Dr. Mohammed, the outgoing registrar of the PCN, presents his scorecard.
The Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) is a statutory body of the Federal Government of Nigeria. It is an organization that is set up according to the decree 91 of 1992 (CAP P17 LFN 2004), under the administration of the Federal Ministry of Health. It is established for the sole purpose of regulating and controlling the practice of pharmacy and pharmaceutical education in Nigeria. It determines the professional standards in pharmacy and secures the establishment and maintenance of registers of pharmacists. It is also saddled with the responsibility of the registration of licenses of all pharmacists, pharmaceutical premises and issuance of permits to pharmacy technicians and registration and licensure of patent and proprietary Medicine Vendors.
Pharm. Elijah Mohammed, the outgoing registrar of the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) and fellow of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), had a public presentation of his scorecard on the 7th of June, 2022, in Abuja. He mentioned that he has been able to reposition the council to deliver effective pharmacy practice in Nigeria. He also added that the operations of the council have been guided by his 4-point agenda — Repositioning the Registry for Effective Service Delivery, Institutionalization of Good Pharmacy Practice (GPP) in Nigeria, Transformation of Career Professionals into Intellectual Practitioners, and New Partnership for Progress Initiative (NPPI).
PCN says 25,000 illegal pharmacies in different Nigerian states.
During the course of Dr. Mohammed’s eight years in office, PCN sealed no fewer than 25,000 illegal pharmacies. They were sealed based on various reasons, which include poor documentation, poor hygienic environment, and improper regularization of papers. He acknowledged that before his appointment, eight years ago, the country had only 17 pharmacy and pharmaceuticals sciences faculties in the country. But now, it has increased to 30, with many others ready to start in a few months time. The PCN has also endorsed a new program, ‘Doctor of Pharmacy’. This program combines both the clinical and non-clinical concepts of pharmacy practice. The practice insists on the patient as the focus and the impact of drugs on the patient.
The Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) sealed the premises of 56 pharmacies and 252 Patent and Proprietary Medicines Vendors Shops (PPMVs), in Benue State, as a result of the violation of the laid down regulations of the practice. For similar reasons, 502 pharmacies and PPMVs have been shut down in Kwara State. Also, in Bauchi State, 469 illegal pharmacies and patent medicine stores have been sealed for failure to register with the PCN and refusal to renew certificates with the PCN. General reasons for the seal of these pharmacies and PPMVs are poor sanitary conditions, poor documentation and non-display of premises and pharmacists annual licenses.
Challenges faced by the PCN and their reasons.
The PCN encountered some challenges in the past eight years which mostly includes human resources, and infrastructure. The pharmacy practice is also confronted with moral and ethical issues that may have assumed a crisis status. These issues include disobedience to pharmacy laws and ethics, decades of neglect and uncoordinated regulation, passivity by stakeholders that have produced different cultures of pharmacy practice with various appellations that is deficient of self actualization, and without true commitment to the ethics of the profession and control.
There are several reasons for the ethical misconducts in the pharmacy practice. One of such is the legalization of illegality on demand and the removal of the essence of pharmacy practice from the public domain. There is also lack of culture of respect and genuine appreciation, understanding and cooperation between the older, middle and younger generation of pharmacists. Lack of coordinated regulation and control is also an issue. These misconducts, if not well curtailed, might bring about a drawback to the progress of the practice.
Dr. Mohammed had a good rapport with development partners.
The managing director of the Society for Family Health (SFH), Omokhudu Idogbo, stated that the PCN, has since over five years of partnership, worked to aid the improvement of the contribution of private health sector providers, most especially the Community Pharmacists (CP) and Patent Proprietary Medicine Vendors (PPMVs) in the country’s healthcare delivery system. Some of the key achievements of this partnership include a GPS map of PPMVs and CPs in 11 implementing states, the strengthening of the capacity of the PCN for effective regulation of CPs and PPMVs. There is also the delivery of high impact training on family planning and PHC services to private sector providers, commencement of the Tiered Accreditation System, the Satellite Pharmacy Model and the PPMV Hub and Spoke Supervisory Model.
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All I can say to this is every pharmacist who sells illicit drugs should be sent to prison for years and also the government needs to check on the pharmacy time to time to make sure everything is in place
All the pharmacy that go against the procedure which are illegal should be punish they are putting the life of the people who consume the drug at risk for their own benefit, government should take this serious and check on all this pharmacy time to time
The PCN has a lot of work to do in order to regulate operations of illegal pharmacies being operated in Nigeria leading to deaths of several people due to expired drugs
There are many illegal pharmacies and chemists running that sell fake and expired drugs; PCN has a lot of work to do
All these unlawful pharmacies should be caught and made to face severe punishment so that others would desist from the act
Some pharmacies is Nigeria are not up to standard, some don’t even have the required certificates to carry out their operations
For every 10/pharmacies you have in an area, I’m very sure about 6 of them would not have the legal license to establish a pharmaceutical outlet.
The PCN has been lagging behind for years; that’s why these fake pharmacies have multiplied in the country. They should work harder
For you to know that these pharmacists are quacks, they’ll be located in a dirty environment, and their drugs will be dusty and all that
PCN should continue the excellent job of closing down these pharmacists because they pose a significant threat in the lives of everyone
The government ought to take this matter seriously and conduct random inspections of all of these pharmacies.
As a result of the fact that the PCN is tasked with the responsibility of issuing permits to pharmacy technicians, in addition to the registration and licensure of Medicine Vendors, therefore it is imperative for them to take their jobs seriously.
A major problem is the absence of well-coordinated regulations and controls. If measures to curb these unethical practises are not taken, it is possible that the advancement of pharmaceutical practise would be hampered as a result.
Some pharmacists are dissent to pharmacy rules and principles, decades of disregard and disorganized supervision, and inactivity by stakeholders have resulted in multiple systems of pharmacy practise with different titles that are lacking of identity and governance.
Most of these “pharmacies” out there are not supposed to be called a pharmacy because they dont even know wat they’re doing or what they are supposed to be
Some of this pharmacy don’t have the requirement to be pharmacy. Government have to do more on them. Some also sale fake medicine
The PNC should not take this lightly because of most of the pharmacy does not know the right medicine to sell and this has lead to many untimely death
It still has to do with ineffective inspections by government agents. There are numerous pharmacies in local neighborhood owned by people with little or no certification to hold such positions. Unethical practices like this can cause harm to the society.
Any pharmacy that disregard the rules and regulations set by the PCN should be sealed and penalize according to the law. Hygiene environment, and proper regularization of papers should be made priority of all things
PNC should take this very serious because of most of the pharmacy who operate based on irregular paper do sell illegal and expired drugs that atimes cause deaths of several people who take this drugs
It is very important the proliferation of pharmacy is being checked. Alot of them are not licensed. There needs to be regulations that will guide their conducts. Alot of misconducts have been heard from them.
Having known the disadvantages like disobedience to pharmacy laws and uncoordinated regulation
Measures to protect and regulate pharmaceutical practices should be taken by both the government and pharmacy council
Hygiene is very important when it comes to health.
They should set some laws on environmental basis as this will guide their activities and prevent further occurrence
Strolling through the achievement of Pharmacist Mohammed, he has done well. It is not easy to manage people. You will definitely be confronted several challenges that if not handled with care will create more monsters.
The PCN need to do more in clapdown of unregistered pharmacy store because that’s is the one of the major way to check adulterated and fake drug in our society.
I want to believe that Pharmacist Elijah Mohammed gave in all is best in PCN but unfortunately, he couldn’t control the behavior of men who are in the industry.
The reality is this, it is difficult to control/manage human beings.