages, will sack many dealers from their means of livelihood and hand the Kano drug market over to new identities and new players.”
NPPMD’s lawyer, Adam Mohammed, the case was adjourned to March 6, 2023: “Basically they don’t want to be relocated to the centre. In reality, the very centre has been sold out to some people who are not even part of the business or are strangers to the business.
They are forcing them to occupy the new shops at highly exorbitant rates. At rates that are against their will.
“These shops were initially offered to the medicine dealers at N13.14million per shop. At the secondary market, the shops are being sold at N30 million per shop. There is a big difference between asking them to relocate and forcing them to relocate to the centre.
“Kano Economic City where they are being forced to relocate to is also an open market like Sabon-Garri Market. It is composed of a trailer park, a GSM market and a wholesale drug distribution shops.”