I inherited ₦3.2bn debt, ₦500m missing funds on assumption of office — NAFDAC DG

The Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, has revealed that she inherited a debt of ₦3.2bn, while ₦500m was unaccounted for upon her resumption in the office.

In an interview on Channels Television’s Inside Sources on Friday, Adeyeye disclosed that such debt and missing funds were enough to declare the agency bankrupt if it had happened in a developed country like the United States.

“When I got to NAFDAC, I met ₦3.2bn debt, and ₦500m missing, and there was no account for it before I came,” she said.

“I asked them if they had capital projects they used the money for. Bear in mind that at that time, ₦1 million was equivalent to $2000. So multiply $2000 by ₦500m. I was coming from the US where money was hard to get. You worked hard for your money. I could have given up, but I saw an opportunity and seized it.

“It was tough because if that had happened in the US, NAFDAC would have been declared bankrupt, and a financial house would have taken over the management of our finances. But I didn’t have money to hire a financial house.

“My point is that we have enough endowment in this country to make things better, and I am using NAFDAC as an example. I said I was going to cut to the bone. I am going to be using technology to ensure that our system moves on.

“We started Zoom meetings in 2018. Many people didn’t like it because they were used to getting travel allowances and DTAs. But we had to save.”

Commenting on the #EndBadGovernance nationwide protest on hunger and hardship, she said the challenges were a reflection of 60 years of decadence, adding that at independence, Nigeria was a country that worked.

“I was young when we got our independence, and I knew the Nigeria that worked. We left the country for further studies in 1980, and we were part of those who fought for the democracy of this country.

“My husband and others fought for the democracy of this country. My husband, with the current president of this country, President Bola Tinubu, fought for independence. Some of them had broken homes. Some of them and others in the diaspora were always going to beg others to help us and deliver us from military rule then.

“At some point, a friend of mine asked me, ‘Aunty Moji, is something wrong with you and your husband?’ Because he was teaching on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and those were the days he was present at home. He was always going with other leaders of Nigeria to beg other countries to help us. So I take whatever is happening now personally.

“That was what made him come back home in 2002 after 22 years. He was an interim chairman of his local government, and people were shocked at what happened to Ifedayo Local Government Osun State within one year. Before he came, there was no light in his local government for six months. He brought light. There was no water for 17 years; he brought water.

“He wore knicker to work, and they told him he was supposed to be wearing Agbada. It was the best job he ever did.

“So, I take whatever is happening now personally. I was there for 37 years because I had to take care of the children. Both of us couldn’t come. He and others sacrificed a lot for the pro-democracy movement. After 37 years, I came back and, of course, my profession is pharmacy. I was a professor for 30 years. I retired from the US system and came back to a country I couldn’t recognize anymore in terms of our values, state of our pharmaceutical industry, quality of medicines, and general healthcare delivery. That’s why I said what is happening now is a result of six decades of decadence.”

The NAFDAC DG noted that the situation that led to the present Nigeria situation started from the homes, religious centres and schools, moving all the way up to the highest levels of the Nigerian society.

She added, “I had thought of the new national anthem that says ‘in peace and plenty.’ We are not looking for the Ethiopian system of government. It cannot happen. However, our people deserve the best within the context of our resources.

“But our values have gone, and it started from the home. If the parents are not doing what they should do, if the church and mosque are not doing what they are supposed to do, and if the schools are not the way they should be…it goes right up to the highest level of functionality of society.

“So what is happening now is very painful for me. I am a realist because, after 37 years abroad and coming back home, the reality is there that you have got to sacrifice. We were very comfortable in the US. But it is not all about comfort, but about making a significant impact in society.

“In peace and plenty may Nigeria be blessed. We cannot be blessed without a transparent society. We cannot be blessed if we have corruption. Corruption has eaten into the fibre of the society,” she said.