The Obi of Onitsha, His Majesty Igwe Nnaemeka Alfred Ugochukwu Achebe, has assured physical attendance at the 97th Annual National Conference set to be held in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State  from Monday, November 4, 2024, to Saturday, November 9, 2024.

Igwe Achebe gave this assurance upon the courtesy visit of a delegation of PSN Executives and dignitaries led by the PSN President, Prof. Cyril Usifoh to his palace recently.

The courtesy visit was to formally invite the Obi as the Chairman of the honorific occasion where the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, will deliver the Keynote Address.

Speaking at the Obi’s palace, Prof. Usifoh requested the presence of the Obi to encourage youths and young Pharmacists to practice in Nigeria, rather than leave the country in the name of searching for greener pastures.

Usifoh also announced that the Monarch alongside Prof. Ali Pate, will be conferred with the title of Honorary Pharmacist; urging the king to visit the site of the tower being built by PSN, expressing hope that the structure will be completed soon.

In his reaction, the paramount ruler encouraged the PSN to keep up with positive impacts on the nation being a professionally active body in Nigeria, charging them to ensure that proper medications are sold to the consumers as the pharmaceutical industry is critical to human health, which in turn, will lead a healthy human to take steps at the development of a country.

The Obi, who attributed the major cause of brain drain popularly described as ‘japa’ among youths and young professionals in Nigeria to the poor state of the Nigerian environment, lamented that the human resources trained within the country who are no longer contributing their knowledge to the progress and development is a great loss for the nation.

Speaking on the poor state of the laboratories of many schools, the monarch also condemned the rate at which fake drugs are sold in the country today which are clearly dangerous to people’s lives.