NAFDAC thumbs down on state task forces

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) on Tuesday rated some state taskforce of the agency low.
Mr Abubakar Jimoh, Director, Public Affairs, NAFDAC, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja that some of the state task forces were ineffective and had gone moribund due to what he described as lack of funding because they were under the state ministries.
Jimoh noted that some of the states were not paying salaries of their task forces, adding that they are under the control of the state government but aligned with the Federal Government.
According to him, NAFDAC is the regulatory agency, the state taskforce in which our state officers, the state director of NAFDAC is a member of the taskforce at the state level.
“NAFDAC head of state offices are just like tenants, they have to be under a taskforce and the chairmanship of the taskforce is provided by the taskforce through the state director of civil service,’’ the official said.
He said that when it concerned the fight against counterfeit drugs, there must be structure and organisation, adding that the fight is a battle that must be fought with concerted effort.
This, according to him, fight must be all inclusive and a scientific collaboration and cohesion needed to win the war.
Jimoh stated that the federal task force was under the police arm of the striking force of the agency which often goes round the country to do monitoring.
He noted that the agency’s discovery were usually based on intelligence information and gathering, adding that the agency cannot be everywhere.
He said that the agency’s staff strength was less than 3000, stressing that this is a far cry from over 200 million people in the country.
He said that for NAFDAC to be able to cover the country effectively there must be an increase in the agency’s staff strength.
According to him, this is why information and intelligent gathering is very important for the agency to do an effective job and it has been able to leverage on that over the years to be to succeed.