In a bid to ensure a good life for all Nigerians, National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has flagged off a campaign against dangers of public health challenges.
The campaign is aimed at addressing the following health challenges: dangers of buying medicines from hawkers; abuse of Codeine and self-medication especially among youths; dangerous effect of using Kerosene tankers to load groundnut oil; the dangerous practice of using potassium bromated to bake bread; use of Azo-dye in Palm oil; dangers of using Sniper to preserve any type of food or keep flies away from meat.
Others are dangers of consumption of excessive oil; use of formalin on food and its associated health hazards; low level of exclusive breastfeeding practice by lactating mothers and its associated health hazards; dangers of wrong use of pesticides and insecticides; wrong use of chemicals and its hazardous effects and problem of antimicrobial resistance arising from animal meat.
Speaking at the sensitisation campaign in Lagos yesterday, NADAC Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Christianah Adeyeye, who was represented by the Director, Ports Inspection, Prof. Sampson Adebayo, encouraged Nigerians to buy drugs from only licensed pharmacies and medicine stores and refrain from self-medication.
She said the key objective of the sensitization programme is “to intensify and expand the scope of our informal and formal behaviour change communication strategies in order to reach the vulnerable communities especially at the grassroots,” noting, “dissemination of food and drug safety information is an important aspect of our regulatory work.”
Prof. Adeyeye hinted that NAFDAC has engaged the services of a project consultant, MMCC, to drive the sensitization campaigns, adding that the campaign materials are ready to be deployed on the field.
She said the sensitisation campaign was aimed at protecting Nigerians “against the deleterious effects of unwholesome food, falsified medical products, harmful cosmetics, poor waters and other substandard regulated products.
“It is common knowledge that Nigeria has a preponderant share of the global problem of falsified medical products and unwholesome food. The advent of COVID-19 has aggravated the problem with the challenges posed by substandard and falsified personal protective equipment (PPEs). The sensitization campaigns will therefore contribute significantly to Federal Government’s concerted efforts to inform, sensitize, educate and alert the public about inherent dangers of intake and use of those spurious regulated products.
“Sokoto, Kebbi, Bauchi, Rivers, Edo, Osun, Kwara and Lagos have so far been selected as pilot states for the sensitisation campaigns. NAFDAC intends to organise the programme in phases and stagger to cover all the 36 states of the federation.”
NAFDAC boss informed that the mass media, youth organisations and civil societies in the pilot state will be in the forefront of the sensitisation campaigns, adding that the target audiences are market women and men, road transport workers and employers, community youth organisations and students.
While expressing optimism that the participants and target audiences would become dependable partners and allies of NAFDAC, and be in the forefront of sustaining the public awareness campaigns by disseminating the information and messages to the grassroots, Prof Adeyeye said the ultimate goal is to ensure that the various communities take ownership of the care and management of their own health.
NAFDAC boss also gave assurance that the agency under her watch will not leave anything unturned in “our concerted efforts to rid the country of the menace of falsified medical products, unwholesome food, harmful cosmetic, poorly packaged water and other substandard products.”
