The response of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) in Daily Trust on August 15, 2019 to an article by a Ph.D. student from Milan, published in the same newspaper of August 9, 2019 was a great opportunity to put to rest some issues. The most important being that, it confirmed that they are guilty of what Pharm. Khalid raised because they could not dispute it with any cogent reason. The fact still remains; PSN has been selectively confrontational with the government on issues of appointments that favour some sections of the country and there is no need to be politically correct when you are stating a fact.
I have had the privilege of serving the PSN as national financial secretary, member of its National Council for a consecutive seven-year period and chairman of its Kano state branch and currently part of a group saddled with organising its annual conference holding in Kaduna in November. In the PSN rejoinder, the most potent allegation was that Prof. Mora was suspended from PSN, was stripped of his Fellowship of the society and had his name permanently placed on roll of dishonour by the council and AGM of the PSN and most importantly the Federal High Court in Lagos had ruled in favour of the purported suspension, defellowing and placement on a roll of dishonour. This is the most important and critical allegation, it’s a life wire that must take life if given life.
If this is found to be true, PSN has a good case, if it is false, then all their other allegations suffer integrity deficit. After a slow and painstaking investigation, I was able to find out that there was a superior ruling by the Court of Appeal dated February 10, 2012 in case CA/L/144/2011 sitting in Lagos that nullified on appeal all the claims the PSN earlier got by Justice Charles Efanga Archibong of the Federal High Court in Lagos in case FHC/L/CS/284/2010, the ruling the PSN rather generously depends on. The appellate court ruled that the earlier judgment delivered in favour of the PSN was in conflict with Section 36 of the Constitution on right to fair hearing as Prof Mora, Pharm Uche Madumere who at a point singlehandedly gave the Plateau state PSN a secretariat and Pharm H. Isandylidighi only got to know of the PSN “punitive” actions on them on the pages of newspapers. The purported reason for the disciplinary action on Prof. Mora was “glaring acts calculated to embarrass, ridicule and discomfit the PSN” and professional misconduct. The court ruled that the PSN had no jurisdiction over the matter, which falls within the jurisdiction of the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) where Prof. Mora was the Registrar and CEO!
If you are defeated in a higher court, but keep citing the verdict of a lower court including to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH), then you can do anything.
Their response was a display of arrogance, fallacies and rhetoric. Their case was that of, ‘I have made up my mind, so do not confuse me with facts’. Facts, which they shy away from in their response is that the PCN Act was explicit in stating in Part 1 Section 3-(1) a that “the Chairman, who shall be a registered pharmacist of not less than fifteen years post-registration experience to be appointed by the Commander –in–Chief of the Armed Forces on the recommendation of the Minister”, this is what they were so callous to have made up their mind to challenge, which is, the authority vested on the grand patron of the PCN and the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to discharge his constitutional right/duty in appointing Prof. A.T. Moramni, as Chairman of PCN Board.
The PSN is being managed by a cabal, this is obvious from their response, instead of mentioning the massive support given to the President and Commander-In-Chief for appointing Prof. Mora by the 37 Directors of Pharmaceutical Services (DPSs) of the 36 states of the federation and Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and the National Council members of PSN at the last Council meeting that was held on July 27, 2019, at Kaduna, they were making reference to past presidents of the PSN’s endorsement of Prof. Mora rejection.
Obviously they are trying to increase their influence within the council before the inauguration. In a nutshell, the regulatory responsibility of the federal government would allegedly be mortgaged in the hands of an NGO and it will bring nothing but chaos, victimization, syndicate and continuation of the cabal that has taken charge of a vital sector of the health industry, such that pharmaceutical products will be in the hands of a ‘few’ persons and thereby endangering the entire health security of the nation through the monopoly of production of drugs (fake and genuine), distribution of same as well as the preponderance of drugs of addiction in all nooks and crannies of Nigeria, especially in most part of the North.
I challenge the PSN to bring a pharmacist who is more competent based on merit than Prof. Mora for the chairmanship of PCN. It is rather curious that the PSN would find it convenient to question the academic, professional and career status of Professor Mora now, 16 years after Prof was appointed the registrar of the PCN in 2003 through the interview process and emerging as the pharmacist with the highest scores among the many Nigerian pharmacists that applied, were shortlisted and interviewed.
It is very obvious that the leadership of the PSN thinks that the society is synonymous with the profession of pharmacy and by extension the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN). Fact is it is not. The PSN is an NGO and a voluntary Association of Nigerian Pharmacists. One does not need to be a member of the PSN to practice pharmacy in Nigeria. On the other hand, one cannot practice the pharmacy profession, without having been registered and licensed by the PCN, which is an agency of the Federal Government of Nigeria under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Health saddled with the responsibility of regulating pharmacy education and practice, among other functions.
Pharm. Umar writes from Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano via
