By Eben Enasco Kingsley, Benin
In a further expedition to sanitize the society of adulterated and expired drugs, a bold step was on January 26, 2015 taking by the pharmaceutical society of Nigeria(PSN), Edo state chapter; as Pharmacist Christopher Osasere Iyare was elected to Pilot and restructure the responsibilities of the assemblage. In this interview with National Reformer’s Eben Enasco Kingsley, he x-rays on the journey so far and other sundry issues. EXCERPT:
Ok! On the new challenge, what did you have in your locker to actually promote the interest of the organization as the newly- elected chairman?
I decided to run for the position because, I feel that I needed to contribute my quota to the development of the profession formally practices in Edo State because of the passion I have for it. That is while I decided to contest for the position and by the grace of God I won by defeating my opponent with a landslide of 108 to 58 votes Like I said before, I told my colleagues during the campaign, that first of all, the profession seizes to be fragmented; at the moment we have different groups, we have the hospital pharmacist, we have
community pharmacist, and academic pharmacist. But they all seem to be
disjointed with their activities.
So in line with my words, my primary aims is to unite the profession because we need to unite, we need to forge a common front, and there are challenges because there are things we needed to do in this profession; but currently now we need a pharmacy house. We are planning towards that, and in my first meeting, I have discussed with my colleague we decided that we need to have a
pharmacy house and the regulation of pharmacist profession at large. And again, we intend to make it a better practice and also to reduce or eliminate quackery from the profession; so, these are the objectives that we need to focus on.
You just mention removing the bad eggs from the lot, but in Nigeria setting, there seem to be people perpetrating this evil act certainly because of more profit margins. How do you intend to eliminate this?
First of all, you know drugs are poisonous, and the safety ahead of our people is very paramount. In our society, we need to put interest of the people in a very high regards. “So we will not tolerate situation where people still take expired drugs that will cause them harm. Although, there are laid down laws and regulations but the problem has always been effectiveness in the same way with the problem we have in this country”. We make laws but enforcement of the laws is a very common problem so we are in a position to make sure that the pharmacy laws are enforced and things are done in proper way they ought to be done for the safety of our people in Edo State.
Would you say there are any challenges as regards your position?
Well, there are challenges because you know uneasy lies the head that wears the crown and I found myself in this position with my business and job. I have to attend to so many things at the same time and issues that come up at the various places. so I will say the challenges are a lot of work to be done, and we will try to do it our next is very crowded but by the grace of God I have been able to cope relatively well of pressure of the work and the things we need to do
for the society as regards to living and gong normally daily activities.
Is there any way the government can come in to support your activities?
Definitely, we need government support. The government need to support
the society with its activities financially, morally and other wise because when we do what we do most times we need the support of security agencies and we also have financial challenges. We appeal to the government to come in also in the legislative business of the society too. These are things we cannot do but government can handle.
What are your advice to the pharmacist and the general public?
My advice to pharmacists is to uphold the ethics of the profession and avoid drugs that are poisonous; which are not well managed as well. So I urge all pharmacists to keep to the rules and stick to the ethics of the profession and not to be involved in any sharp practices. The members of the public too I will also advice them they should be very careful when they use drugs they should always seek the advice of pharmacist before they take drugs and they should ensure that any drugs they are taking should be drugs that are good for consumptions.
