NAFDAC has urged safe medicine use among FCT residents, using a community workshop in Karu to warn against self-medication, antibiotic abuse and counterfeit drugs. The agency told community and faith leaders that the right medicine, taken the wrong way, can become a serious risk to health.
The safe medicine use message in Karu
The session was led by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control’s Director of Pharmacovigilance Services, Dr Uchenna Elemuwa, who was represented by Mrs Hauwa Makama, Deputy Director of Food and Drug Information. He explained that medicines turn hazardous through misuse, overuse, underuse or improper prescribing, and that small everyday habits often cause the biggest problems.
The agency listed the practices it sees most often: buying drugs without guidance, sharing medicines among family and friends, taking the wrong dose, and stacking too many products at once. Officials said each of these raises the chance of harm and can leave patients worse off than the illness they set out to treat.
Why antibiotic abuse is a special worry
A large part of the briefing focused on antibiotics. NAFDAC said the misuse and overuse of these drugs is speeding up antimicrobial resistance, the process by which germs adapt and stop responding to treatment. The result is that infections once cleared easily are becoming harder, slower and more expensive to manage.
Resistance is a quiet threat because it builds up over time and is invisible to the patient who feels fine after stopping a course early. The agency urged residents to take antibiotics only when prescribed, finish the full course, and avoid keeping leftover tablets for the next time they feel unwell.
Turning residents into reporters
Mrs Hafsat Gwaran, Director of Disease Control at the FCT Primary Health Care Board, pressed the audience to report any bad reaction to a drug. “Whatever report you write or pass on, it is what will help stem further reactions,” she said, framing ordinary citizens as a frontline source of safety data for regulators.
The choice of community and faith-based organisations as the main audience was deliberate. Such leaders speak to households, churches, mosques and local groups every week, and NAFDAC wants them to carry the message into homes where official campaigns rarely reach. Joseph Danfulani-Nareti, the Sakamuyi of Karu, welcomed the initiative and said many residents simply did not know the dangers of improper medicine use.
Why it matters for the FCT
Self-medication is common across Nigeria, where many people buy drugs from informal vendors and treat symptoms at home before seeing a professional. Workshops like this one aim to shift that culture gradually, replacing guesswork with simple, repeatable rules about how to store, share and finish medicines safely.
For FCT residents, the practical takeaways are clear: get a diagnosis before reaching for drugs, follow the dose and duration a professional gives, avoid unauthorised sellers, and report side effects rather than ignore them. NAFDAC says steady habits, repeated across communities, are the surest way to protect families and slow the spread of resistant infections.
