NANS Urges NAFDAC To Verify Products Sold In Lagos Campuses
By Sherif Salau
The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has urged the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to conduct random laboratory tests on drugs, food, beverages and packaged water sold around campuses in Lagos and nationwide amid concerns about potential health risks.
In an open letter dated Friday and addressed to the Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, NANS called for random laboratory testing of products commonly consumed by students. The letter, signed by the association’s Director of Health, Augustine Onovughegor, specifically cited drugs, food items, soft drinks and packaged water sold in markets, shops and kiosks near campuses and student residential areas.
According to the students’ body, reports from campus health centres, teaching hospitals and student communities have raised alarms about a range of health problems among young people. These include kidney and liver complications, seizure disorders, gastrointestinal infections, foodborne illnesses and cases of suspected chemical poisoning. While the letter stopped short of presenting detailed clinical data linking every case to specific products, it argued that the pattern of illnesses pointed to possible exposure to substandard or falsified medicines, contaminated food, unregulated additives and other harmful substances.
“When the regulator is absent, the market becomes a laboratory of harm, and our students become the experimental subjects,” the letter stated.
NANS outlined a series of practical steps it wants NAFDAC to take. These include risk-based inspections focused on campus environments, routine random product testing, prompt public alerts and product recalls where necessary, and the prosecution of manufacturers or distributors found supplying unsafe goods. The association also urged closer collaboration between NAFDAC, its own health directorate and campus clinics to improve the reporting of suspected adverse reactions and foodborne illnesses.
Other recommendations included the creation of a publicly accessible database of registered products, stronger batch-verification systems that students and vendors can easily use, and sustained consumer-education campaigns on campuses to help young people identify counterfeit medicines and unsafe food.
Although the call is national in scope, it carries particular resonance in Lagos, home to some of the country’s largest student populations and dense commercial clusters that supply food and everyday consumables to campuses. For many students living off-campus or relying on nearby markets for affordable meals and water, the quality of what they buy is a daily concern rather than an abstract regulatory issue.
The letter reflects a broader anxiety that regulatory presence has not kept pace with the informal markets that have grown around universities. NANS acknowledged resource constraints but insisted that the health of students should not be treated as secondary. Whether NAFDAC responds with targeted campus-focused operations or broader surveillance will determine if the association’s warning translates into measurable protection for the young people who form a significant part of Nigeria’s consumer base.
