The pharmacists Council of Nigeria has enjoined Pharmacists to be more committed in their profession and practice especially in the area of Veterinary Pharmacy that charlatans are taking over to the detriment of the Nigerian populace.

This was made known by the PCN South-west zonal director, Pharm (Mrs) Yejide Oseni, during an entrepreneurial training conducted by the pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Oyo State Branch held at the Faculty of Pharmacy in the University of Ibadan.

In her speech, she reminded the members of the need to venture into veterinary pharmacy as a way to improve the public health of Nigerians and that it has been an integral part of their profession.

She said , “Some years ago, we were not talking about it and we realized people who do have in-depth knowledge on drugs are prevalent in the provision of drugs for veterinary use”.

Pharm. Oseni said; “Like in human life, the doctors prescribe while the pharmacist dispense and it is the in veterinary, the veterinary doctors equally prescribe and the pharmacists dispense”.

Pharm Abiodun Ajibade, the Oyo State PSN chairman while addressing the participants stressed why the profession is facing some challenges is because pharmacists are not covering up well enough in their services to the public and as such charlatans take advantage of the vacuum to wrek havoc to Nigerians through un-standardized and poor professional service rendered in that sector”.

 Pharm. Abiodun Ajibade, Oyo State PSN Chairman

He also pleaded with the members to get involved in the affairs of the country adding that, it has denied them of some of their rights.

Pharm. Ajibade said “anytime they are sharing cake, we are not there, even in politics we are not there, let’s be politically awake, be relevant in anywhere you find yourself. In your church, mosque, don’t sit back, that is why it is difficult for us to push through many of the policies that will improve Nigerians life tremendously”.

Speaking with CEOAfrica, he said “when you say you are a pharmacist, you know you are custodians of medications both for animals and human, but when we now have people trying to begin to operate in an area that they are not familiar with or have proficiency, automatically, you will see a lot of arguments which often times are as a result of selfish motives to detriment of health benefits of ordinary and common people in Nigeria”

Pharm. Abiodun Ajibade in an interview with CEOAfrica

Pharm. Abiodun Ajibade also added that “pharmacists are people that have been trained in terms of toxicology of drugs; I mean drug safety, drug availability, production, drug interaction, everything name it about drugs, it is therefore an exercise in futility for a non-pharmacist to be claiming right in handling drugs both in man and animal”.

In clearing some doubts if pharmacists are qualified to handle animal drugs, he said “most of these drugs that we see today, before there are consumed by humans, have been first tested in animal and in fact it is the results obtained in animals that are escalated to become treatment in human beings” therefore, if pharmacists developed the drug, have the in-depth knowledge of their properties and able to determine acceptable dosage in human using the animal models, you wonder, what’s then the argument about pharmacist not qualify to operate Veterinary pharmacy”.

He described the agitation of Veterinary medical council of Nigeria trying to take custody of drugs they do not produce not conversant with their properties as laughable and portends great dangers to human health as all the drugs administered into animals obviously find their ways into human body through consumptions of the animals.

Pharmacist Opeyemi Akindele, in his own lecture on “How to startup veterinary pharmacy unit in community pharmacy”, urged the members to have confidence in themselves and not to be intimidated by any impostor or threats.

Pharmacist Opeyemi Akindele during his lecture "How to startup veterinary pharmacy unit in community pharmacy”

“Pharmacists are custodians of drugs and vaccines in an absolute sense” he added.

While speaking with CEOAfrica, pharmacist Akindele, said, “when we are talking about how to start veterinary pharmacy unit in a pharmacy, it doesn’t mean that a pharmacist is a veterinary doctor, what we are trying to say is that pharmacists already have medications which are fit for human and animals”.

He went further to say “there are drugs specifically prepared for use in animals which pharmacists also should have, so that when people make request for them, they can sell it to them and render professional services in terms of dosage, other concomitant issues that may be the challenges of the animals. Veterinary doctors have business with diagnosis, administration of drugs and performing surgeries on their patients which are the animals”.

On his part, Pharmacist Odukoya Taofik Oladipupo,  the CEO  of Vanguard pharmacy, while delivering his lecture on “Setting up a veterinary Pharmacy”, urged the participants to step up into veterinary business, as non-professionals has gradually taken the place of the pharmacists in the society.

Pharmacist Odukoya Taofik Oladipupo in a lecture with his colleagues on "Setting up a veterinary Pharmacy"

Pharm. Oladipupo stated that “veterinary pharmacy is not getting the kind of attention it deserves in Nigeria”. In this regard, “I will do it over and over again to ensure the gap is filled”.

Pharm.Taofik in an interview with our correspondent, said, “A pharmacist is a drug expert, while the veterinary doctors are trained and specialists in diagnosis”.

Furthermore, he said, “a pharmacist can never work as veterinary doctor and neither can a veterinary doctors do the work of a pharmacists, is like saying can a medical doctor work like a pharmacist, or do the work of a pharmacist, they are all different professions”.

Alhaji Adebayo Olufemi in his goodwill message said “everybody is interested in our profession and there are economical gains in the profession”.

In condemning the abuse of the profession by some unqualified doctors, he said “the veterinary profession has a lot of quacks, do we want more quacks in the veterinary pharmacy?” he asked.

In the course of the lecture, Pharm. Yejide Oseni disclosed that PSN has a lot of challenges and the solutions are being worked on.

She mentioned some of the problems that PSN is facing as:

•             Firstly oppositions on the regulation and control of veterinary manufacturing company by      Pharmaceutical council of Nigeria (PCN).

•             Institution of court case against PCN by veterinary doctors.

•             Recent intention to take over the registration of veterinary pharmacy by Veterinary Council of Nigeria (VCN)

•             And the ongoing bill at the national assembly by VCN infringing on the recent PCN law with intention to dispense veterinary drugs, establish the training of veterinary pharmacists, by veterinary surgeons only.

Speaking in an interview, Pharmacists Salaudi Abdulazeez said “the major problem is the rival among the health workers which is like someone arrogating the power of one health worker to himself or herself”.

He also added “we the youth just think, it’s about changing the orientation of who is a doctor or a nurse or a physiotherapist or urologist, we are all part of the medical team and we have to do our best moving it forward”.

Pharm. Sesan Kareem while teaching on Personal Productivity at work stressed that pharmacists should always strive for peace in all they do and never be disturbed by other people’s opinion for that can be counter productivity if negatively placed.

He called for pharmacists to leverage on others people’s experience, money, benefits while usiong the mistake of others to inform their daily decisions.