Since the late Professor Dora Akunyili left the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, in December 2008, the Agency has hardly made front page news except for the wrong reasons, until now.

The incumbent Director General, Mojisola Adeyeye, a professor of Pharmaceutics, Manufacturing Science and Drug Product Evaluation, has brought the fake drug czar back to the limelight, especially in the past one year following the Agency’s renewed efforts to expose and deal with manufacturers and importers of fake drugs, foods and drinks in all parts of the country.

Last week, she raised the alarm that the syndicates behind the fake consumables were after her life. The Agency’s officers have of late successfully closed fake drugs and drinks markets and hideouts in Lagos, Aba, Onitsha and other cities.

Whenever evil cartels receive the heat from the law, they are bound to react. Akunyili really dealt a heavy blow on them and their international collaborators during her tenure at NAFDAC. On January 5, 2004, the hoodlums traced her to her home town, Nanka in Anambra State, and she escaped assassination by a hair’s breadth.

Since she left NAFDAC to take up appointment as Minister of Information and Communications, little had been heard of the Agency’s kinetic activities against the cartels. Even Prof Adeyeye appears to have woken up only lately. Since her appointment on November 3, 2017, she appeared to toe the line of least resistance like most of her predecessors.

With just two years to the end of her second term, Prof Adeyeye can still leave her footprints in the sands of NAFDAC. We call on the Federal Government to beef up the security around her and the Agency’s enforcement personnel. We must never joke with the personal safety of our czars who are personally committed to battle the cartels that seek to destroy our people for personal enrichment.

Government bodies like NAFDAC and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, are mandated to fight some of the deadliest outlaws in the underworld. They must be protected.

We also urge Prof Adeyeye to reopen the channels to the home countries of foreign suppliers of fake drugs, foods and drinks. Akunyili had traced them to their countries in Asia and negotiated joint enforcement protocols between Nigeria and other countries to foster prevention, which is better than cure. Many governments readily cooperated because the arrangement was beneficial to genuine manufacturers on all sides.

Crackdowns, market closures and destruction of seized counterfeit products are only one part of the war. But at this stage, innocent people have already purchased and consumed the poisons. The more important part is prevention and arrest of the suspects for diligent prosecution.

NAFDAC, like the NDLEA, should have a fixed protocol of enforcement to prevent evil cartels from regrouping.

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/03/nafdac-renewed-war-renewed-threats/