GOODWILL MESSAGE TO THE ACPN NATIONAL CONFERENCE: EDO 2018

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Pharm. (Mazi) Sam I. Ohuabunwa
OFR, MON, FPSN, FNAPharm,
FPCPharm, NPOM 
It is my pleasure to send this goodwill message to members of the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN) on the occasion of your 37th Annual National Conference holding in Benin-City, Edo State. It is my prayer that The Lord will bring you all safely to Benin, grant you a successful conference and lead you back safely to your respective stations. I am also praying that the scheduled elections will be rancor free and that the Association will elect the best candidates for the various offices.


Talking about elections, I will like to use this opportunity to confirm that I have accepted the call to offer my self for service as the President of our great Society, PSN come November 2018. Our society is at the precincts of a great rebound, given the wonderful work of our past leaders, especially the current one and my mission is to cause a radical transformation to the practice of the Pharmacy Profession, resulting in a quantum leap in the status of Pharmacists in Nigeria.


Our practicing environment remains unsatisfactory. Despite the progress we have made, the environment remains suboptimal and stifling. There is therefore the subsisting need to intensify advocacy to effectively sanitize the environment to make Nigeria conducive for professional practice that is globally competitive. We must bring quackery to a halt and fully enthrone the Pharmacist at the centre of all pharmaceutical activities. All those who have no genuine or legal business in the industry must be routed out. The place of the Pharmacist in drug Research, Production, distribution, drug retailing, drug dispensing and administration must be assured and unencumbered, particularly the Government approved National Drug Distribution System must first be enforced and necessary improvements made in the future.

As Community Pharmacists, we need to expand our reach and open new vistas that will create new opportunities for the profession and increase our relevance. Can we do more in disease prevention? vaccination? Paediatric nutrition? Etc. We must seek new opportunities for global cooperation with international institutions. It is intriguing that non-pharmacists seem to be prospering in the Pharmaceutical business while many Pharmacists are barely able to make decent living. This is a travesty. I intend to empanel a team that will generate ideas on what we must do to empower Pharmacists, especially the young but also the elderly to obtain maximum benefit from their practice and reap the benefits of their professional calling as much as those business men and women who have made genuine and legal investments in the industry and related services. Pharmacy must be made to work for all Pharmacists. Full stop!


Colleagues, as you may know, I have had several years of exposure to the highest echelons of the Nigerian Society and Economy- Public & Private. During my 33 years of active work in the Pharmaceutical Industry, 18 years at CEO level, first in Pfizer Products Plc and subsequently in Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals, I combined my work admirably with playing leadership roles in the Private Sector. I was at different times, Chairman of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Ikeja; President Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA), President Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce (NACC) and Chairman of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG). I have also had exposure to the workings of the Public sector having served in several Government boards and committees some of which include, Chairman of Abia State University Teaching Hospital Board, Member of the Federal Manpower Board, NISER Board, National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Council, NEITI stakeholder governing Council, Presidential Advisory Committee (PAC) member and the Presidential Committee on Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Program (SURE-P). In return I have received three National honours.
 
I have been an active member of the PSN, served as the Editor, Editor-in-chief and Chairman of the Editorial Board of the Nigerian Journal of Pharmacy, Chairman of the prestigious Board of Fellows (BOF) of the Society. I was once the chairman of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Group of MAN (PMG -MAN) and the Founding President of the West African Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (WAPMA)

It is my pleasure dear colleagues to place this wealth of experience and the deep-rooted networks across the length and Breadth of Nigeria and the Region at the service of the Society as we enthrone a visionary, impactful, ethical, accountable and God-fearing leadership that will take our Society and profession to the manifest destiny. God bless you all.

Pharm. (Mazi) Sam I. Ohuabunwa
OFR, MON, FPSN, FNAPharm,
FPCPharm, NPOM




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