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A former Executive Secretary, National University Commission, Prof. Peter Okebukola, has said the book written in his honour, ‘Prof. Okebukola at 70: Dialogue on Pivotal issues in Higher Education Development in Nigeria, will provide solution to problems of higher education in Nigeria.
Okebukola who was speaking at a zoom meeting where his friends and colleagues celebrated him on his 70th birthday said the book had insights into many problems facing higher education in Nigeria as well as the right solutions.
“I have read through the book and I can tell you , it is a great one. It is a book for yesterday, today , tomorrow and the future. If I want to do justice to the book, I will personally take copies to the Minister of Education, in Abuja and the Executive Secretary, NUC. I will tell them, these are the issues in higher education as well as the solutions,” he said.
Delta Governor, Senator Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa (2nd left), Publisher, THIS DAY Newspapers, Prince Nduka Obaigbena (left), Chairman, Vanguard Newspapers, Mr. Sam Amuka (right), and Chairman and Publisher of Guardian Newspapers, Mrs Maiden Ibru during a condolence visit by Publishers of Newspapers from Delta State on Governor Ifeanyi Okowa over the death of his father, Pa Arthur Okowa in Asaba.
Publisher of The Guardian, Mrs. Maiden Ibru, has commended Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta for visible infrastructural development in the state.
Ibru stated this when she and two other newspaper publishers from Delta – Nduka Obaigbena, Thisday and Sam Amuka, Vanguard – visited Okowa at Government House, Asaba, on Thursday to condole with him on the passing of his father on Jan. 28, 2021,
Drug Counterfeiting: Experts call for comprehensive national Intellectual Property policy
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By Chioma Obinna
For Nigeria to take full advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry, experts have called on the Federal Government to immediately establish a comprehensive national Intellectual Property, IP, a policy that would address what they described as “fragmented framework” for IP protection in Nigeria even as they regretted that Nigeria does not produce up to 1 per cent of generic medicines in the world
At a media parley on Counterfeiting and IP Infringement in the Pharmaceutical Space”, the stakeholders maintained that getting an effective policy and strategy was the only way to benefit from the African free trade otherwise Nigeria will end up with only pockets of activities.
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Experts have alleged that Nigeria loses an estimated sum of N200 billion annually to counterfeit medicines, a sum that excludes what it loses to substandard drugs, adding that the proliferation of fake and counterfeit medicine has detrimental effects on the economy and on society.
This was part of the submissions by a panel of experts at a media parley on intellectual property (IP) infringement in the pharmaceutical sector organised by the American Business Council and some partners.
According to the panel, a market survey by Pfizer revealed that 40 per cent of Pfizer medicines in Nigeria are sourced from illicit parallel importation (a form of counterfeiting) while a 2011 World Health Organisation study found that about 64 per cent of anti-malarial drugs in Nigeria were fake, adding that the counterfeit and substandard drug distribution network is so expansive that over 50 per cent of drugs, food and drinks sold in open markets are counterfeit.