• Advocate investment in indigenous medicine to reduce dependence on imported drugs
• PCN inducts 115 ABUAD students into Doctor of Pharmacy

A Professor of Social Work at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Fatai Badru, has called for the empowerment of psychiatric nurses through continuous training, adequate equipment, improved welfare and leadership opportunities to enable them to tackle suicide risks, detect relapse early and improve patients’ outcomes.

Badru, a former Clinical Nurse Specialist/Psychiatric Nurse at the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba (FNPHY), Lagos, made the call while delivering the keynote address at the hospital’s 2026 Nurses’ Week celebration, themed, “Our Nurses, Our Future – Empowered Nurses Save Lives.”

He said nursing had evolved beyond routine hospital duties, with nurses playing important roles in specialised clinical care, mental health management, emergency response, research, patient advocacy and health education.

Meanwhile, Director-General of the Nigeria Natural Medicine Development Agency (NNMDA), Prof. Martins Emeje, has called for greater investment in natural, traditional and indigenous medicine as part of efforts to strengthen Nigeria’s healthcare system and reduce the country’s dependence on imported pharmaceutical products.

Emeje spoke yesterday in Ado-Ekiti as the guest lecturer at the second induction and oath-taking ceremony of the 2025/2026 Doctor of Pharmacy graduands of the College of Pharmacy, Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD).

The ceremony, which witnessed the induction of 115 pharmacy graduates into the profession, was held under the theme: “Advancing Pharmacy Practice in the 21st Century: Integrating Digital Innovation, One Health and Indigenous Knowledge towards Global Medicine Security,” with 35 of them bagging first class honours.

Badru said the responsibilities of psychiatric nurses were particularly critical, noting that they could identify early signs of relapse in patients with schizophrenia, de-escalate acute psychosis, assess suicide risk and provide therapeutic support.

Head of Nursing, FNPHY, Alonge Kehinde, said the theme of the celebration was a reminder of the strategic role nurses played in healthcare delivery.

The DG maintained that communities should pay greater attention to the relationship between diseases and their natural environments, stressing that solutions to health challenges could be found within the ecosystems where such diseases occur.