Angela Onwuzoo
The Society of Testing Laboratory Analysts of Nigeria has called on the Federal Government to reconstitute the governing council of the Institute of Public Analysts of Nigeria.
SoTLAN also asked the government to pay off the salary arrears of the affected staff of the institute without further delay.
IPAN, a parastatal under the Federal Ministry of Health, was established by the IPAN Act CAP.I16 LFN 2004 to train, examine, register public analysts and regulate their practice.
In June 2023, President Bola Tinubu dissolved the governing boards of all Federal Government parastatals,
agencies, institutions, and government-owned companies.
However, in January, Tinubu restored funding for 13 national health regulators including IPAN that were initially defunded in the 2024 budget.
Speaking on Wednesday during a press conference in Lagos ahead of the 6th annual conference of public analysts, tagged, ‘COPA 2024’, President of SoTLAN, Prof. Olugbenga Ogunmoyela, said the governing council of IPAN must be reconstituted to allow the institute to function optimally.
Ogunmoyela, a professor of Food Science and Technology, said over the years, since its establishment, IPAN through its governing council had put in place elaborate processes for training and admitting new members, whether as students or full members, depending on years of experience.
The public analyst said, “I wish to make a passionate request for the reconstitution of the dissolved Governing Council of IPAN as the members duly elected by the IPAN Act had only completed one year of their tenure before the dissolution of the Council in June 2023.
“The future of the profession is threatened in the absence of the Council, especially with the need to refocus energy on how to be able to ultimately achieve self-funding in line with the expectations of this government.
“In the same vein, we implore the government to complete the good work it started with the restoration of funding of the regulatory professional bodies in the health sector by paying off the salary arrears of the affected staff without further delay.“
Ogunmoyela, who is also Chairman of the Defunct 6th Governing Council of IPAN, said the health sector must be supported to function effectively without any distortion.
“Government must find another way around this frequent disruption in the governance of our institutions, as leaving them unsupervised for long periods leaves room for a deeper level of rot in the system”, he added.
He noted that IPAN has the regulatory mandate for the supervision of professional analysts and laboratory practice in Nigeria under the Federal Ministry of Health.
“We, therefore, use this opportunity to call on all those outside the wall to take the bold and honorable step of applying to become Registered Public Analysts, so that their professional services can be valid and authenticated”, he said.
The don expressed worry that there were still many unlicensed practitioners in the society, “who in the eyes of the law we can call ‘quacks’, irrespective of their skills, knowledge or years of experience, whether or not they are academics in our tertiary institutions.”
He explained that unlicensed practitioners issuing certificates of analysis cannot be recognised in a court of law in the event of an incident or dispute.
Commenting on the theme of this year’s conference, “Optimizing Laboratory Analytics and Quality Assurance in the Present Economy”, the food safety expert said the event will witness the Annual Laboratory Fair and Exhibition.
Others are the Annual Tertiary Students’ Competition and debate which will feature students from various universities and polytechnics discussing “The Role of Testing Laboratories in an Emerging Economy – Nigeria in Focus.”
According to the SoTLAN president, the chief host of the three-day event is the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu while the keynote address will be delivered by Dr. Mary-Anne Adeeko, a Fellow of the Institute and former Secretary of the International Association of Independent Laboratories.
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