Pharmacists under the aegis of Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) has lauded past registrars of the council and government’s policy directive for the progressive growth of pharmaceutical care in Nigeria.
The chairman of the PCN governing council, Prof. Ahmed Tijjani Mora, made this known at the naming of committee rooms/round hut after two past registrars, Pharm. Albert Brown and Pharm. Hannatu Kayit, at the PCN head office building in Abuja, saying the naming of the council’s fixed assets across the country after renowned members of the council was its way of immortalizing past registrars both dead and alive.
He said the regulation and control of pharmacy education and training and its practice, from the days of the BME, the Pharmacy Board, the Pharmacists Board and the present Pharmacists Council of Nigeria had surpassed those undertaken by the other 13 health regulatory agencies in Nigeria, adding these were made possible through the administrative control exercised by the various registrars and the policy directives and supervision of the governing boards and/or council under the chairmen, all these years.
“There was a time around 2005 (15 years ago or so) when we counted only 39 active and retired professors in the then nine universities in Nigeria offering pharmacy degree programmes in faculties of pharmacy at that time as well as the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD), Abuja. Today, with about 27 universities offering pharmacy degree programmes and with 22 of these fully accredited by both the PCN and the National Universities Commission (NUC), there are not less than 300 pharmacy professors in Nigeria.
“In the field of practice, one recalls the first pharmacy practice in Nigeria opened by the pioneer in the practice, Mr Richard Bailey and compares that to what is obtained now with more than 200 pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities, thousands of importers and wholesalers of pharmaceutical products, thousands of community pharmacies and thousands of hospital pharmacies across the country at the primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare levels, in addition to the almost 100,000 patent medicine shops in the 774 LGAs in the country,” he added. In her response, a past registrar, Kayit thanked the council for the recognition, even as she encouraged council members to always give their best in all endeavours especially in relation to promoting pharmaceutical care in the country.
