•President of PSN, Ayuba Ibrahim Tanko
The Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) has faulted the Federal Government’s handling of the nation’s pharmaceutical supply chain, arguing that handing over the management of drug distribution to a private company runs contrary to the constitutional framework for regulating medicines in Nigeria.
The President of PSN, Ayuba Ibrahim Tanko, stated this at the society’s 99th Annual National Conference, tagged PSN-IJELE 2026, in Awka, Anambra State.
Tanko expressed concern that the government appeared to have surrendered control of the nation’s pharmaceutical supply chain to private interests, resulting in what he described as the uncontrolled distribution and dispensing of medicines.
He maintained that the management of medicines was too critical to public health and national security to be left outside direct government supervision.
“Drugs are not ordinary commodities. Their misuse carries public health, regulatory and security consequences. Government’s direct involvement in the supply chain and logistics of drugs therefore remains germane. Drugs are a matter of permanent regulatory control and national security,” he said.
Citing the 1999 Constitution, Tanko argued that drugs and poisons are placed on the Exclusive Legislative List under the Second Schedule, Part I, Item 21, to ensure uniform national control and regulation.
He recalled that in May 2021, the House of Representatives rejected a bill seeking to move drugs and poisons to the Concurrent Legislative List, with opponents emphasising the need to preserve uniform national regulatory control.
According to him, transferring the management of the drug supply chain across public health institutions to a private company contradicts the intention behind that constitutional arrangement.
Tanko further warned that private control of the pharmaceutical value chain could weaken collaboration among government agencies responsible for regulating medicines.
He identified the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN), the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) as the three principal agencies responsible for different aspects of pharmaceutical regulation.
While the PCN regulates pharmaceutical premises and practitioners, NAFDAC oversees product registration and quality standards, while the NDLEA is responsible for enforcing laws relating to controlled medicines and narcotic substances.
He argued that government institutions currently enjoy a level of cooperation with these regulatory agencies through joint inspections, information sharing, enforcement activities and accountability mechanisms that a private concessionaire might not automatically inherit.
“The government at all levels now works with these agencies as a fellow arm of government through joint inspections, information sharing, enforcement and accountability for controlled medicines.
“A private company’s complete takeover of the drug-utilisation value chain would place a commercial operator between the government and the regulators and compromise that collaboration,” he said.
The PSN president also questioned whether a private concessionaire could enjoy the same institutional cooperation and goodwill that NAFDAC, NDLEA and PCN extend to federal health institutions.
He maintained that such cooperation was partly rooted in the government’s institutional status and could not automatically be transferred to a private operator.
Beyond regulatory concerns, Tanko linked pharmaceutical supply chain weaknesses to Nigeria’s worsening security challenges, particularly the diversion and abuse of controlled medicines.
He warned that the uncontrolled circulation of such drugs, proliferation of counterfeit pharmaceutical products and weaknesses in regulatory enforcement could aggravate existing security problems, including banditry.
To address the challenges, the PSN president called for the urgent establishment of a Federal Drug Management Agency, backed by legislation, to provide a transparent, accountable and legally protected framework for procuring, distributing and managing medicines across federal health institutions.
He also advocated replacing unregulated open drug markets with licensed Coordinated Wholesale Centres, integrating community pharmacists into the national security architecture and establishing a Presidential Committee on the Pharmaceutical Sector.
The proposals, he said, would strengthen pharmaceutical regulation, improve accountability and safeguard the nation’s medicine supply chain against abuse, diversion and commercial interests that could undermine public health.
