Prof. Ahmed Tijjani Mora is the chairman of the newly inaugurated governing council of the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN).
Prof Mora, who was registrar of the PCN between 2003 and 2012, speaks on ways the council will reposition the organization to address challenges affecting pharmacy education, training and practice in the country, the resistance of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) to his appointment, as well as other health sector challenges.
As the new chairman of the PCN governing council, how do you intend to reposition the organization?
I will like to start by defining what the PCN is. The council is a regulatory agency of the FederalGovernment of Nigeria under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Health.
It was established under the laws of the Federation Nigeria, number 17 of 2004.
It is statutorily responsible for regulating and controlling pharmacy education and practice in all aspects and ramifications.
There are 13 health regulatory agencies under the Federal Ministry of Health and they all regulate the practices of their various professions.
So what PCN does essentially are two things: Firstly, it regulates pharmacy education, all curriculum of pharmacy education in the country is drafted from here, which means the same thing that is being taught in Ahmadu Bello University will be taught in Igbinedion university, we take it to the National University Commission (NUC) for quality control.
Every Bachelor of Pharmacy in Nigeria is subjected to two types of accreditation, professionally by PCN and academically by the NUC.
We train the pharmacist and the pharmacy technicians from schools of health technology.
We also license the practitioners.
We regulate pharmaceutical premises, where pharmaceutical activities take place.
There are four of them: pharmaceutical manufacturers, pharmaceutical whole sale and importation, retail pharmaceutical practice called community Pharmacy and the hospital pharmacy practice.
It is the responsibility of PCN to inspect premises, and license the superintended pharmacist who registered the place, and the premises.
Any premises which is not inspected, approved or licensed by the Pharmacist Council of Nigeria is an illegal premises.
Tell us about the governing council of the PCN
The governing council is made up of 72 persons. It is not involved in the day-to-day running of PCN.
The governing council gives policy direction and supervises.
The chairman of the governing board is appointed by the President on the recommendation of the Minister of Health.
Other members are the Director Food and Drug Services of the Federal Ministry of Health, and the President of Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN).
PSN has eight members represented in the council.
The Director General National Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRID), and the Director of Pharmaceutical Services of Nigeria Army medical corps are also members.
Other members are the 37 directors of Pharmaceutical Services in each state of the federation, and the Federal Capital Territory(FCT) and the Deans of the various faculties of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
There are presently 22 universities running Bachelor of Pharmacy Degree program.
There were nine universities running the programme while I was at PCN in 2004 and grew to 15 by the time I left in 2012.
There was opposition to your appointment as the chairman of PCN governing council by the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN). How did you overcome it?
I don’t see it as opposition because nobody will like you 100 percent, so I take it as a case of people preferring one person to another.
But the important thing to note is that it is the prerogative of Mr. president to appoint the PCN governing council chairman.
The President appoints on the recommendation of the minister.
The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire recommended me and the president approved.
The president also has the right not to approve.
This whole opposition is not supposed to be happening because once it is a political appointment, it is the prerogative of the President to make the appointment.
If a professional association is doing this, what message is it sending to the younger ones?
So, we should do the proper thing.
I wouldn’t be here forever.
I never thought I will come back here again in my life.
I was registrar of the council for eight years.
I went through interview process, 25 of us applied, eight of us were interviewed, and I had the highest mark.
Let me say it pleases the Almighty God for me to be here again.
So, I am calling on every pharmacist in Nigeria to join hands with us because this is a regulatory agency.
It is also important to note that the Pharmaceutical Council of Nigeria(PCN) is not just a regulatory body for pharmacists, there are other stakeholders like the pharmacy technicians -that is the auxiliary cadre of pharmacists, there’s the patent medicine vendors, the pharmaceutical importers, who are not pharmacists but granted license to import pharmaceutical products and also pharmaceutical manufactures who are not pharmacists.
So, we are talking about a very large body of stakeholders who are not pharmacists.
The PSN should know the proper thing and not insist on who they want.
The council is for all Nigerians.
The association has its strengths and weaknesses.
What happened in my case was just jealousy and rivalry.
I was appointed for over a year before the inauguration.
I will try to bring everybody together and appeal to all members to close ranks and come and work with us.
We’ve been inaugurated and are grateful to Mr. President, so there should be no dissenting voices now because this is our country.
The last time PCN had a governing council was in 2015.
For five years there was no council, but now that it has been reconstituted, we should forge ahead and avoid rancour.
In every contest, there must be winner and a looser, and the president has made his own choice.
One day, I will leave this place just like others.
Some of my predecessors are still alive and strong.
I am appealing to those that are not happy about it to let go because in life you cannot always have things your own way, especially on issues that is not your prerogative.
Some governing councils are usually at logger heads with the management of organisations. How do you plan to manage that in your role at PCN?
I worked with two governing council chairmen as registrar of PCN and we had a cordial relationship.
I will not deny that there was no tension here and there, it is normal as humans.
But there was never mismanagement or any confrontation with the governing council.
The council gives general direction and the management implements for instance.
We operate through committees, there is the law and ethics committee, education committee, the accreditation committee, among others, which bring the issues to the council before deliberation and regulation.
That is not to say we don’t bring in innovation.
For instance, when I was here, we compiled a compendium of minimum standard of practice, it’s a booklet.
This is a minimum standard expected in our pharmaceutical premises across manufacturing, whole sale and distribution, retail pharmacy and hospital pharmacy.
What are some of the challenges you will address this time?
I will lay emphasis on five key areas.
The placement for internship of young pharmacists is still a problem.
Some of them will finish, and after being inducted and administered with the oath of pharmacy would still not have a place for internship.
They continue to go round for three to four months looking for where to do internship.
We have already set up an adhoc committee to look into it.
What I have in mind is to ensure that by the time the students take the oath, they already know where they are going to do their internships.
Secondly, we want to look at the functions of the council itself so I have a sub-committee to look at that.
When I became the registrar, there were only four offices – Lagos, Abuja, Enugu and Kano.
By the time I left, I created additional 40 offices including the ones I built from foundation to commissioning in Minna.
The governing board will also look at the foreign graduates orientation program.
Pharmacists after their internships training are supposed to be examined so we want to look at that again, because there have been some complains about it.
We will also look at issues of patent medicine vendors because it was after I came here that the Federal Government reverted them to PCN.
Nigeria still has a chaotic drug distribution system. What do you advise as the way forward?
I wrote my PhD thesis on drug distribution and I am very passionate about it.
I will try to bring some sanity into the whole system.
We have to computerise, right from manufacturing, to wholesale distribution and to the retailer.
As you are buying any drug, you key it into the computer and know the source.
Right now, it is illegal to sell drugs in the market because drugs are manufactured by pharmacists, and must be handled by pharmacists.
How do you intend to curb quackery among pharmacists in the country?
We have an investigation panel; it’s a standing committee and we have disciplinary tribunal.
Once we identify quacks, we bring them here and investigate.
There are people who present themselves as pharmacists but are not pharmacists, that one is handled by the police.
But if you are a pharmacist and operating below standards in ethical practice, you will be investigated, we will take you to the disciplinary tribunal.
If you are found wanting, we can revoke your license, so the law has already provided for that.
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