The Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) has described as an unnecessary distraction the interferences and job friction between it and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
The Acting Director-General of SON, Dr. Paul Angya who made his assertion in Lagos on Thursday in response to a question raised by a member of a delegation from that National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) who paid him a courtesy visit at the organization’s office, said that SON officials were focused in delivering their mandate of quality based products to the citizen of the country adding that they were not engaged in any territorial contest with any agency.
Angya described as unfortunate the alleged interferences of NAFDAC officials as it relates to motor vehicle lubricants saying that that product ordinarily did not fall within the jurisdiction of NAFDAC even as he explained that the responsibility of NAFDAC was food, drug and related chemicals.
He said,” NAFDAC does not make standards; NAFDAC is a body that uses standards to draw up regulations. It does quality assurance, conformity to standards. It uses standards to enforce its regulations. So, there shouldn’t really be a problem between us and NAFDAC because we are complimenting each other.
“But when you talk about oil, we talk about lubricants. So, the responsibility of NAFDAC is food, drugs and related chemicals, that is to say that NAFDAC has no business with motor vehicle lubricants but I have even heard of NAFDAC talking about steel rods, that is iron rods”.
He blamed the problem on the inability of the institutions in the country to function as institutions should since institutions are built around individuals who heads them at a particular time and who may not really have a full grasp of his mandate adding that that was why it is important for Nigeria to build institutions not personalities so that even at the exit of the Chief executive, the system he put in place would continue to run without the fear of some other persons coming to jettison what they met on ground.
“We as government agency is critical for NAFDAC to perform its function. We as SON is critical for NAFDAC to take off from where we stopped. It shouldn’t be that NAFDAC is doing this and we are doing this and we are stumbling on each other.
“We at SON, we understand our mandate, if we talk about food, it is only when it is necessary to ensure standard specification are applied. It has nothing to do with having to challenge anybody in their jurisdiction. It is only that you will require standard to say that that food is a quality food.
“So, the issue of SON and NAFDAC is an unnecessary distraction and we are not distracted in SON. We are focused in delivering our mandate of quality based products to the citizens of this country. We are not engaged in territorial contest with anybody”, he said.
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