By Aishat Aliu

The Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN) has asked the National Assembly to halt ongoing moves to create new health commissions, warning that the proposals amount to “unnecessary bureaucracies” capable of worsening inefficiencies in Nigeria’s already strained health sector.

In a statement jointly signed by its National Chairman, Pharm. Ambrose Igwekamma Ezeh, and National Secretary, Pharm. Omokhafe Ashore, the association said the amendments being considered for the National Health Act (NH-Act) 2014 would duplicate existing structures and impose avoidable financial burdens on the federal government. The statement followed public hearings held at the House of Representatives on November 18, 2025, and at the Senate on November 24, 2025.

At the hearings, several interest groups canvassed the creation of a Surrogacy Commission, a National Accreditation and Standards Commission, a Tertiary Health Institutions Commission, and seven Sickle Cell Research and Therapy Centres across the six geopolitical zones and the FCT. But the ACPN faulted the proposals, describing them as legally unjustifiable, economically unrealistic and administratively wasteful.

According to the association, the National Health Act already established the National Tertiary Health Institutions Standards Committee (NTHISC), the body empowered to regulate tertiary hospitals, set accreditation standards, and oversee organ procurement and trafficking controls.

“The attempt to create three Commissions from the legal structures established in NH-Act 2014 is unnecessary,” the ACPN said. “All endeavours pertaining to the regulation of organ trafficking and procurement, surrogacy, and the monitoring and regulatory appraisals of standards or accreditation of Tertiary Hospital Facilities is already lawfully vested in the NTHISC.”

The group maintained that the problem was not the absence of regulatory agencies but the failure of lawmakers to exercise proper oversight and provide adequate funding for the NTHISC to fulfil its statutory mandate.

“What is missing has been adequate oversight responsibilities by the National Assembly, which ought to insist on providing a robust budget that positions the NTHISC to carry out its statutory responsibilities,” it stated.

On the proposal to establish seven Sickle Cell Research and Therapy Centres simultaneously, the ACPN said the idea was “preposterous and unrealistic,” arguing that existing national research bodies such as the Nigeria Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD) and the Nigeria Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) are already grossly underfunded.

“Presently, NIPRD doesn’t enjoy a recurrent or capital expenditure budget of up to 20 million monthly, which is why the pace of development is not upbeat in this Research Institute,” the statement said.

The association also dismissed the projected organogram for the proposed centres, describing it as “unprecedented in international best practices and extremely ridiculous.”

Instead, it suggested the establishment of a single central research centre on sickle cell disease and the development of therapy centres across the 73 Federal Health Institutions to strengthen advocacy, counselling and treatment, rather than “creating new jobs for the boys in an already battle-weary health sector.”

The ACPN further raised alarm over what it described as “systemic governance failures” at the Federal Ministry of Health, accusing its leadership of partisanship and neglect. It listed the non-reconstitution of boards of 73 Federal Health Institutions, failure to inaugurate boards of 13 professional regulatory councils, dormant MDA boards and long-standing vacancies that have persisted for over a year.

The association also referenced the ongoing JOHESU strike, which began on November 15 and has resulted in what it called a “debilitating paralysis” of federal health institutions due to unresolved 12-year entitlements and discriminatory policies.

Warning that Nigeria’s limited health funding cannot support expansive and duplicative bureaucracies, the ACPN said national health reforms must be “realistic, prioritised and grounded in public interest.”

“One of the challenges, despite the highlighted absurdities, is a paucity of funds to support needed healthcare initiatives,” it stated. “This must therefore compel a very realistic initiation of proposals in public interest.”

The association urged lawmakers to “shun unnecessary bureaucracies” and ensure that new structures are created only when absolutely inevitable.

“Finally, the ACPN urges the National Assembly to polish its appendages, such that we canvass new bureaucracies only when it becomes obviously inevitable to drive a new era of success stories,” the statement added.