By Steve Oni,  Ilorin

 The Acting Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Admonition and Control (NAFDAC), Mrs. Yetunde Oluremi Oni, has stressed the need for effective collaboration and cooperation from the citizenry to enable the organisation build sustainable strategies against fake and counterfeit drugs and other consumable products in the country. 

 In the same vein, she requested for partnership towards institutionalising proper coordination mechanisms that would involve all stakeholders with direct and indirect roles at combating counterfeiting of drugs and other NAFDAC-regulated products not only in Kwara state but also Nigeria at large. 

 Speaking  in Ilorin,  the Kwara state capital, at a two-day sensitisation workshop on current regulatory issues in the rational and safe use of drugs, animal feeds, pesticides and chemicals, Mrs. Oni noted that effective regulation assures the quality and safety of regulated products, attracts foreign investment, encourages export of locally produced foods and stimulates growth of the industry. 

 She said : "The essence of regulation and control is to protect public health by ensuring that only quality regulated products that are safe, efficacious and wholesome reach the market, and ultimately the consuming public. 

 "We will continue to sensitise the general public on the public health implications of these substandard, falsified and unwholesome regulated products and the efforts of NAFDAC in tackling this ugly menace. "

 The NAFDAC boss lamented that efforts of the organisation aimed at ensuring that only quality, safe, efficacious and wholesome regulated products are made available to the public are being sabotaged by the unscrupulous fakers and counterfeit, adding that the management of NAFDAC has been unrelenting in fighting against the global menace. 

 She said : "The agency cannot fight this battle alone as it is by no means an easy task and based on mounting evidence,  we are tackling head-on the growing nature and scope of the problem and the growing expertise and sophistication of those that produce and market them. 

 "I therefore wish to implore Kwarans and indeed all Nigerians to continue to support NAFDAC in her fight against the proliferation of substandard and falsified medical products, unwholesome food and other substandard or spurious regulated products in Nigeria. "

 To safeguard the health of the nation, she said NAFDAC has adopted a holistic,  multifaceted strategy which transcends local and international barriers, adding that such strategies include sustained public enlightenment campaigns,  national and international collaborations, capacity building for members of staff, review of NAFDAC laws to  make them more deterrent, use of sophisticated and cutting edge technologies such as truscan,  minilab test kits and mobile authentication services. 

 In his address, Kwara state governor, Alhaji Abdulfatta Ahmed, said the state government would continue to support NAFDAC in its efforts to eradicate fake and counterfeit drugs as well as other products in the society. Towards this,  he said government would  continue to collaborate with other agencies to  rid the state of fake and counterfeit drugs inimical to the health of the populace .

 Ahmed added that his administration would continue to support and guide against activities that would ensure healthy living of the people of the state,  while calling on all stakeholders to continue to collaborate with NAFDAC and government in the arduous task to sanitise the country of fake and counterfeit drugs as well as other consumables.