Tell your story #55: Caveat Emptor (Let the buyer beware!)

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I'd give the consumer protection agencies in my country a big wullnp!

For sometime now, I have been following the works of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC). These are agencies established to protect the health and wellbeing of Nigerian citizens. They ban the sale, distribution, and advertisement of goods and services which do not comply with safety or health regulations. Ensuring that the products we consume are safe and high-quality.

However, despite their efforts to protect competitors and consumer rights, there are still loopholes that need to be filled. Which is why consumers must always be at alert, particularly in matters relating to our health.

A personal experience

Yesterday, I was searching for something in one of the rooms when I stumbled on this medication. I felt so excited to find it and decided to pocket it. It belongs to someone close to me. She has been taking it for close to a month now. Instinctively, I felt the urge to check its expiring date.

Checking the expiring dates of food items, drinks and medications is something I started doing after watching a documentary on the implication of consuming expired soda drink or products.

Lo and behold, this is what I found. A manufacturing date stating 24072024 and expiring date showing 27072023.

I immediately knew that there was fire on the mountain. I had to reach out to this close person to confirm where she purchased this medication from. Was it a trusted pharmacy or just a roadside patent medicine store, which for some reason is called a chemist?

I started worrying about what would happen to her. Would she fall sick? Will it affect her liver?

She has been consuming a product this whole time and it took a mere coincidence to discover it.

We took up the case and ensured that we got to the root of the matter. The pharmacist explained that it was authentic. The confusion aroused due to how the date was written. YYYYMMDD instead of DDMMYYYY orMMDDYYYY which are the standard British and American ways of writing dates.

We are still investigating this.

I have to raise this awareness to keep our minds alert on the prevalence of substandard medicines and foods around our corners. While the consumer protection agents are doing their job to keep us safe, we also have a huge role to play in safeguarding our health, including those of the kids and elderly around us.

These are lessons I have learned from this experience:

✔️ To purchase medications from only reputable pharmacies.
✔ ️ To always check the production and expiring dates on every product that I buy.
✔️ To verify the authenticity of products at the point of sale.
✔️ And most importantly, report substandard or counterfeit products (which could be goods or services) to relevant authorities for immediate action.

I am optimistic that these issues will be tackled until the chances of having them occur reduces to the barest minimum.

_{Thank you for inviting me, @nsisong2022
I'm pleased to invite @eliany, @paholags, @sariana23 and @etoro to join the contest
Published on 23 July 2025}