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Tag: quacks

  • It’s raining quacks

    It’s raining quacks

    Remember the reported experience of Mrs. Kehinde Kamal at the hands of self-professed medical practitioner, ‘Dr.’ Noah Kekere? She is the woman who, some years back, went in for a surgery on purported ruptured appendicitis at Kekere’s Murna Clinic and Maternity in Jos, only to later discover her right kidney was harvested without her knowledge. While the scandal raged last September, it was reported that Kekere ran a private medical practice for some 25 years without certification as a medical doctor and was registered with the professional body, namely the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA). The fella was allegedly a quack and was arrested by the police upon a petition by Kehinde’s husband, Busari Kamal.

    Well, it’s raining quacks at the Plateau State capital. The National  Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) recently uncovered and shuttered a pharmacy where expired drugs were being fraudulently revalidated and sold to the public by pharmacy operators. The agency said it seized the pharmaceuticals comprising oral drugs and injectables worth N15million from the Jos-based pharmacy. It also seized unregistered alcoholic beverages worth more than N30million from shops in the Plateau capital and in nearby Bukuru township.

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    NAFDAC Northcentral Zone Director Shaba Mohammed said the agency had earlier received reports that the pharmacy sold expired drugs after rubbing off expiry date markings and revalidating their shelf life. According to him, during a raid, NAFDAC agents “discovered that the pharmacy has a room where expired dates were cleaned off and the drugs revalidated.” He said the agency sealed off the pharmacy and arrested the pharmacist who failed to produce his current licence to practice as a pharmacist and current operational licence of the pharmacy itself. Mohammed assured that raids on pharmacies and shops in Plateau would continue until the state is rid of unwholesome products, but also cautioned the public against, among others, buying drugs from unregistered pharmacies.

    Kudos to NAFCDAC for uncovering and shuttering the offending pharmacy, and its promise to sustain such raids. The pharmacist had mind only for profit, without the slightest thought for lethal effects expired drugs could have on the purchasing public. This was a particularly deadly racket of deception because the revalidated drugs were likely sold cheaper than non-expired ones, and hence would attract hapless citizens seeking to maximise scarce funds amidst inflationary swings of the economy. The pharmacist should relentlessly be brought to justice and his case not kept in limbo like ‘Dr.’ Kekere’s. But it must be said that the onus for sustained redress lies with NAFDAC and not by the public avoiding procuring drugs from unregistered pharmacies. Or how does a distressed average citizen seeking medication for a pressing health challenge first identify unregistered pharmacies to be avoided?

  • Minister urges vet council to clamp down on quacks

    Minister urges vet council to clamp down on quacks

    Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, has called on Veterinary Council of Nigeria (VCN) to clamp down on quacks  to change the narrative of livestock  sector.

     Kyari lamented despite the huge livestock population, it contributes only 10 per cent to Gross Domestic Product (GDP). 

    He spoke at VCN’s 70th anniversary and launch of its digitisation projects. 

    Kyari said the tech innovations are aimed at transforming our animal health and veterinary ecosystem in line with global best practices. 

    He added  it is only qualified and registered veterinarians up to date in practice that will be issued licence and seal.

     ”As you are aware, despite the large livestock population in Nigeria, the country reaps only 10 per cent of its agricultural GDP in livestock. I believe we can change the narrative if quality of our veterinary services is improved and quackery checked. 

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     ”The introduction of this digital national veterinary practice licence, the veterinary seal and geomapping in veterinary practice premises will reduce quackery, and increase productivity in the sector”. 

     ”In this line, the issues of diseases and pests control services are handled with interest as this guarantees the protection of national herds and flocks against diseases thereby preserving livestock resources for improved livestock production and productivity”, Kyari added.  

    President of VCN, Abubakar Baju, said President Bola Tinubu looks to the veterinary community for guidance in transforming the sector to enhance food security. 

    In response, she said VCN is aligning with the vision to ensure the highest service delivery by veterinarians and veterinary professionals. 

    Baju noted the alignment will boost livestock productivity and address emerging and re-emerging diseases, especially zoonosis. 

     She encouraged veterinary professionals to embrace these innovations and collaborate with the council to eradicate quackery.

  • CPN set to rid IT sector of quacks

    The Computer Professionals (Registration Council of) Nigeria (CPN) yesterday said it is set to rid the information technology (IT) industry of ‘quacks’ that practice but not registered with it.

    CPN said it is already working with the National Information and Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to ensure that unregistered IT contractors are blocked from getting and executing Federal Governments projects.

    Its Vice President/Vice Chairman-in-Council, Kole Jagun, who spoke to reporters, said the sanitisation of the industry would be nationwide, adding that everything possible would be done to move the sector forward.

    CPN was established through Act No 49 of 1993. The Act was passed into law on June 10th and gazetted on August 9 of same year.

    The Act makes it mandatory for all persons and organisations seeking to engage, or engaged in IT training/education, sale and/or use of computing facilities, and the provision of professional services in computational or related computational machinery in Nigeria to be registered by the Council and licensed to carry out such activities.

    Its Registrar/Secretary to Council, Allwell Achumba, said since IT is the fulcrum of any thriving economy, the Council has chosen to focus on it as a tool to grow the economy and prepare local industries for global competitiveness.

    He said CPN as a Federal Government agency  that regulates and controls the practice of IT practice is taking the bull by the horn by convoking yet another forum with the media considered to be a major player and influencer in the IT eco system.

     

  • Quacks hurting economy, says CIPSM

    Members of Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply Management of Nigeria (CIPSM) have raised the alarm that the activities of those who employ quacks to handle the jobs of professionals, specifically in the area of procurement and supply were seriously hurting the economy.

    CIPSM President Abdulhamid Oyewo, in the company of the Institute’s Registrar, Muhammad Aliyu, and the Abuja Coordinator, Abdul Mamman, at a press briefing in Lagos, during the week, lamented the activities of companies that prefer quacks for whatever reason, noting they were killing the economy.

    Oyewo, therefore, called on private and government sectors to stop employing quacks in their various organisations as this has negative consequences on the economy. He said getting the services of professionals can improve the economy of the country.

    He called the attention of business owners and members of the public to the Executive Order signed by the Federal Government, which detailed the process of procurement, contract planning execution, local contract as well as engineering, science and technology.

    His words: “It’s an attestation to the fact that the current administration is geared towards doing the right thing to bring our Institute to its rightful position and further position the economy. Unfortunately, it is in contracting that money is frittered away.

    “Under the World Bank study, contracts before now were awarded without being executed and payments were made. Contracts were over invoiced, coloured with nepotism, and were done without proper design and not done to give service to the public.”

    Oyewo canvassed the need for the government and Ministries, Departments and agencies (MDAs) to court the Institute in order to stop the fraud and wastages that are common place in procurement.

    The CIPSM president said the economy of the country will continue to suffer the menace if the issue was not eradicated. “In my years of practice in the private sector, I know of so many companies that have O’ level holders as their accountants and they have had to pay for it dearly in the long run.

    “Certainly we cannot go and throw somebody out of the office where they are working because they don’t have our certificate. But the only thing we will do is to let the employers know the risks. We will not say don’t employ this person. We can only let them know the negative implication of what they are doing. That is what we have been doing and we will continue to do that, he added.”

    In his contribution, Aliyu explained that the procurement programme is one sure way to massive corruption experienced in all the facets of the economy as professionals are denied their rightful place. He stressed that those who are handling government procurement are daily killing the economy.

    Aliyu stated that the Institute undertook mandatory programme where its members were taught latest skills in the profession, insisting that by not patronising them the country losses.

    Citing World Bank reports, he said 80 per cent of the county’s budget goes into procurement and mismanaged.

  • Commissioner: no room for quacks in Sokoto labs

    Sokoto State Commissioner for Health, Dr Balarabe Shehu Kakale has said there is no room for quackery in the medical laboratories in the state.

    He urged the management of the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCN) to join hands with his Ministry to eradicate the menace in the state.

    Kakale spoke when he received  the MLSCN Acting Registrar, Mr Tosan Erhabor.

    He said Governor Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, quackery would no longer be tolerated in medical laboratory facilities because of its harmful effect on the people.

    According to him, B.Sc and HND holders or others with similar qualifications should not be working in the medical labs as they had not been trained to do so.

    “We cannot condone quackery. If you are not a professional, trained specifically to work in the medical laboratory, but you decide to go and work there, that could also be suicidal considering that you might not know how to handle certain specimens that you may be exposed to. Therefore, you could easily be infected.”

    The Commissioner recalled that a directive had been issued to the Ministry of Higher Education to stop posting polytechnic students to medical laboratories for Industrial Attachment.

    While pledging support for the Council’s efforts to stamp out quackery and ensure that medical laboratories performed up to expectation, Kakale also enjoined the MLSCN to help his Ministry advocate more funding for the health sector, particularly at the Federal Government level as the budgetary allocation to the sector had not achieved much.

    “We have to work together, as no single person or group can do it alone.

    ‘’The Federal allocation to the health sector is a problem. Also, there are existing laws that have not been effectively implemented, including the National Health Act which, if fully implemented, could positively impact medical laboratory services,” he said.

    The MLSCN boss explained that the courtesy visit was in furtherance of the cordial relationship between the Council and the Sokoto State Government, especially the Ministry of Health. He urged the state to work with the Council towards eradicating quackery which he described as the most virulent cankerworm militating against progress in the medical laboratory services sector in the country.

    “Suffice it to say that the activities of quacks have continued to put the lives of our citizens at risk, in addition to creating crisis of confidence for which citizens with the wherewithal prefer to travel to other climes in search of perceived quality diagnosis.

    ‘’Quackery is not only when a trader or carpenter pretends to be a doctor or a medical lab scientist. Anyone that is working in a field, pretending to have the requisite training and experience, which they don’t actually possess, is, indeed, a quack! Thus, there should be no room for BSc. HND and ND holders; including Corps members in any medical laboratory in this state, even for the purpose of internship, when there are qualified Medical Lab Scientists, Technicians and Assistants available for such duties,” he said.

    While expressing the Council’s readiness to collaborate with the state to sanitise medical laboratories there, Erhabor advised the Ministry to ensure that tertiary health facilities in the state commenced the process of getting their laboratories accredited as soon as possible in addition to keying into the Council’s External Quality Assurance (EQA) scheme.

    “These schemes,” he noted, “were established to ensure that medical laboratory tests results based on the same reagents, specimens, and parameters etc., are incontrovertibly accurate and similar irrespective of the location of the facility.”

  • Teachers’registration Act ’ll remove quacks, says JAMB boss

    Teachers’registration Act ’ll remove quacks, says JAMB boss

    •Amosun: youths are unemployable

    Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) Registrar Prof. Is-haq Oloyede has affirmed that the implementation of the Teachers Registration Council Act will remove quacks and unqualified teachers from the teaching profession.
    He said the government is afraid to register teachers due to lack of political will.
    The JAMB boss said argued that when implemented, the Act will improve the profession.
    Oloyede spoke at the maiden Ogun State Education Summit, which began yesterday at June 12 Cultural Centre, Abeokuta with the theme: “Affordable Quality Education: Pursuit of Excellence”.
    He said: “There is no political will to monitor teachers. Most politicians are cowards; they cannot implement the laws. Government is also afraid of implementing TRC Act because some powerful people are behind it.”
    He said most students lacked the required passion for the teaching profession “because the society has lost value due to the fact that most parents are empty, using their children to improve their Curriculum Vitae and boasting about the educational achievements of their wards”.
    Oloyede opposed calls by the private university owners to access Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND).
    Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun, who opened the summit, said it was aimedat addressing the state’s army of unemployed youths because oflack of necessary skills for employment.
    He said the state has about 110 newly sited industries with huge investments, lamenting that youths lacked quality education to take up employment opportunities in such industries.

  • Ogun doctors cry out against quacks

    Ogun doctors cry out against quacks

    The Chairman of the Ogun State branch of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr. Olajide Abayomi, has decried the level of decay in the state’s health sector, while also raising alarm over the activities of quacks who disguise themselves as medical practitioners in the state. The association said it is bothered about the unwholesome activities of the impostors.

    Abayomi expressed this displeasure while speaking with newsmen in Abeokuta. He said that a group of professional fraudsters is on the prowl in various parts of the state, practising and promoting quackery at exorbitant rates and great risk to the health of those patronizing them.

    He added that the level of infrastructural decay in health facilities, ranging from old dilapidated structures, lack of modern medical equipment and inadequate security at health facilities across the state, is worrisome. According to him, there is an urgent need for the government to look into these issues.

    He said that there is a gross shortage of medical personnel and other health workers in the State General Hospitals in all zones of the state. He expressed concern that doctors, pharmacists, nurses and other allied health professionals are in short supply across the state. He added that the decay in infrastructures facilities also potent great danger for the state health sector.

    Abayomi said the association intended to sponsor an anti-quackery bill in the State House of Assembly. The bill he said, would completely outlaw quackery in the state health sector. He noted that the high number of quack doctors and nurses in the state had reached a point where the association, alongside the state government, need to take drastic actions.

    ” We cannot leave everything to the government alone to shoulder. The responsibilities in health sector are collective ones, so we need to move fast with the initiative of sponsoring a bill to wage war against quackery in the State,” he opined.

    Speaking on the Resident Doctor’s strike, he said it would continue  until the government meet their demands, noting that the attitudes of government towers Doctors needs to be examined,

    While urging the State government to bridge the wide gaps in the emoluments, salaries and allowances of health workers in the State, Dr. Abayomi said Doctors in the state need to be taken care of in order for them to be able to compete favourably with their counterparts in federal institutions and even other states.

    “We cannot fold our arms anymore while doctors are suffering and wallowing in abject poverty in the name of serving the people of the State. Our salaries, emoluments and allowances are nothing to write home about. So we need to fight it once and for all,” he said.

  • ‘No hiding place for IT quacks’

    ‘No hiding place for IT quacks’

    The President/ Chairman of Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN), Prof. Vincent Asor  has warned that it no longer shall be business as usual for quacks in the information technology (IT) profession in the country.

    Speaking yesterday in Kaduna during the ongoing 2016 Information Technology Professionals Assembly in Kaduna, he said Act 49 of 1993 that established CPN made it mandatory for all persons and organisations seeking to engage in the sale and/or use of computing facilities, and/or the provision of professional services in computing in the country to be registered by the Council and licensed to carry out such activities.

    “It is definitely illegal to engage in computing professional practice without satisfying the above conditions registration and possess a current valid (practice certificate).

    “By the nature of the profession, which makes it possible for a lot of people to use IT tool in their daily day to day operations, some people are now claiming to be what they are not. Also, those who are not qualified to execute IT jobs are the ones getting it. This is quite absurd and unacceptable to us; therefore, as professionals, you have to join forces with us in fighting the scourge,” he said.

    The theme of the forum is: Towards a Dependable and Sustainable National IT Infrastructure. During the forum, no fewer than 300 new members were inducted into the IT profession. He told the inductees that the legitimisation of their professional practice in IT sector has just started.

  • Wike urges architects to weed out quacks

    Wike urges architects to weed out quacks

    Rivers  State Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has challenged Nigerian architects to take steps to weed out  quack professionals  to stem the  tide of collapsed  buildings.

    Speaking when he received the Nigerian  Institute  of  Architects ,  Rivers State Chapter at the Government House, Port Harcourt, Wike  said   there were cases of  collapsed  buildings in different  parts of  the  country because  of  the  input of fake architects.

    He urged    the  Rivers State Chapter of the  Nigerian Institute  of  Architects to work with other building  professionals  in the  state  to keep away  the deadly cases of  collapsed  buildings  from the  state.

    The governor  noted that aside the road infrastructure  in a state, architectural  masterpiece  is critical  to  development.

    He said  that  government  is a continuum,  hence there is no need to  abandon  projects because  they were initiated  by  previous  administrations.

    “The problem  we have in this country  is that new administrations  abandon  existing  projects to initiate  fresh ones. As a result,  government  loses funds invested in these projects.

    “For us, this administration  will complete  abandoned  projects  by the  previous administration and also initiate new projects as we have done so far. We believe  that  the funds expended on these projects  belong to the  people of  Rivers State and cannot be allowed to be wasted. “

    A statement  issued by  the  Special Assistant to the Rivers State Governor on Electronic Media, Simeon Nwakaudu added that Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike assured  the architects that his administration  will cooperate  with  them to deliver  on improved housing for the people.

    He congratulated  the  Rivers  State  chapter  of  the  Nigerian Institute of Architects for producing  the  National  President  of  the  Professional  Body adding that the state government  will  assist in the organisation  of the investiture  and inaugural dinner.

    Rivers State Chairman of the Nigerian Institute of Architects Dike Emmanuel  commended Governor Wike’s  infrastructural  development.

    He appealed to  the  governor  to face housing  development  after the road infrastructure,  noting that  good roads and architectural  materpieces  make cities outstanding.

  • Govt must stop quacks in medical profession, says Oshiomhole

    Govt must stop quacks in medical profession, says Oshiomhole

    Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole has said governments must fight quackery in the medical profession.

    The governor spoke yesterday when the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, visited him in Benin, the state capital.

    Oshiomhole said quackery in the medical profession had become embarrassing, adding that the Muhammadu Buhari administration would put the nation back on the right track.

    He said: “We must revisit the issue of regulation: the minimum requirement you must meet to establish a hospital and a private clinic. Clinics ought to, at best, function as a referral centre, to hear complaints and refer patients to appropriate hospitals. But now, one doctor, a general doctor, performs the role of a gynaecologist, neurologist, dentist, eye surgeon and all sorts of things. The result is that a lot of cases, which could have been managed quietly, get complicated before they are referred to the right hospitals.

    “Between the federal and state governments, I think we need to have a dialogue and see how we can review the laws as regards the minimum requirements to establish a private hospital and the limit to what a private hospital can do. There are too many quacks who masquerade as doctors.

    “You must have found it quite embarrassing that even in the Federal Ministry of Health, under the previous government, a fake doctor was functioning, getting promotions and contributing to public policy formulation. It took a couple of years to find out he was never a doctor.

    “It shows how rotten everything has become, that somebody, not in my village but in Abuja, was hiding and purporting to be a doctor at the Ministry of Health’s headquarters under the supervision of professors of Health, who had been ministers and Chief Medical Directors (CMDs) of the federation.

    “Too many things have gone wrong. But as I have always told our people, our party is not in power to lament but to learn the right lessons and to confront those issues squarely and build a new Nigeria from the ashes of the old and give our people the confidence and restore integrity to public institutions, whether it is health care, education, and others…”