AM still not very sure what the mission of one Bisi Lawrence was in his piece, entitled: “The waning glories of NAFDAC” which was published on the website of Emmanuel Asiwe’s online news medium-Huhuonline-on Monday, October 8, 2012.

Although, many people might not have read the piece, it is important that public attention is adverted to it and efforts made to correct the wide-off-the-mark impressions created that the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, under the watch of Dr. Paul Botwev Orhii, has retrogressed.

He claimed that since Professor Dora Akunyili stepped down from office as Director General of the NAFDAC to pursue other public office commitments as Minister of Information in the cabinet of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, the agency, rather than up the ante of the anti-counterfeit drug war, has been declining in tempo and losing the sharp focus that the prosecution of the war requires.

This claim is not only tenuous but also largely laughable: The achievements of NAFDAC under Orhii’s leadership are incrementally tangible and visible.  I will, very shortly, make a list of these concrete accomplishments in order to put the lie to Lawrence’s claims and vitiate his suspicious motive.

But before then, read part of his convoluted positions on NAFDAC after Akunyili’s exit: “…The change at the helm was accomplished (sic) with the usual hoopla that can be produced by those who are professionals at it, and there was the normal eager expectation.

“Nothing happened suddenly; in fact, everything appeared to be going at the usual pace.  The news of prohibited and unapproved medicines had subsided before Dr. Akunyili withdrew, and nothing occurred to bring it up noticeably again.

“But silently, surreptitiously, all sorts of queer medicinal products began to be imported into the country.  Vigilance was visibly relaxed, especially at the ports where we only really import, rather than also export products anyway.

“The legitimate importers seemed gradually overshadowed and all sorts of illicit operations became stronger.  On the home front too, new medical products were being manufactured freely…”.

But nothing can be farther from the truth.  Contrary to his claims, vigilance and monitoring of the drug manufacturing companies and market in the country have been on the upswing.

The importation of drugs, especially from the Asian countries of China and India, has been subjected to extraordinary surveillance since Orhii stepped in the saddle.

The anti-counterfeit drug war is ongoing and Orhii, together with his team of committed top management staff members, is expanding the frontiers of introduction of innovative cutting-edge technologies to combat the scourge.

So, if Lawrence’s motive was to play the revisionist, he must be reminded that he is dealing with an enlightened crop of Nigerian on-line media readers who have demonstrated capacity to independently search out the truths and relate with them in accordance.

He embarked on a fruitless voyage to pooh-pooh the silent revolution at NAFDAC.  He would want us to believe that the agency has not witnessed any progress under Orhii.  Nevertheless, while not denying Lawrence the luxury of his jaundiced opinion, I must bind his conscience to the necessity of the sacredness of facts:

The fact of greater performance, devoid of the sound and fury, nay the razzmatazz, which characterised the Akunyili era as NAFDAC DG.  The facts, as they say, in legal parlance, speak for themselves (res ipsa loquitor) under the Orhii leadership.

It is a fact that the pioneer NAFDAC DG, Professor Gabriel Osuide (1994-2000) prepared the blueprint that guided the agency’s functions.  Akunyili (2001-2008) set in motion a series of advocacy and enforcement activities in NAFDAC and built on the foundation to greatness which Osuide laid.  Orhii who stepped in the saddle in 2009 has continued the good work.  Why did Lawrence choose to wrongly take on Orhii?

While many Nigerians have not forgotten the raw battle (including the sound and fury of the furnace that consumed fake drugs) that Akunyili took to the domains of the notorious drug marketers in Kano, Aba and Onitsha; and the reported attempt on her life, many cannot forget that Orhii has also had a similar experience when, in early 2011, he had an encounter with gunmen when his entourage was returning from an assignment in Benue State.

It is instructive to point out that both Akunyili and Orhii’s commitment to the anti-counterfeit drug war is absolute, but their divergence would appear to be in their approach.

Orhii has been prosecuting the war differently from Akunyili by using cutting-edge technologies.  NAFDAC, under Orhii’s watch, is the first medicines regulatory authority to deploy and use a hand held device (Truscan) with resounding success at borders in the country to detect counterfeit medicines on the spot.  The products do not have to find their way into the country before they are tracked.

It is also a fact that the agency launched the world’s first anti-counterfeiting Mobile Authentication Message, MAS, using Short Message Service, SMS, for end-patient regulated medication authentication.

This technology has put the power of detecting counterfeit regulated products in the hands of the more than 60 million Nigerian cell phone users, thus enlisting them in the battle against counterfeiting.

In addition to the Black Eye, which is another technology deployed to screen many drug samples simultaneously, the agency has also launched the Radio frequency Identification, RFID, system for verification of regulated products and documents.

The system, as confirmed, has the potential to enable, track and trace regulated products and prevent forgery of sensitive documents.

The use of these technologies has earned NAFDAC global rave review and consequent upon which the agency has maintained its global leadership role as one of the top 18 medicine regulatory agencies in the world.

To strengthen the anti-fake drug war, the agency is currently seeking to undertake a review of its laws to impose life-term jail, confiscation of assets upon conviction and compensation for victims where the counterfeit product is found to be the proximate cause of death or severe bodily injury of the victims.  The law also seeks to make this a non-bailable offence.

There are also credible reports about improved international collaborations that have led to a number of remarkable achievements.

Such collaborations had led to the Indian Parliament enacting, for the first time, a law making it a criminal offence punishable by life imprisonment the manufacture and distribution of fake pharmaceutical products.

Mr.  SUFUYAN OJEIFO, a journalist, wrote from Abuja