The acting National President of Society of Testing Laboratory Analysts of Nigeria (SoTLAN), Dr. Oluwafemi Oyediran has raised alarm over how fake and substandard products are killing Nigerians gradually.
The acting National President of (SoTLAN) who stated this on Monday during the kick-off of the 2018 National Conference of analysts urged government at all levels to ensure that to ensure that all products that may include drugs, foodstuffs and others are allowed to go through proper laboratory tests and certified before they are made to go public.
According to him, this is very important in order to prevent certain chronic diseases and untimely death among Nigerians.
Oyediran also decried the poor state of facilities in laboratories in most Nigeria universities.
According to him, this year’s conference with a theme: “Strengthening Laboratories To Save Life”, was carefully choosen because lives of the people are more important to the professional body.
Speaking further, Oyediran said that one of the goals of the organisation was to ensure that laboratories are well equipped to meet up with international standard of health care delivery.
He also expressed his displeasure over the failure of many chemicals and products produced in Nigeria to meet international standard.
“Many chemicals and products produced in Nigeria in the last three years have been rejected by international organizations because they did not meet up with the international standard.”
He urged the federal government to ensure that infrastructures are put in place to support laboratories in the country.
“To prevent ‘health tourism’, the federal government must ensure our that our laboratories are well equipped and handled by competent personnel to meet international standard.
“This is the only way we can become a healthy nation. It will be easier to tackle our health challenge if we know our health status.”
“Therefore, it is also very important to cater for what we are consuming, so as to improve our life span. As analysts, we have global guidelines which we are following. That means if we follow it; it will make it possible for us to analyze anything that is brought into the country from any part of the world.
He added: “For us to compete favorably with our counterparts in other parts of the world, we need to do things the way it should be done. Personnel must be properly trained and our laboratories must be adequately equipped.”
Present at the press conference were Professor Titi Hassan (LOC Chairman), Dr. Uponi Joseph (Member LOC), Mr Bolawa Gbolahan (Member LOC) and others.
