A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Afe Babalola, has said bad leadership is fast turning Nigerians to beggars, particularly the South-west Nigeria, saying the culture of begging was alien to Yoruba race in the past years.
The founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti (ABUAD) said the Yoruba people had deep resentment for begging in the 40’s and 50’s, adding that “they have seen begging as a way of life, contrary to what they believed in because of poverty caused by bad governance.”
The senior advocate of Nigeria spoke in Ado Ekiti yesterday when the leadership of the Pharmaceutical Council of Nigeria(PCN) paid a visit to ABUAD on assessment tour of the Pharmacy Department of the newly inaugurated 400-bed Afe Babalola University Teaching Hospital(ABUTH).
He said: “Today, Nigeria is at a crossroad. The Yorubas were not used to begging in the 40’s and 50’s, they used to stone beggars because they viewed it as a shameful act.
“But today, go to occasions and see how well dressed people beg for money. That was why we want to join the change agents using our university as a model, even ABUAD is synonymous with change.
“In our school here, we didn’t concentrate alone on academics, we are into farming. Our moringa tree is used to produce eight products that are consumed and provide jobs for our people”.
He described Pharmacists as pivots of the medical practice, “who were like the old time herbalists that gave herbs to the people for healing. We need your advice to be able to have a strong pharmacy department and that we will comply with”, he said.
The President of the PCN, Prof Mbang Femi-Oyewo, said the mission of the regulatory body in ABUAD is to come and assess the pharmacy department and to guide on how to give the recommendations to the university on how best to run the department .
She said: “We want this university to have an excellent Pharmacy Department that will serve as a reference point just like every other department in the hospital and that can meet international standard.
“This is a regulatory body that gives recommendations based on facilities we see. We want to ensure that the department is not left behind, and that is why we are here to give professional advice, because we don’t want people to be traveling to India to get medical treatment when we get a facility like ABUTH.
“Pharmacy department is very essential and it requires special expertise for its operation. We want the best practice here that aligns with global best practices and that is why we are here as a regulatory body”, he said.
