Chioma Umeha

CHIOMA UMEHA Nigeria’s population is currently estimated at 190 million.   Experts claim that if nothing is done about the unusual population explosion in the country, by 2050 it could hit above 400 million. Yet, Nigeria is special as it is already the most populous African nation and on the seventh rank in the world. If its population of 200 million people continues to grow at the current rate of 3.2 per cent each year, the country will have the third largest population worldwide with 411 million people by 2050. “Although Nigeria has the largest economy in Africa, population growth is outpacing the economic growth and increasing the poverty risk for many Nigerians!”, explains Professor Robert Zinser, CEO of the Rotarian Action Group for Population and Development (RFPD). “More than half of the population already lives below the poverty line, while women and children continue to die from preventable causes.” In 2012, the government pledged to increas

Pharmacists-Endorse-Proposed-TAS THE Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, PSN, has endorsed a proposed “tiered accreditation system” to control the flow and sale of medicines by patent and proprietary medicine vendors. Under the tiering, proposed by the P harmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN), medicine vendors will be accredited into any of around three tiers, based on their education, qualification and expertise. Specific tier position will also determine what drugs they can stock from the approved patent medicines list. But the tiering faced initial opposition from PSN over insufficient understanding and stakeholder discussion. PSN, PCN, technical partners, pharmacists’ groups and the federal health ministry met at a “consultative engagement” this week for stakeholders to resolve differences over the tiering - and pave way for it to be piloted. “We believe this system, if it goes well from the pilot they are doing, may be a greater opportunity to bring greater control in the ph

Chioma Umeha Lagos Yemisi hardly knew that her marital bliss would be short-lived barely after five years of nuptial knots to a royal father.   For her, it was also thing of pride to be Princess more so as she turned to be the most favourite wife, being the youngest, though third and last wife of a Lagos socialite. No doubt, Yemisi, a trained accountant lived a very comfortable life despite that her husband asked her to stop working being married to 'His Royal Highness.' All her ecstasy became a fleeting one. This is because Yemisi dumped her marriage as soon as she tested positive to HIV in 2008. Today, the former Princess is forced to live in denial of her status due to fear of stigma and discrimination. Here is the story of Yemisi who recently spoke to DAILY INDEPENDENT: “I have always been healthy and strong, my only serious problem was infertility. I couldn’t get pregnant. I married into a wealthy polygamous family and was the t

Pharm. (Mrs.) Adeniran Bolanle F.O., Chairman, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Lagos State Branch, has made a case for appointment of a Presidential Committee on Drug Distribution to sanitise the chaotic drug channels in the country. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the PSN Scientific Week at the Pharmacy Villa, Ogudi GRA, Lagos on August 22, 2019, Pharm. Adeniran said the call had become necessary because drug distribution had for long continued to be grounded in vacillations and had been at the whims and caprices of the vicissitudes of life which have almost snuffed life out of it. She said that the reality today is that “we have made little or no progress in the quest to sanitise our distribution channels.” “If we decide to call a spade a spade, the Federal Government actually needs to declare a state of emergency in the drug distribution bracket of our health sector to redress the unending cycle of unproductively. “Even when the Pharmacy profe