The History Of Pharmacy In Nigeria

History of pharmacy

There is a general saying that to know where one is going, it is important to know where you are coming from. True to some extent, this post gives a brief overview of pharmacy profession in Nigeria. However, there are many sides to the history of pharmacy in Nigeria. This post concentrates more on the history of pharmacy education in Nigeria. That is not to say other aspects will not be touch.
The pharmacy profession did not originate from Nigeria. Pharmacy practice technically was the first form of science when humans use nature to treat diseases. The pharmacy programme was part of medical science. It went a separate way from medical science in the year 1240 by the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Fredrick II of Hohenstaufen. The first ever known pharmacy shop in the world was in Baghdad, Iraq during the 8th century. It took centuries before the first ever pharmacy shop came to Nigeria.

First Pharmacy Shop

Before pharmacy profession came to Nigeria, Nigerians have been known to use nature just like their foreign counterparts in treating diseases. However, a European operated the first pharmacy shop in Nigeria, by the name Mr Richard Zachues Bailey (1829 – 1911) in the year 1887. The shop was at Balogun Street, Lagos state. The store was licenced by the then governor-in-council. That showed that licencing has always been with us right from the very beginning.
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Early Dispensers

The European Medical doctors that reside in Nigeria started training dispensers in 1899. There was no formal school hence the apprentice method. In this method, a student can decide the medical doctor to serve under as a master. The student goes to the house or the shop of the MD every morning. In other cases, the student may live with the master for some years.

Early Association

Dispensers that graduated were later employed to work in the government hospitals. Obviously, the hospital cannot absorb them all as they started selling drugs in the 1920s. These dispensers came together to form Nigeria’s first ever pharmacy association known as Association of Dispensers (A.D). It will interest you to know that this association is still with us today as Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (P.S.N). It was registered in 1956.
It was not until 1947 that pharmacists in civil service formed an association known as Nigerian union of pharmacists. It was dissolved in the year 1977 when national trade union took over all other unions.

Early Student Dispensers

The first school of dispensers is Yaba Higher College, Lagos established in 1927. Another druggist and chemist school was established at Zaria in 1930. The training of dispensers, druggist, and chemist started in 1946 and regulation was by the Board of Medical Examiners (B.M.E). For now, they were all diploma degree. Entry requirement were relevant science subjects in General Certificate Examination (G.C.E) ‘O’ level for its five years course. It was three years for those who entered for the Diploma program was the postsecondary certificate obtained from the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology (NCAST), Ibadan.
Mr Joseph Ogunlesi was the first person to own an indigenous pharmacy shop in Nigeria. This was located at Victoria Street in Lagos. That same year, two others came up. One thing to note is that previous pharmacy shops where for Europeans and elite Nigerians. This figure rose significantly to 200 by 1960.

Early Pharmacy Students

The school of pharmacy moved from Yaba Health College to the Ibadan in 1957 as a department under the formal NCAST, Ibadan. In the 1962 University of Ife, Ile Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU) took over the program. It awarded chemist and druggist diploma. Later start the diploma in pharmacy in 1963 until 1965. It was not until 1966 that they graduated their first pharmacy students with a B. Pharm; classified degree. It took, however, Ahmadu Bello University (A.B.U) seven years to produce their first pharmacy graduate with B.Sc. Pharm. A point to note is that ABU came from the school of pharmacy, Zaria. The degree was for three years, which started in 1968.
The entry requirement at this time has changed a bit. They require applicants to obtain a Higher School Certificate (H.S.C), Interim Joint Matriculation Examination (I.J.M.B), or ‘A’ level GCE certificate. This examination normally takes between 1 – 2 years. The next school that started pharmacy was the University of Nsuka, (U.N.N). Other schools followed years later. This was how the school of pharmacy started in Nigeria.

Changes To Pharmacy Programme

It was not until the 1980s that the degree became four years from three years and degree became unclassified. The minimum pass mark was raised from the normal 40 % to 50 %. Another interesting part is that the minimum graduation requirement was a Cumulative Grade Point Average (C.G.P.A) of second class lower.
It was in 1984 pharmacy programs appeared for the first time in Joint Admission And Matriculation Examination (J.A.M.B) brochure. The duration for students coming in through JAMB was five years with a declassified degree. From this date, the first set of students with a declassified degree was to graduate at 1988.
However, the first set of pharmacy students with a declassified degree was from O.A.U in the year 1987. This is a year less than the expected. The students that graduate with the degree were the ones who gained admission a year before JAMB introduce pharmacy into their brochure in 1984. That is while these sets of students are technically the first to graduate with a pharmacy degree unclassified. However, ABU was the first to attain the four-year duration. This thus makes their students the first official students to graduate with a pharmacy degree unclassified.
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In 1990, National Universities Commission (N.U.C) change terms to a semester of 15 weeks, twice in a year. One credit unit means one hour of lecture per week or three hours of practical per week.
Pharm. D. was first launched in the United States Of America (U.S.A) in the 1990s. It came to Nigeria in the year 2003 and the first school to run the programme is University of Benin (U.N.I.B.E.N).
The government using its ministries regulates pharmacy education and practice. The ministries set up bodies that help to carry out these regulations such as Pharmacist Council of Nigeria (P.C.N) under Federal Ministry of Health (F.M.C) and NUC under Federal Ministry of Education (F.M.E). PCN was established in 1992.
Did I miss anything? Please add yours in the comment section below.