NAFDAC Workers Suspend Strike Following Ribadu’s Intervention

*Agency inaugurates breast-milk substitutes (BMS) state multi-sectoral tech committees

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

Striking workers of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) have suspended their action.
The staff of agency had declared an indefinite strike starting from October 7 to protest management’s failure to uphold an agreement signed in 2022, which addressed workers’ welfare and promotion issues.
However, the management said that an agreement to end the over two- week stand-off reached at a reconciliatory meeting brokered by the National Security Adviser, Malam Nuhu Ribadu on Friday.

NAFDAC’s Resident Media Consultant Sayo Akintola who confirmed the development to THISDAY on Sunday, said: “The strike was suspended on Friday after a meeting with the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu”.
Meanwhile, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control NAFDAC has inaugurated the Breast-milk Substitutes (BMS) State Multi-Sectoral Technical Committees across 32 States in line with the ongoing implementation of the National Strategy for the implementation of the International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes in Nigeria.

A statement by Akintola quoted NAFDAC’s DG, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, as having described inauguration of the BMS State teams as a reflection of the agency’s renewed efforts to implement and enforce the International Code of Marketing of Breast milk substitutes and the National BMS Regulations in Nigeria.

Speaking at the virtual inauguration and capacity building of BMS State multi-sectoral technical committees on Friday, Adeyeye charged the teams to lead the effort in their respective states to ensure full compliance with the provisions of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes and the National BMS Regulations
According to her, these frameworks are crucial to protecting and promoting breastfeeding in Nigeria, a practice that plays a significant role in improving the health and well-being of children and mothers.

She further stated that breastfeeding is key to public health, foundational to infant and young child health and development, supports cognitive and psychosocial development, as well as protects against infectious and non-communicable diseases.