The National Agency For Food and Drugs Administration and Control ( NAFDAC) has described the public awareness campaign as one of the veritable regulatory mechanisms put in place to promote the health of the Nigerian citizens.
The Director-General of the Agency Professor Mojisola Christianah Adeyeye made the remarks at the Flag off of a sensitization campaign and Public awareness on the effect of COVID-19.
The Director-General who was represented by the Director Northwest zone of the Agency Pharmacist Dauda Gimba said a well-informed, sensitized and educated Citizens are the bedrock of effective regulation.
She explained that the event is another major milestone in the Agency’s bid to protect Nigerians against the deleterious effects of unwholesome food, falsified medical products, harmful cosmetics, poor water, and other Substandard regulated products.
According to her, the key objective of the sensitization programme is to intensify and expand the scope of informal and formal behaviour change and communication strategies with a view to reaching the vulnerable communities, especially at the grassroots.
The NAFDAC boss further disclosed that dissemination of information on Food and Drug safety is the major and important aspect of the Agency’s regulatory work.
” It is common knowledge that Nigeria has a preponderant share of the global problem of falsified medical products and unwholesome food” the DG stated.
She emphasized that the sensitization campaigns would contribute significantly to the Federal Government’s concerted efforts to inform, sensitize, educate and alert the general public on the inherent dangers of intake and use of those spurious regulated products.
She said the campaign would be centered on the dangers of buying medicines from hawkers, contaminant products, use of potassium bromate to bake bread, and the use of Azo-dyes in palm oil which causes cancer.
Others are dangers of using Sniper to preserve food or to keep flies away from meat, low level of exclusive breastfeeding practice by lactating mothers and its associated health hazards, wrong use of pesticides and insecticides, wrong use of chemicals and its hazardous effects.
Mojisola said the targeted audiences are market women and men, road transport workers and employers, community youth organizations, and students.
It is our expectation that at the end of the campaigns, the participants and target audience would become dependable partners and allies of NAFDAC in the sustenance of the public awareness campaigns says the Director-General.
” Disseminating the information and messages to the Grassroots. Our ultimate goal is to ensure that the various communities take ownership of the care and management of their health” The DG averred.
Mojisola however disclosed that the sensitization campaign could not have been possible without the support and encouragement of members of the Senate Committee on Health, members of the House Committee on Healthcare Services such as the Chairman of the Senate Committee, Senator Ibrahim Oloriegbe, and his counterpart in the House Committee Hon Yusuf Tanko Sununu.
We reassured Nigerians that NAFDAC would leave no stone unturned in our concerted efforts to rid the country of menace of falsified medical products, unwholesome food, harmful cosmetics, poorly packaged water, and other substandard regulated products, stated Mojisola.
