As Budah, Baale, Ahmed call for urgent action
Nigeria’s healthcare system must move beyond policy formulation to effective implementation, accountability and stronger pharmaceutical regulation to deliver sustainable outcomes, stakeholders in the pharmaceutical sector have said.
The President and Chairman of the Governing Council of the Nigeria Academy of Pharmacy, Prof. Lere Baale, and the Registrar of the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN), Pharm. Babashehu Ahmed, made the call at the first plenary session of the ongoing 99th Annual National Conference of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, tagged IJELE 2026, at the International Convention Centre, Awka, Anambra State.
The session, which examined how policy gaps could be bridged for sustainable healthcare outcomes, was moderated by the Managing Director, May & Baker PLC, Pharm. Patrick Ajah and chaired by former PSN President, Pharm. Yaro Budah.
Speaking on the topic “From Policy Promises to Patient Outcomes: Transforming Nigeria’s Healthcare System through Leadership, Accountability, Innovation and Collaboration”, Prof. Baale said the country’s major challenge was not the absence of good policies but the failure to translate them into improved patient experiences.
“The policy gap is different between what the policy intends, when it was announced, or the document, and what the citizens actually experience”, he said. He identified five interconnected gaps in policy design, implementation, coordination, financing and accountability.
He explained that policies are sometimes developed without sufficient understanding of frontline realities, while institutions responsible for implementation lacked the resources, authority and capacity to deliver.
Baale, who drew from his experience serving on the board of a teaching hospital, said inadequate funding remained a major obstacle, noting that about 60 per cent of the institution’s expenditure went into doctors’ salaries, leaving insufficient resources for other essential needs.
He argued that healthcare accountability should not be measured merely by budgets, meetings and reports but by improvements in patients’ health, access to medicines and the resilience of communities.
Challenging pharmacists to demonstrate their professional value, he urged hospital pharmacists to audit doctors’ prescriptions, document medication errors and present their findings to medical teams periodically.
“If there are clear medication errors, we document it. At the end of the month or quarter, the pharmacist must stand up in the midst of those medical doctors and tell them the medication errors they picked up”, he said.
He also urged community pharmacists to document medication errors and share their findings with doctors in their communities, saying such evidence would strengthen the profession’s contribution to patient safety.
On primary healthcare, Prof. Baale proposed a partnership between the approximately 6,000 community pharmacies and the Primary Health Care Development Agency, arguing that integrating the facilities into primary healthcare activities could expand access to preventive services and vaccination.
He said, “As soon as every community pharmacy can therefore participate in all the activities of primary healthcare, beyond merely selling, they’ll be able to also give free vaccination when the government supplies those items”.
Prof. Baale further called for stronger local pharmaceutical manufacturing, improved supply-chain management, digital health integration and greater involvement of pharmacists in healthcare policy decisions.
In his presentation, titled “Building Stronger Health Systems through Pharmaceutical Governance and Regulation”, Ahmed said effective regulation, transparency and accountability were essential to a functional healthcare system.
He identified the World Health Organisation’s six building blocks of a health system as leadership and governance, competent health workforce, access to quality medicines and medical products, effective service delivery, reliable health information and sustainable financing.
The PCN registrar disclosed that the council released N450 million to Pharmaceutical Inspection Committees and Patent and Proprietary Medicine Committees between January and September 2026 to strengthen regulatory activities.
He, however, expressed concern that illegal pharmaceutical premises continued to operate despite the regulatory structures and funding provided.
“This year alone, we have closed more than 5,000 facilities across 11 states through enforcement activities. This is in an attempt to get the drug distribution system right”, he said.
Giving details of the enforcement exercise, Ahmed said 9,908 facilities were visited between March 29 and October 16, including 1,600 pharmacies and 5,698 patent and proprietary medicine vendor premises.
Ahmed further disclosed that the council had handled about 60 litigations and spent approximately N50 million on the cases in 2026. The registrar urged state governments to intensify enforcement, commending Lagos, Anambra and Nasarawa for taking steps in that direction.
“Everything does not start and end with the Pharmacy Council, either at the registrar or even at the governing council. It starts with the states”, he said.
The Chairman of the session, Budah, who served as PSN president from 2000 to 2003, said Nigeria had good healthcare policies but continued to struggle with their implementation.
He recalled the society’s role in pushing for the Pharmacy Council Act of 1991 and the establishment of the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development, urging the current PSN leadership to document these contributions.
Budah also lamented the declining influence of directors of pharmaceutical services in government procurement decisions, warning that their exclusion could lead to inappropriate drug purchases and wastage.
“In the past, I don’t think that any drug sales or transaction happens in any ministry without the director of pharmaceutical services playing this role”, he said.
He further urged pharmacists to expose unethical practices within the profession rather than shield colleagues involved in wrongdoing, stressing that members must take responsibility for cleansing the profession.
Budah also called for continuity in PCN’s operations, expressing concern that the council was frequently disrupted whenever a new government assumed office, allowing regulatory problems to accumulate.
He warned against the spread of misleading health claims on social media, including unsubstantiated claims that certain products could cure cataracts or cleanse internal organs, and challenged regulators and professional bodies to educate the public and counter such misinformation.
