Self-Medication Is Kiss Of Death

By Kayode Ojewal

In Nigeria, the open sale of drugs – both traditional and pharmaceutical— through unregistered outlets is a major concern. It is not strange to see unregistered ‘doctors’ and ‘pharmacists’ advertising and selling medicines in commercial buses and by the roadsides.

These drug hawkers are sometimes seen selling prescription-only antibiotics and other powerful painkiller drugs. They do not only prescribe drugs, but they also go as far as recommending the dosage to be taken to these unsuspecting commuters.  Some street hawkers have their shops, stores and makeshift ‘clinics’ located in motor parks and market places where they offer ‘general body checkups’ and also display their medicines for sale.

When What We Eat Turns Poisonous!

By Kayode Ojewale

“Let your food be your medicine, and your medicine be your food.”

– Hippocrates (460 – 370BC), Greek Doctor.

Audu Ogbeh, agriculture minister, sometime ago in a piece published by a national daily titled, ‘Nigeria, Global Standard In Food Production And Trade,’ wrote “What you eat, if you eat well, will determine your state of health and your longevity as a human being.

Unfortunately, most of the time nowadays, we are actually eating poison because of the way we handle our food production.  From the seed we cultivate, to the fertilizer we use, to the chemical we spray, to the way we process the food, or even preserve the food, or package the food, we are determining whether we are eating well or eating badly.”

How To Outlaw Counterfeit Drugs In Nigeria

By Kayode Ojewale

Drugs are medicines with physiological effects when taken which are used to treat illness, relieve a symptom or modify a chemical process in the body for specific purpose. On the other hand, fake drugs are drugs with low or wrong concentration of active ingredients, and in some cases with no active ingredient, packaged and marketed in deceptive manner. In clear terms, fake drugs are drugs which do not meet regulatory standards and approvals.

Drug counterfeiters release these drugs for sale at ridiculously cheap prices. This illicit act of drug counterfeiting by some unscrupulous elements in the society is not only worrisome and disturbing to the original manufacturers of the authentic products but also of great concern to the food and drug administrator and regulator in the country. 

Nigeria: Sweet Codeine, Bitter Consequences

By Wale Sokunbi 

Nigeria is on the global hotspot on account of a crisis brought into bold relief by an investigative documentary trending in the media. The documentary entitled Sweet Sweet Codeine, made by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Africa Eye undercover reporters, featured some workers of three Nigerian pharmaceutical companies – Emzor Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. Lagos; Bioraj Pharmaceuticals Ltd. and Peace Standard Pharmaceutical Ltd., in Ilorin, Kwara State.

One of the workers featured in the documentary openly admitted his company’s massive sales of codeine cough syrup in the country, and boasted that he could sell a million cartons of the syrup in a week. The sales representative has since been fired by the company concerned.