Abstract:
Consumers are increasingly becoming aware of their rights, with government designing
laws and setting up relevant bodies to protect the rights of the consumers; consumers of
medicines inclusive, since medicines are critical and essential for the well being of the
populace, as it could alleviate symptoms and manifestations of disease if used appropriately
while on the other hand when adulterated or counterfeited it could lead to undesirable
consequences. The study identified the effect of counterfeit medicines on the health of
consumers, assessed NAFDAC statutory functions that protect the rights of consumers and
examined the legal framework for medicine consumer’s protection. Survey research design
was employed in the study. Medicine consumers made up the population of study. The
total population of the study is 484,798 (NPC 2006) with a sample size of 300. Primary
and secondary data were used in the study. Primary data were collected through the
administration of structured questionnaire. A total of 300 questionnaires were
administered, 294 were returned with a response rate of 98%. Descriptive and inferential
statistics were used to analyze the data. The R= 0.891 and R 2 =0.794 or 79.4%, of the effect
of counterfeit medicine revealed that 79.4% of the variation of counterfeit medicines is
explained by the variation in effect on the health and safety of the consumer; while R=0.338
and R 2 =0.114 of NAFDAC statutory function mean that about 11.4% of the variation in
the performance of NAFDAC statutory function is explained by the variation in the rights
of the consumers. Hypotheses were tested using the ANOVA and the result showed that
NAFDAC statutory functions were performed in a way that some rights of the consumer s
were protected with the calculated F value of 7.381, while the table value of F at 0.05
significance is 5.05. The results revealed that the legal framework though in place, is
deficient in protecting some rights of medicine consumers. The law was also found wanting
in that it failed to expressly contain the legal meaning of the word “adulteration”. The study
concluded that the statutory functions of NAFDAC were geared towards protection of
some rights of the consumers while some of the rights were neglected. The study
recommended that relevant laws particularly NAFDAC Act be amended to accommodate,
right to be heard and compensated; and the law to expressly contain the legal meaning of
“adulteration”.
