The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and National Counter-terrorism Centre (NCTC) have promised to committed to continue to work together to combat the menace of drug abuse in the country, misuse of chemicals and alcoholism with their associated dangers to the wellbeing of Nigerians.
This hint was dropped recently during a courtesy call by the management of NAFDAC led by its Director General, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye to NCTC headquarters in Abuja at the instance of the latter with a view to enhancing and strengthening the already existing robust working partnership.
“The purpose of the visit is to strengthen the working partnership between the two agencies which have similar interests including but not limited to the fight against drug abuse, chemical misuse and alcoholism which have been traced as major contributors to acts of terrorism”, said Prof Adeyeye as she expressed her agency’s readiness to work with the Centre to achieve a common goal.
The NAFDAC boss who noted that the collaboration was very positive recalled how she was told about a year into her first tenure as DG by someone in a privileged position in the society that there was an abuse of Tramadol.
She said her Agency is now using what is called “Track and Trace”, using the Traceability tool. NAFDAC has so far been recognized as the leading Agency in Africa in terms of use of barcoding to trace where the medicine goes from the manufacturer to the end user.
She pledged that the collaboration is guaranteed in terms of NAFDAC’s commitment and for this Centre in terms of research. She further added that, “we can only do research in collaboration with other agencies or the academia which has been a major contributor to the growth of NAFDAC to higher grounds.”
The National Coordinator of NCTC, Rear Admiral Yaminu Musa explained that the essence of the partnership is to draw up the modalities of partnership between the two agencies, stressing that “It’s only when we partner with you, that you become aware that things we can do on your behalf then we can be called useful”.
According to him, the two agencies had some engagements in the past and some decisions were taken, asking rhetorically “to what extent have the decisions been implemented and what are the factors mitigating against implementation of those not implemented that we can review because we are starting a new race?
He further said this is the right time for the two agencies to review previous activities and be able to re-strategize and inform the new government on areas that needed further push whether it is policy push or strategy categorization of plans.
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