In a country where several people still die daily from malaria, Daily Trust Health Desk has uncovered federal government’s negligence in making available to millions of Nigerians, the much needed malaria drugs donated by the Republic of China. The Chinese government in February 2015 donated anti-malaria medicines which contain injections for treating severe malaria, and artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs).
The medicines worth over 200million naira was donated to Nigeria as part of its bilateral agreement with the Republic of China. Our findings indicate that these medicines have been lying at the cargo section of the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos since then due to the inability of the Federal Ministry of Health to release money for the clearance. At the initial stage, when the medicines were donated, the clearing fee was just about three million naira but the inability of the government to clear it has made it incur 25 million naira demurrage. These medicines are wasting away and will expire in a year’s time. Suffice to say if government doesn’t not clear them on time, it will be a huge loss to the country, especially when clearing them will benefit many Nigerians.
This is an ominious sign and the fight against malaria in the country. While the medicines were donated during the administration of the previous minister of health, no serious efforts have been made from that time till now on the part of government towards clearing them. Whatever efforts the present administration is making towards it so far is too slow. Anti-malaria commodities donated to government institutions do not attract taxes and tariff charges yet the government has refused to pay the clearance charges to enable the medicines to be removed from the port.
Several states in the country are in dire need of anti-malaria medicines and many health facilities in the country do not have anti-malaria medicines in their facilities. Sources at the port in Lagos said till now there is no evidence that government has made concrete efforts towards clearing the drugs. On the part of the federal ministry of health , sources there said the ministry is working towards clearing the drug in no distance time, saying there is a logistic system in the Food and Drugs Department that has taken over the logistics for medicines. They said that this was as a result of the late release of the 2015 budget.
According to them, the budget was released around September last year and the new ministers, were just settling down and had a lot of things to tackle. They said since the medicines have incurred demurrage, in order not to pay, the ministry has to write for a waiver and the process is ongoing. When contacted the Director, Food and Drugs Department services referred the reporter to the permanent secretary saying she is the chief accounting officer of the ministry. The permanent secretary could not be reached as at press time.
By: Ojoma Akor
Daily Trust News
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