Date Published: 05/04/09
THE RETURN OF MERCHANTS OF DEATH
By Emmanuel Onwubiko
‘’ I SHALL RETURN’’ was a phrase made popular during the Second World War by the United States Army General Douglas MacArthur. On March 11 th 1942 Lt-General Douglas MacArthur leaves the Philippine Islands after boasting that his Men could repel any Japanese invasion. At the time MacArthur vows ‘’I SHALL RETURN’’. Two and half years later, General MacArthur does return. On October 17 th 1944 the first American Forces land on Leyte. What is left of the Japanese Navy is destroyed in the battle of Leyte later the same Month. In a four days melee at Sea, the Japanese lose four aircraft carriers, three battleships, ten cruisers, eleven destroyers, and at least eleven thousand men. These losses leave the Japanese without adequate Naval Forces to oppose operations in the Philippines and later operations at Iwojima and Okinawa. American losses amounted to two escorts’ carriers, one cruiser, and three destroyers. On January 9 th 1945, the Americans land on Luzan. Although Japanese resistance continued until the end of the war, the key objectives [namely Manila and Corregidor] are secure by the end of February 1945. Douglas MacArthur oversaw the occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1951. Similarly, former President Charles Ghankey Taylor of Liberia stated that he ‘shall return’ when he was captured by some border guards while attempting to escape from Nigeria to evade his transfer to the International Crimes Court in the Hague, Netherlands to face trial for alleged crimes against humanity while he was the war-time President of Liberia especially his alleged arming of the then dreaded rebel fighters in the neighbouring Sierra Leone.
These scenarios graphically highlighted above are good reflection of the drama that is playing out itself now, largely staged by several dare- devil substandard drugs’ hawkers in the streets of major cities in Nigeria since the removal and her subsequent posting as a minister in the federal ministry of information and communication of the former Director General of the National Agency for Drugs and Foods administration and Control [NAFDAC] Professor Dora Akunyili. It is a notorious fact that from April 2001 that the immediate past President General Olusegun Obasanjo appointed her the Director General of the National Agency for Drugs and Foods administration and Control [NAFDAC], Dora Akunyili literarily waged a successful street battle against these dare-devil merchants of death or rather hawkers and manufacturers of fake and substandard drugs so much so that they retreated to the underworld but not without a resolution that whenever the enabling environment is recreated for their notorious businesses that they will return just like what General Douglas MacArthur accomplished during the bloody Second World War. In the case of General MacArthur, he fought a battle to protect the foreign policy interest of his country, the United States of America and therefore is regarded as a great hero by his people but the merchants of death in Nigeria who parade around as the manufacturers and hawkers of fake and substandard drugs and poorly processed food products in our great nation are the greatest evil doers because of the adverse consequences of their commercial activities that have caused several avoidable deaths. From 1993 when the then General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida created the National Agency for Drugs and Foods administration and control [NAFDAC] through the military decree 15 of 1993 [as amended in 1999] and subsequently passed as an Act of the National Assembly CAP number one, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, the body was originally empowered to control and regulate the manufacturing, importation, exportation, distribution, advertisement, sale and use of food, drugs, cosmetics, chemicals, all drinks including packaged water and medical products. The agency was therefore saddled with the responsibility of safeguarding public health; ensure best quality, safety and efficacy of all medical, food products and other consumable products in use or circulation in Nigeria. Prior to her appointment, the agency was underperforming so much so that a lot of commentators dismissed it as a toothless bulldog which can only bark but not bite. But the appointment of the charismatic and hard working Pharmacist Professor Dora Akunyili changed the public perception of that body because she put her mouth where her money is or rather her actions spoke louder than her word. Manufacturers of fake and substandard drugs were brutally chased out of circulation substantially even as she personally supervised the demolition of several hundreds of structures across the country where these fake and substandard drugs are produced. Hundreds of manufacturers and hawkers of fake and substandard drugs were arrested, prosecuted and jailed. She even stepped on some very powerful toes some of who were so influential in the society that they made several unsuccessful attempts on her life and when on the only occasion that they were captured, they managed to secure a controversial bail from an Abuja High Court. Akunyili took her battle against the fake drugs’ manufacturers to their own turfs all across the country from Onitsha head bridge market to Kano, Lagos to practically all the places were these deadly drugs are illegally produced. The agency headed by Akunyili did not just stopped at chasing away the manufacturers of fake and substandard drugs but extended the war to the hawkers of these fake and substandard drugs who hitherto paraded the streets of major cities, towns and villages all across the country including the Federal Capital territory of Abuja. For the six years that she held the position of the Director General of NAFDAC, that agency of Government won the admiration of not only Nigerians but foreigners including the European Union Parliament which even gave her the honour of addressing one of the prestigious plenary of the European Union’s parliament. The fear of Dora Akunyili’s became the beginning of wisdom for the tens of thousands of manufacturers and hawkers of fake and substandard Drugs all around Nigeria. But before the end of her tenure, the current administration in a bid to repair the administration’s battered public image and perception took Dora Akunyili away from the strategic position of the Director General of the National Agency for Drugs and Foods administration and control to the a very strange terrain of the federal ministry of Information and Communication. It is irrelevant to state the political intrigues played out by no other person but the Federal Attorney General and Minister of Justice Mr. Mike Aondookaa which culminated in the appointment of his medical doctor’s relation Paul Orhii to head NAFDAC, a purely pharmacy related agency. Little wonder then that it is clear that several fake drugs’ manufacturers have indeed staged a successful come back and have literarily taken over major streets in different towns and cities of Nigeria. In Abuja, few days back, this writer drove round Maitama, the highbrow area of the federal capital with the aim of finding out how far these merchants of death have resurfaced and my findings were as shocking as they were disappointing. From the popular Ibrahim Babangida Way, one could count up to twenty five drug hawkers who were freely moving from one point to another selling their fake and substandard drugs in the hot sun of Abuja. The irony in the fact that these fake drug hawkers who carry these drugs in tray pans literarily exposed to the elements of the harsh sunny weather of Abuja and strolling leisurely through the Ibrahim Babangida Way is that their boldness represents a mocking of this agency created by General Ibrahim Babangida to fight the scourge and menace of manufacturing and hawking of fake and substandard drugs in Nigeria. To understand how bad things have become in NAFDAC then take a look at the website of that agency and what will stare you in the face is the reality that the agency’s current stated goal ended with a question mark. When this writer browsed through the official website of NAFDAC that is www.nafdac.gov.ng on Saturday May 1 st 2009 by 8.45pm, I was faced with the shocking discovery that the agency stated its current goal thus; ‘’OUR CURRENT GOAL IS TO ERADICATE FAKE DRUGS AND OTHER SUBSTANDARD AND REGULATED PRODUCTS?’’
The question that immediately came to my mind is that what was the mindset of the website manager when this silly mistake of ending an important aspect of the central mandate of the National Agency for Drugs and Food administration and Control [NAFDAC] with a question mark and the picture of the new Director General was strategically posted close to this question mark? Or could it be that the website manager has seen what some of us are seeing that NAFDAC is beginning to lose grip of the situation of fighting the menace of fake and substandard drugs and other products and consequently allowed the merchants of death to once more take over the major streets of Nigerian cities?
Take a walk around any major city in this country now and stroll into any of these supermarkets run by some foreigners and what you will discover are assorted types of juices and other soft drinks whose places of manufacturing, date of production and expiration date are not clearly embossed and these drinks are daily patronized and consumed by so many Nigerians who wrongly believe that any soft drinks or juices made overseas are better than the Nigerian made and NAFDAC certified products. The situation was not like this when Dora Akunyili headed NAFDAC because she provided leadership that made it possible for her field officers to pragmatically, effectively and efficiently monitor the distribution and sell of all drugs and food products all over Nigeria. In the days that Dora Akunyili was the boss of NAFDAC I can remember being reliably informed by some workers at most of these supermarkets owned by foreigners mostly Lebanese or Indians that these Superstores maintained hidden compartments where some of these substandard products are concealed and were subsequently brought out and sold to unsuspecting customers discreetly but now these substandard foreign made food products are openly displayed in the shelves of these supermarkets and the Dr. Paul Orhii-led NAFDAC have conveniently looked the other way even when he promised to maintain the fight against fake drugs the same way that his predecessor did. NAFDAC must sit up and fight the scourge of fake and substandard drugs before these merchants of death kill more unsuspecting citizens and the new leadership in NAFDAC must realise that the right to life is central to the fundamental Rights provisions of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which is the supreme law of Nigeria and all authorities and persons in Nigeria are bound by the provisions.
+EMMANUEL ONWUBIKO heads the HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA and lives in Abuja.
