Earlier this year, a BBC Africa documentary put the world on alert about Nigeria’s codeine epidemic. We learnt the height of the problem and essentially Nigerian authorities had the ball in their court. Their reaction has come in the form of recalling over two million bottles of cough syrup containing the substance to combat the widespread addiction.
The decision is based on recommendations from a committee report from the country’s anti-drug abuse agencies, Christiana Adeyeye, Director- General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) told CNN Monday.
“We asked all pharmaceutical companies producing codeine-cough syrups to recall the drugs. It was painstaking process that took six weeks but it is part of the steps we are taking to tackle codeine abuse in the country,” Adeyeye said.