UNBUNDLE NAFDAC NOW! SANNI CALLS FOR RADICAL RESTRUCTURING

NSPRI Executive Director raises concerns over NAFDAC’s professional composition and calls for a reassessment of its regulatory structure and responsibilities.

Nigeria’s battle against fake and adulterated food may require a fundamental rethink of the institutions entrusted with protecting public health. Professor Lateef Oladimeji Sanni, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Stored Products Research Institute (NSPRI), has called for the unbundling of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), raising important questions about the agency’s professional composition, operational boundaries and capacity to address Nigeria’s increasingly complex food safety challenges.

Speaking during the fifth edition of the ValidViewNetwork Monthly Global Discourse, Professor Sanni advocated a reconsideration of NAFDAC’s existing structure, particularly its pharmaceutical orientation, and the need to recognise the contributions of other relevant scientific and technical professionals.

His position brings renewed attention to a fundamental question about Nigeria’s regulatory architecture: can an agency with extensive responsibilities for food, drugs and other regulated products deliver optimal results without a sufficiently broad professional base and clearly defined operational responsibilities?

ValidViewNetwork reports that Professor Sanni’s call for NAFDAC to be unbundled formed part of the discussions at the fifth edition of ValidViewNetwork Monthly Global Discourse held virtually on Sunday, 25 October 2026, under the theme, “Poison on the Plate: Confronting Nigeria’s Epidemic of Fake and Adulterated Food Items.”

The programme brought together experts and participants from food science, environmental management, agriculture, public health, research and related fields to examine the growing threat of unsafe food products and the institutional reforms needed to protect Nigerian consumers.

Professor Sanni, a distinguished food scientist with extensive experience in food processing, preservation, post-harvest management and quality assurance, was joined by Professor Beatrice Olutoyin Opeolu, an environmental toxicologist, researcher and environmental consultant.

Their complementary expertise provided an opportunity to examine the scientific, environmental and regulatory dimensions of food safety in Nigeria.

Professor Sanni’s call for NAFDAC to be unbundled raises important questions about the agency’s professional composition and whether its current structure adequately reflects the breadth of its responsibilities.

The concern centres on the reported dominance of pharmacists within the agency and the need to provide greater representation for professionals whose expertise is essential to food safety regulation, ValidViewNetwork reports.

Although pharmacists play important roles in pharmaceutical regulation and quality assurance, protecting consumers against unsafe food requires a wider range of scientific competencies.

Food scientists, microbiologists, environmental toxicologists, analytical chemists, nutritionists and public health professionals all possess specialised knowledge relevant to detecting contamination, investigating adulteration and preventing exposure to harmful substances.

The Distinguished Discussants reasoned that food safety begins long before products reach the marketplace.

It involves agricultural production, the application of chemicals, harvesting, processing, preservation, storage, transportation and distribution.

Each stage presents distinct risks that require appropriate technical expertise.

Consequently, a regulatory system that does not adequately integrate these professional disciplines risks weakening its ability to identify hazards, investigate violations and develop effective preventive measures, they stated.

The argument for unbundling NAFDAC should therefore be understood within the broader need to establish a regulatory framework that aligns institutional responsibilities with the competencies required to discharge them effectively.

According to Professor Opeolu, food adulteration can involve chemical manipulation, unsafe preservation techniques, microbial contamination and the misuse of substances during production and processing.

The Distinguished Discussants affirmed that investigating these practices requires expertise extending beyond pharmaceutical science.

“Food scientists understand processing and preservation. Microbiologists investigate biological contamination. Environmental toxicologists examine the movement of pollutants into food chains, while analytical chemists identify and measure hazardous substances.

Nutritionists and public health professionals contribute to the assessment of risks to consumers and the development of appropriate preventive interventions. These disciplines are essential to an effective food safety system.”

Professor Sanni’s call for unbundling therefore raises a question that policymakers cannot afford to ignore: should Nigeria continue with its existing regulatory arrangement without examining whether specialised responsibilities would be better managed through a more differentiated institutional structure?

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A carefully designed restructuring could preserve the strengths of pharmaceutical regulation while ensuring that food safety receives the specialised attention it requires.

WHEN ONE AGENCY CARRIES TOO MANY RESPONSIBILITIES

The discourse also highlights the problem of institutional overlaps and the potential consequences of assigning responsibilities without clearly defining operational boundaries.

The discussants affirmed that food safety is not the responsibility of NAFDAC alone.

“Depending on the issue, agricultural authorities, environmental health institutions, public health agencies, research organisations and local governments also have important roles.

Where responsibilities overlap without effective coordination, enforcement may become complicated and accountability difficult to establish.

Some challenges, including environmental contamination, unhygienic food production, market sanitation and grassroots surveillance, may require specialised institutional arrangements and stronger collaboration among relevant agencies they submitted

Unbundling NAFDAC should therefore involve more than creating additional institutions. It should begin with a comprehensive examination of existing mandates, professional requirements, regulatory gaps and operational overlaps.

The objective must be to establish clear responsibilities, eliminate unnecessary duplication and ensure that every institution possesses the expertise and resources required to perform its functions.

Such restructuring should be guided by evidence, statutory clarity, administrative efficiency and the overriding need to protect consumers.

Professor Sanni’s intervention underscores the importance of aligning regulatory structures with the realities of modern food safety challenges.

The Federal Government should consider an independent review of NAFDAC’s professional composition, statutory responsibilities and operational effectiveness.

ValidViewNetwork reports that the review should examine whether pharmaceutical regulation and certain food safety functions would benefit from greater institutional differentiation, while identifying the most effective arrangements for coordination and accountability.

A stronger regulatory framework would combine appropriate professional representation with well equipped laboratories, effective inspections, reliable surveillance, timely investigations and transparent enforcement.

It would also strengthen collaboration between regulatory agencies and research institutions capable of generating scientific evidence to support decision making.

Ultimately, the purpose of restructuring should not be to diminish any professional group. It should be to ensure that institutional arrangements serve the public interest rather than preserve structures simply because they have existed for years.

ValidViewNetwork reports that the call for restructuring presents an opportunity to reconsider the relationship between professional expertise, institutional mandates and regulatory effectiveness in Nigeria.

Nigeria cannot afford to treat the structure of its regulatory institutions as untouchable while consumers continue to demand stronger protection against unsafe food and other harmful products.

The question is not whether pharmacists belong in NAFDAC. They do. The more important question is whether the agency’s professional composition and operational structure adequately reflect the full range of responsibilities it carries.

Professor Sanni’s call for unbundling deserves serious consideration because effective regulation requires more than professional tradition or the concentration of expertise in a single discipline.

It requires clearly defined mandates, multidisciplinary competence, institutional accountability and the courage to reform arrangements that no longer deliver optimal results.

The Federal Government should therefore subject NAFDAC’s structure to a comprehensive, evidence based review and determine whether unbundling would produce a more effective regulatory system.

A nation serious about protecting its citizens must be willing to rethink its institutions. NAFDAC must be structured around the demands of effective regulation, not the comfort of established arrangements. Where unbundling offers a better route to specialised oversight, clearer responsibilities and stronger consumer protection, Nigeria must have the courage to pursue reform in the public interest, ValidViewNetwork reports.