LAGOS, Nigeria – The Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Professor Mojisola Christianah Adeyeye, has challenged any contractor or corporate entity that claims she ever solicited or received a bribe from them to present their allegations publicly, dismissing organized campaigns calling for her resignation, regulatory chiefs confirmed during a press briefing in Lagos on Monday, September 7, 2026.
The regulatory chief mounted an impassioned defense of her nine-year stewardship at the helm of Nigeria’s food and drug safety agency, recounting how her administration systematically rebuilt an institution once ridiculed domestically and internationally as dysfunctional.
Okay News reports that Adeyeye addressed senior editors and health correspondents, stressing that her decision to assume public office in Nigeria was propelled entirely by a patriotic commitment to public service rather than personal enrichment.
“Any contractor that I have demanded money from should come here and tell me! I came here for service. I retired happily. I was ashamed of my country! I came to remove some of the shame. And the world is seeing it! The world is seeing it!” Adeyeye declared.
The NAFDAC director-general explained that she spent 34 years residing in the United States, including three decades as a distinguished university professor, before returning home to contribute to national health security.
“I lived in the US for 34 years. I was a professor for 30 years in an all-white school. I retired happily. I came here to serve, but some Nigerians have an aversion to service. It is for what can I get! We have rendered Nigeria useless because of ‘what can I get’! We have rendered Nigeria useless because of ‘what is in it for my pocket?’” she said.
Reflecting on the operational quagmire she inherited upon taking office in November 2017, Adeyeye disclosed that the agency was burdened with ₦3.2 billion in outstanding liabilities, including ₦1.6 billion in unpaid staff taxes, travel allowances for Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) inspections, and arrears owed to external contractors.
She revealed that between 70 and 80 percent of laboratory analytical equipment across the agency’s testing facilities was broken down, while internal information and communications technology infrastructure was completely obsolete, leaving directors without official laptops.
“No single director had a laptop bought by NAFDAC as of 2017. The ICT was put in the deep freezer. We paid about N3.1 billion by November 2018. The other money was fictitious, and we did not pay that one. Then people asked me — why are you paying debts? We don’t pay debts here o! I said ehn ehn? But I told them I was brought up not to owe. Not to be a slave to the lender,” she said.
Adeyeye linked recurring strikes and smear campaigns—particularly an administrative shutdown that lasted between June and November 2022—to coordinated internal and external sabotage aimed at derailing her reappointment and scuttling regulatory enforcement against counterfeit products and illicit sachet alcohol packaging.
Despite the resistance, the NAFDAC boss pointed to significant institutional transformation, noting that the agency elevated Nigeria’s regulatory status from below baseline to World Health Organization (WHO) Maturity Level 3 by March 2022, becoming only the third national regulator in Africa to achieve the benchmark.
She added that the agency subsequently gained affiliate status with the International Medical Device Regulators Forum in March 2023 and attained full membership in the International Council for Harmonisation in 2025, elevating the global standing of Nigerian pharmaceutical manufacturing.
“By March 2022, we became a maturity level 3 Agency, the third in Africa. Countries now respect us. Regulatory agencies respect us. In my first two years, I was going round doing image-making, rebuilding our bad image. They were calling NAFDAC ‘good for nothing agency’. Somebody told me, ‘Oh, we used to call NAFDAC a good-for-nothing agency. Congratulations, you are now maturity level 3,’” Adeyeye stated, reaffirming that the agency will not yield to intimidation in enforcing food and drug standards nationwide.
