Posted on: Tue 12-09-2023

The Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria has maintained a dissent stance against the specialist cadre status of its members in the Lagos State Civil Service.

The Chairman of the Lagos State chapter, Babayemi Oyekunle, said pharmaceuticals in the state workforce prefer the consultancy cadre.

Oyekunle, in a statement he personally signed, said that the Pharmacist Consultant cadre had earlier been demanded and approved at the federal level in 2011 while adding that the body also got similar approval in Lagos during the tenure of former governor Akinwunmi Ambode in 2018.

The PSN leader also wondered why there is now an attempt to substitute the Consultant Pharmacy Cadre with a Specialist Cadre that they never bargained or negotiated for.

He recalled that in 2011, the National Council on Establishment approved the Consultant Pharmacy Cadre and it was re-validated again in 2021.

According to him, on the basis of the approval, Niger State blazed the trail for the recognition of the Consultant Pharmacist cadre in 2013 by the Aliyu Babangida’s administration while other states like Edo, Osun, Oyo, Ondo and recently Kwara have followed suit with adoption of the circular from the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation.

He however noted that the Consultant Pharmacist Cadre is also a reality at Aso Rock Villa Clinic, NIPRD Health Centre and some other key establishments.

He added that graduates of the West African Post-graduate College of Pharmacists (WAPCP) who first emerged in 1997 have been recognised as Consultant Pharmacists for over 20 years in countries like Gambia, Sierra-Leone, Liberia and Ghana saying that global best practices which we benchmarked in our Health system based on realities in countries like the UK and USA place premium on Consultant and not Specialist Pharmacists.

The PSN also called on the Lagos State government to come up with an innovative approach to tackling the menace of drug abuse as many citizens have died under the influence of drugs.

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