Nigerian pharmacists, represented by the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN), have cautioned the Nigerian Government to exercise prudence before enforcing the prohibition on imported syringe, medical consumables, and drugs in Nigeria.
Describing the ban on syringe and needle imports as an unprecedented venture and unnecessary risk, the ACPN criticised the decision made by the Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Tunji Alausa.
In a petition addressed to President Bola Tinubu entitled ‘A Need for Presidential Redress of the Gaffe by Dr. Tunji Alausa’, the pharmacists criticised the hasty decision of the ban and the directive to all Chief Medical Directors and Medical Directors of Federal Tertiary Hospitals to procure syringes and needles solely from National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) approved local manufacturers. They urged the President to revoke Alausa’s decree, asserting that it would foster monopolies and supply chain shortages of syringes in the country.
The circular, dated March 28, 2024, and signed by the Honourable Minister in charge of the Federal Ministry of Social Welfare, advocated for the utilisation of locally manufactured syringes, a concept deemed erroneous by the ACPN on various grounds.
Dr Tunji Alausa, in the circular, instructed all Chief Medical Directors and Medical Directors of Federal Tertiary Hospitals to procure needles and syringes exclusively from NAFDAC-approved local manufacturers. He further mandated NAFDAC to cease issuing licences for the importation of foreign-manufactured needles and syringes and to remove companies engaged in the importation of these products from its list.
“Out of the nine local pharmaceutical companies that produced needles and syringes eight years ago, six have folded up due to dumping of largely substandard goods into our market. Mr. President has directed that this must stop.
“Furthermore, all our tertiary hospitals are hereby directed to procure needles and syringes for your hospital needs from only the NAFDAC-approved local manufacturers listed either directly or through any of their vendors.
“Your Excellency, after a careful evaluation of this development, the ACPN wishes to posit that the aforementioned circular does not appear to align with the convention and protocol of the civil service in Nigeria. For a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to sign a circular instead of a designated civil servant, amounts to a climax of the absurd.
“The desperation and a seeming ulterior motive by the Minister of State to get involved procedurally in what should have been the exclusive preserve of bureaucrats like the Permanent Secretary (PS) or other technocrats like the relevant directors has led to avoidable errors.”
Continuing, ACPN stated, “In the past few weeks, some notable leaders in healthcare and representatives of some of the various healthcare professional bodies cautioned the Hon. Minister on the need to exercise caution before banning the importation of medical consumables and devices as well as drugs in Nigeria.”
The pharmacists further said that experts’ “opinion was that the imperative demanded a requisite need assessment of needles and syringes in Nigeria against a scientific evaluation of the capacity utilisation and installed capacity of the existing three factories which manufactures syringes in Nigeria.
“The ACPN as the technical group of the PSN which is the natural habitat of the largest assemblage of distributors and marketers of drugs, consumables, chemicals, medical devices and other health consumables remains a strong advocate of local manufacturing.
“The ethos and tenets of commerce suggest that competitiveness brings out the best in terms of quality and pricing index to the advantage of consumers in all global assessments. Even if we choose to jeopardise WTO Treaties to which we are signatories because of national interest, it must be guided by recent experiences in the commodity segment markets.”
