Jethro Ibileke/Benin
The Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN), Edo state chapter, has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari, to assent to the Pharmacy Council Bill 2017 in order to save it from imminent death.
The Edo ACPN in a statement issued in Benin and signed by its chairman, Felix Ndiukwu, said by the bill is facing the “machinations of our collective enemies of progress.”
Ndiukwu who lamented the increase in cases of drug abuse and infiltration of fake and substandard medicines in the country, noted that the bill has been suffering an undefined motion between the presidency and the national assembly for corrections, years after its passage.
The ACPN chairman revealed that if signed into law, the bill will address the scourge of drug abuse, increase satellite pharmacies, as well as improve access to healthcare pharmaceutical care in Nigeria.
“While various organs at various levels of the pharmacy profession in Nigeria continues to engage government at the Presidency and the National Assembly, community pharmacists raise their voices today over all the red tapes to implore the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Mr. Muhammadu Buhari, to save the Pharmacy bill from imminent death by the machinations of our collective enemies of progress.
“This bill when signed into law will, among other things, be a potent weapon in the fight against drug and substance abuse which Mr President takes seriously. It will address the menace of uncoordinated drug distribution and ensure a proper audit trail that can track the movement of drugs from any source to any point in the chain of distribution or backwards, from any point to the source thereby quickening the trace of sources of injurious medicines.
“Furthermore, the concept of satellite pharmacies enshrined in the bill will increase access to quality pharmaceutical services as outlets are projected to expand from 5,000 to 100,000 to cover the hinterlands,” he added.
Also speaking, the national vice chairman of the association, Daniel Ajayi, noted that the law will empower the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN), to be able to carry out its duties more effectively and equally strengthen them.