Imprisonment of 2:1 microbiology graduate – National Mirror

The recent imprisonment by the Federal High Court, Lagos, of Clara Onah (35), described as a 2:1 Microbiology graduate of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), for seven years over the manufacture, distribution and sale of fake drugs, has again drawn attention to the menace of counterfeit drugs. The National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) docked the culprit for selling the faked brand of Amazon Amagyl 200 mg, a brand of Metronidazole tablets, to the Nigerian public.
The facts of the case and laboratory analysis of the counterfeit drugs presented in court revealed that instead of the 200 milligrams Clara stamped on her fake drug, it contained 20 milligrams, among other aberrations. Metronidazole belongs to the antibiotic family commonly used to treat bacterial infections of the vagina, stomach, skin, joints, and respiratory tract, et cetera. The prosecution said the convict was arraigned on a fivecount charge, all of which she pleaded guilty to. Consequently, the presiding judge, Justice Chuka Obiozor, sentenced her to seven years imprisonment; and fined her N50,000 on one of the counts.
The late Professor Dora Akunyili, Director-General of NAFDAC (2001 – 2008), incidentally a product of UNN, too, once referred to drug counterfeiting as “the highest form of terrorism against public health”. Instances abound to justify this scary characterisation. In 2003, the International Children’s Heart Foundation (ICHF) embarked on a humanitarian gesture to operate on some sick children at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu. That show of goodwill, unfortunately, ended up tragically as the adrenalin given to the kids to restart their hearts turned out to be ordinary water. Four of the children eventually died.
A national daily (not National Mirror), in May last year, also recalled a 1995 incident involving a female asthmatic patient that purchased a fake inhaler. When she had an attack and relied on the fake inhaler for respite, the inhaler proved to be useless. She boarded a bike to the nearest hospital for medical assistance but died on the hospital’s staircase. It is obvious from Clara’s case that though a huge chunk of counterfeit drugs may find their ways into the country as imports; some desperate producers of fake drugs are very much around.
Recall that Akunyili said before she assumed office in 2001, fake drugs were openly circulating in the country. Reports said at the peak of NAFDAC’s battle against fake drugs under her leadership, such drugs worth about N2 billion ($16 million) were voluntarily handed over to the agency by counterfeiters or confiscated following tip-offs by members of the public. Notwithstanding NAFDAC’s success in making Clara face the wrath of the law, it may be safely canvassed that the zeal and commitment with which the agency confronted the counterfeit drugs’ scourge between 2001 and 2008; and the attendant increased public awareness about the menace, have gravely waned.
Only a couple of weeks ago, Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State publicly accused some NAFDAC officials and members of the Nigeria Police Force in Kano of conniving to protect criminals engaged in selling counterfeit products and drugs to the public. “I was shocked that certain NAFDAC officials in the state came to me with the owner of the confiscated goods and were attempting to evade the law and cunningly find a soft landing for the man”, Ganduje stated. The governor spoke at the scene of destruction of cartons of confiscated, adulterated chewing gum and drugs at the premises of the state command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
It is implied that the resurgence of fake drugs have direct links with NAFDAC’s loss of steam either through conscious ineptitude, compromise and unimaginable corrupt exploits. Care-free attitude of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) and other law enforcement agencies cannot be ruled out, too. The pathetic state of gate-keeping against drug offenders in the country was exposed by former Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Alhaji Ahmadu Giade, who disclosed last year that a cartel comprising some court clerks and prison warders assisted 197 convicted drug traffickers to evade serving their prison terms; whereas it is common knowledge that in most Asian countries, counterfeit and hard drug offences attract the death penalty. Clara stood the chance of being celebrated, had she channeled her skill to lawful drug manufacturing. But she chose to be a criminal. No less indicted is the nation which produced her amid grim opportunity to excel. It is time to tighten all the loose ends.