By Doris Obinna
Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Lagos State branch, has said that the pharmacist consultant cadre was one of the demands presented at one of its stakeholder meetings, so its members would reject any attempt to foist the specialist cadre on them.
Chairman, PSN, Mr. Babayemi Oyekunle, at the 2023 Scientific Week of the society held in Lagos recently, disclosed that they were not interested in a “specialist cadre” but a proper consultant cadre in the civil service.
Oyekunle said they got their demand at the federal level in 2011 and it was also approved by Lagos State during the tenure of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode in 2018 and Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu in December of the same year.
Oyekunle, who wondered why there is now an attempt to substitute the consultant pharmacist cadre with a specialist cadre that they never bargained or negotiated for, said, in 2011, the National Council on Establishment approved the consultant pharmacist cadre and it was re-validated in 2021.
He said: “On the basis of the approval, Niger State blazed the trail for the recognition of consultant pharmacist cadre in 2013 by the Aliyu Babangida administration, while other states like Edo, Osun, Oyo, Ondo and recently Kwara have followed suit with an adoption of the circular from the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation.
“Consultant pharmacist cadre is also a reality at Aso Rock Villa Clinic, National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development health centre and some other key establishments.
“Also, graduates of the West African Post-graduate College of Pharmacists, who first emerged in 1997, have been recognised as consultant pharmacists for over 20 years in countries like Gambia, Sierra-Leone, Liberia and Ghana.
“The global best practice, which we benchmarked in our health system based on realities in countries like the UK and USA, place premium on consultant, and not specialist, pharmacists.”
Oyekunle also called on the Lagos State government to come up with an innovative approach towards tackling the menace of drug abuse as many citizens have died under the influence of drugs: “The commonest of these abuses is easy access to alcoholic bitters and other alcoholic beverages sold in sachets and small plastics and other cheap packages.”
He identified dysfunctional family systems, high level of unemployment, ignorance of the deleterious effects of drug abuse, peer pressure, extreme poverty and poor awareness of the menace and dangers of drug abuse as factors promoting it.
Other factors, he said, include: poor regulatory control, which leads to indiscriminate access to all categories of drug, poor drug distribution system; uncensored social media influence, irrational logic, which encourage early use of alcohol, cigarettes and psycho-active substances.
“Also, the lack of sufficient rehabilitation facilities, porous land borders and poor implementation of drug and pharmacy laws.”
PSN urged the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control to as a matter of national emergency stop further registration of sachet and other small packs of alcoholic bitters and beverages in the country.
They also called on other regulatory agencies such as; the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency to ensure the enforcement of pharmacy and drug law.