Former MAN President Urges FG to Start Medical Palliatives

Mazi Samuel Iheanyichukwu Ohuabunwa, former chairman of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) and former president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), has urged the Federal Government to start medical palliatives to prevent Nigerians from dying due to a lack of access to quality medicine.

Ohuabunwa made this known in Arochukwu, Abia State, during the funeral of Grace Ugwu Ijiomanta, who passed away at the age of 102.

He said medical palliatives would prevent Nigerians, specifically the poor ones, from dying in large numbers due to their inability to buy drugs or manage their ailments.

The former chairman of MAN noted that most palliative programmes carried out by the previous and present governments in the country were focused on foods, arguing that while it was good for the government to give foods, the programme would not achieve total results if people were not provided with medical palliatives to save their lives.

Ohuabunwa blamed the rising cost of drugs on the depreciation of the naira and the nation’s currency’s struggles against the US dollar and emphasised that most raw and finished products in the medical industry were imported from foreign countries. 

He revealed that providing medical palliatives would cushion the effects of the rising prices of drugs in pharmacy stores nationwide.