The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has called on the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), not to take seriously, the threat by pharmacists over its employment advertisement.
The Association was reacting to a story published in one of the national dailies (not LEADERSHIP) captioned ‘Pharmacists protest recruitment of Regulatory Officers”, in reaction to the advertisement by the agency.
NMA said that the health, safety and service of people was the cardinal goal of government and her agencies rather than the interest of individuals.
The association insisted that to this extent, the threat to the hierarchy of NAFDAC over the employment advertisement must and should not be taken seriously.
According to a statement signed by the president of the association, Dr Omede Idris, physicians with appropriate training in microbiology, Medical Internist or Clinical Pharmacologists who primarily are medical doctors, as well as Medical Biochemist and Medical Physiologists, have major roles to play in the control and regulation of food, cosmetics, packaged water, medical devices, chemicals and detergents.
He said that the impression given that NAFDAC was trying to “create exclusive cadres of clinicians among regulatory officers for non clinical jobs”, as stated in the write up was not only a misinformation, but also shows a lack of understanding of the NAFDAC Act.
Idris said, “some offices are administered by Nutritionists, Lawyers, Scientists and Pharmacists. On the other hand, Nigeria’s NAFDAC had two previous DGs who were Pharmacists- Prof. Gabriel Osuide and Prof. Dora Akunyili. However, since Dr. Paul Orhii, a medical doctor, neuropharmacologist and lawyer became the DG, there has been an orchestrated attempt by some group to retard the path of progress of NAFDAC, as evidenced among others, the uninformed opposition to a patriotic advertisement by the organisation for recruitment of staff recently.”
Speaking further, the NMA president asked, “With these illustrations, can NAFDAC achieve its mandate without clinicians in critical areas? Negative sentiments should be discouraged from good governance, desirous of making Nigeria a better and safer place. Nigerians and President Goodluck Jonathan should discountenance all claims that negate good health care for this nation.”