Fake drugs, drinks, foods everywhere: Deadly business killing Nigerians as treatment failures rise

Imagine getting a new job and being so excited that you buy a bottle of wine to celebrate with your boss. Imagine travelling home for Christmas with a carton of assorted drinks for the elders in your village, hoping to make the festive season memorable.
Imagine taking your blood pressure medication every day, only to discover that your blood pressure remains dangerously high. You spend more money on hospital visits, change prescriptions and consult different doctors, yet your condition refuses to improve.

Imagine buying palm oil from the market to prepare your family’s favourite meal, unaware that the red liquid you are about to pour into your pot may have been adulterated. Or buying fruits for your children, believing they have ripened naturally, without knowing how they were handled before arriving at the market.

For millions of Nigerians, these are more than frightening possibilities. They represent the growing anxiety surrounding the safety and authenticity of products consumed daily in homes, workplaces, markets and hospitals across the country.

But in Lagos and Aba, recent enforcement operations by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) have brought the danger into sharper focus, exposing suspected operations involving counterfeit drinks and packaging materials bearing the names of established brands.

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