The Head of Pharmacy Department, Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado Ekiti, Olusola Ojo, has raised the alarm over the grossly insufficient pharmacists in the country, saying only 25,000 pharmacists are available for an estimated 217 million Nigerians.
Ojo called on pharmacists in Nigeria to unite and work collectively and collaboratively in order to bridge the gap and meet the country’s health needs.
The former chairman, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Ekiti State Branch, who spoke on Friday at a sensitisation lecture organised by Afe Babalola University’s College of Pharmacy and the Pharmacy Department ABUAD Multi-System Hospital, Ado Ekiti, said that for Nigeria to meet the average global standard, “the current number of pharmacists in Nigeria must be quadrupled”.
He said that the recent and continuous assault on global health by COVID-19 and other epidemics, preponderance of communicable and non-communicable diseases, dwindling world economy, unfriendly changing world climate and environmental pollution “send warning signals that health care providers must unite in action to safe human race.
“This is a time for pharmacists to be united more than ever before for health irrespective of professional conflicts, different politics and cultures, as well as economic disparities. Pharmacists in Nigeria can organise a National Summit on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion for the purpose of uniting to birth a healthier Nigeria in terms of drug production, regulations and use process.
“The whole essence of pharmaceutical practice is ensuring availability of medicines, access and use at the individual and population levels. The much needed unity in the action of pharmacists for a healthy population of whatever magnitude is creating a collaborative continuum in research, development, formulation, distribution, access and clinical use of medicines,” he said.
ABUAD Founder, Aare Afe Babalola, who lauded pharmacists for their contributions to a healthy world, urged them not to rest on their oars but to continue to research and come out with further breakthroughs.
Babalola, who said that his university, during the peak of COVID-19 embarked on the research on a vaccine to cure the virus in his quest to proof the effectiveness of African medicine,
came up with ABUAD Herbal Virucidine, which he described as “an immune booster to combat COVID-19 pandemic.
“I believe that local herbs have the power to combat the pandemic, that’s why I worked along some scientists in the Institution to actualise this dream and I am happy to tell you that it has been approved by National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control.”
The Provost, ABUAD College of Pharmacy, Prof. Mbang Femi-Oyewo, said the programme was to increase awareness among pharmacists and as well celebrate them and their contribution to the health sector in the country.
