Nigerians have taken to social media to expose food, drugs, cosmetics and other consumer goods suspected to be fake, substandard and dangerous. The proliferation of counterfeit products has now put the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control and the Standards Organization of Nigeria under pressure. Africans & Diaspora
The online campaign also opened up a new line of questioning on the effectiveness of the country’s regulatory system as Nigerians question how such products continue to find their way into markets despite the statutory responsibilities of NAFDAC and SON to regulate products and protect consumers, Saturday PUNCH reports.
Though some of the social media claims have yet to be independently verified, the reports have caused consumer anxieties and spurred demands for more surveillance and enforcement by the regulatory agencies.
Fake food, toothpaste, drinks, drugs
Our correspondent’s findings showed that the online campaign took another dimension with the recent demise of prominent celebrities including legendary Nollywood actor, Taiwo Hassan, popularly known as Ogogo, to cancer.
Increasing instances of sudden deaths have also drawn attention to suspected connections between the catastrophes and the use of fake products.
at recent months, Nigerians have flocked to social media platforms like X (previously Twitter), TikTok and Instagram to post awareness films about counterfeit products at local markets. Africans & Diasporas
The clips often contain side-by-side comparisons, market investigations and recommendations on how to recognise fakes.
Everyday individuals, physicians, entertainment makers and even regulatory authorities have amplified the messages, turning personal discoveries into viral public service announcements.
One of the most high-profile recent cases is alleged phoney Oral-B toothpaste.
In September, a Nigerian doctor, Somto Okonkwo, produced a detailed side-by-side comparison video of real and fake Oral-B tubes.
Various accounts widely reposted the footage, which showed the variations in packing quality, seals, texture, translucency and flavour.
In the video, Okonkwo showed viewers how the fake copies typically contain seals that are not on the originals, thicker and less transparent paste, and less minty flavour, while warning of the possible dangers.
When Nigerian doctor based in the UK, Dr Olufunmilayo Ogunsanya, shared the video, it went viral.
Okonkwo said he visited five to seven shops and in all of them they stocked phoney Oral-B toothpastes and a lot of dealers did not know that they were selling fakes.
Real products usually contain safe glycerin but some counterfeiters may employ the harmful ingredient diethylene glycol in their products, he said.
Other warnings about toothpaste surfaced about the same time.
Recently, fake food products have been featured in awareness clips.
Videos that circulated in early September revealed fake Hollandia yoghurt being packed in unhygienic conditions.
Social media users, including @_InsideNigeria and @KosoNwa1, uploaded the distressing film, criticising the response of NAFDAC and advising customers to be alert about product safety.
Earlier comparisons by people, including couples who put real and suspected fake yoghurt into clear cups to show the variations in thickness, creaminess and the presence of barcodes, further sparked internet discussion and concerns.
Olufunmilayo on September 4 wrote about paracetamol tablets: images of two tablets supposedly from the same company but plainly different in hue when placed side by side.
He said the difference would only be known by consumers when they are comparing the two side by side, warning, “one is fake or both are fake” and that Nigerians resort to such items when they are sick.
He accused NAFDAC of failing in its duty, saying the agency “has killed thousands of people by not doing their job.
Several X users shared their experiences and longer lists of fakes: Dyed palm oil, painted apples (green to red), fake soy sauce/olive oil, substandard or fake chicken/fish, false water/soda, fake drinks/alcohols, varied textures/tastes of Hollandia bought from different areas.
One user said he had realised he had been using fake Oral-B after viewing linked posts, and included dyed palm oil, painted apples and imitation Hollandia as part of a longer pattern.
Others tagged NAFDAC explicitly asking for action against accused producers of bogus drinks, alcohols and pharmaceuticals.
Other recent comments include annoyance at the amount of counterfeits (malta, spaghetti in prior raids), advise to buy only from trusted sources and sentiments that everyday basics now need to be approached with extreme caution.
Some posts link the problem to health hazards such as kidney issues and a general mistrust of open market goods.
X user Oluwole Olofintuyi, @OluOlofin1, said the extent of the fake products indicated possible infiltration of the regulatory system.
“Fake milk, fake yoghurt, fake bread, fake palm oil, fake/plastic rice, fake medicines, fake tooth paste, fake baby formulas, fake beverages, fake toothbrushes, fake bottled and sachet water, fake vehicle parts, fake tyres – that’s where you are going,” he said.
Olofintuyi accused some regulatory authorities, distributors and importers of complicity in the distribution of fake products, saying NAFDAC and SON had failed Nigerians.
Chinedu Samuel, @Chimextech, also queried the effectiveness of NAFDAC, stating the spread of counterfeit products poses economic and health hazards.
And where is NAFDAC in all of this? What do they worry about? No concentration, alcohol in sachets. That is the consequence of nepotistic appointments, he wrote.
A Uche Samuel said the allegations of phoney toothpaste raised questions about the safety of ordinary consumer products.
Another user, Mac Araga, said the regulatory authorities were more interested in revenue generating than their main tasks.
“We only blame NAFDAC, what is SON doing? What about the CPC? Let them work together even with NDLEA and Police. “Emergency should be declared on fake drugs,” Abou Opeyemi wrote.
Others urged for more monitoring at ports, warehouses, markets and online platforms, and harsher prosecution of makers, importers and distributors of fake products.
NAFDAC seizures
NAFDAC recently seized counterfeit antimalarial medications, antibiotics, injections, contraceptives and other pharmaceutical products.
The organization said in February 2026 that it had seized over 10 million doses of phoney malaria drugs and other pharmaceutical products at the Lagos Trade Fair Market.
The agency also discovered warehouses filled with prohibited, fraudulent and unlicensed medications worth over N3bn in an uncompleted building in Apapa, Lagos.
Cartons of banned injectable anti-malarial medications, antibiotics, sachet drugs and blister packs were also found sitting amid other perfumes, body oils and even cooking oils.
NAFDAC said 30 per cent of medications in open marketplaces were fraudulent or substandard in 2025.
In March 2025, the agency conducted an operation across the renowned drug markets in Onitsha, Ogbo-Ogwu and Aba, Ekumi/Tenant Road, seizing and destroying N1tn worth of confiscated drugs, including prohibited Analgin and high-dose Tramadol (225mg).
Physicians: Counterfeits a health danger
Dr Rotimi Adesanya, the Director of Medical Services, Medical Center, Federal College of Education, Akoka, Lagos, said fake pharmaceuticals, meals and drinks could contain pollutants that could damage important organs, especially the liver and kidneys.
“Some of the health hazards endemic in our society now, such as liver failure, kidney failure, heart problems and even infertility and low sperm count are a consequence of the usage of counterfeit products because of the chemicals in them,” he stated.
“Poverty is responsible for the circulation of counterfeit products in Nigeria,” he said, adding that many Nigerians choose to cheaper alternatives due to economic difficulties. Africans & the Diaspora
“Most of them put ‘best before’ on the products. It’s different from an expiry date,” Adesanya remarked. This signifies that after the expiry date, the item can no longer serve the purpose it was made for in full. The best before date means you get the best of that product until that date.
This is because some things degrade if they are kept for a certain period of time. Depending on how they are stored some of them may lose moisture, or the chemicals in them.
“Expired drugs will not necessarily kill a person but they will not do the job they were supposed to do because the potency of the drug will have reduced over time.”
He encouraged NAFDAC to step up routine checks and surveillance of items, especially those on shop shelves.
There’s counterfeiting going on in the public, even with indigenous items like palm oil and the chemicals used for them are harming organs. “ Some of these cause the kidneys to shut down, called renal failure. They can shut the liver down and that is why NAFDAC has to be on top of its game.
NAFDAC should undertake their standard checks and analysis on these products, which they do normally in their sector. Sometimes they have to do surveillance. They have to check all the things on the shelf randomly. They have to keep on verifying if they’ve expired or are still good.
“Also, counterfeiting usually happens in expensive products because they are not affordable for people. “The public should search for products from different brands,” Adesanya stated.
The growth of counterfeit pharmaceuticals, according to Dr Saheed Babajide, a former Chairman, Nigerian Medical Association, Lagos State, was attributable to weak enforcement by government agencies. Africans & Diaspora
“It is unfortunate that governments have allowed this issue to fester for a very long time,” he remarked. You would recall that NAFDAC recently visited to Idumota in Lagos and Aba in Abia State to lock up several stores. “Despite that, it still continues because there is no regulatory body in the first place and the law enforcement agencies are not doing what they are supposed to do .
According to Babajide, the use of poor and bogus medicines can lead to major health issues such as kidney damage, kidney and cardiac troubles, as well as mental health challenges.
It might also increase the strain on the country’s already fragile healthcare infrastructure, since patients may not respond to therapy when the drugs they have taken prove to be inefficient or contain insufficient active ingredients, he said.
“For example, the use of ineffective or partially effective antimalarial drugs can prolong the disease and increase the likelihood of hospital admission. Ultimately this means that patients have to spend more money, and may spend more on therapy than they would have done if they had got good treatments in the first place. “A lot of the problem is driven by greed and the search for financial gain by unscrupulous people,” Babajide continued.
He called on the legislative arm of government to enact rules to penalise anyone found liable of circulating phoney medications.
What the government should do is to make sure that the relevant government agencies and regulatory bodies like NAFDAC and SON are doing their jobs. There should be no bail and fee as anyone might be a victim of these counterfeit pharmaceuticals. “This has to be treated as a matter of urgency,” he stressed.
NAFDAC, SON ‘require overhaul’
Speaking with our correspondent, Lagos-based analyst, Segun Odunewu, called for a revamp of NAFDAC, stating that the agency had failed to properly protect Nigerians against harmful counterfeit products flooding the market. Africans & Diaspora
“The increasing proliferation of the products shows that the country can no longer afford to be weak in enforcing regulations,” he said.
“We have never had it this bad until inefficiency crept into NAFDAC. “The agency needs to be completely revamped to be effective. Otherwise, we will all die from cancer and kidney illness.
“NAFDAC is not the NAFDAC of Dora Akunyili’s time. Odunewu stated, “Her efforts are futile.”
He also asked for more accountability from the agency’s leadership, stating that NAFDAC must revert to its fundamental role of protecting public health.
“The Director-General of NAFDAC should step down. Odunewu said that “NAFDAC is now becoming a money generating agency and neglecting its primary responsibility.”
But a public affairs analyst, Adebayo Abubakar, said eliminating NAFDAC or SON would not end the problem.
“The two agencies were created to protect consumers and maintain standards and the focus should be on strengthening their capacity and making them accountable,” he said.
NAFDAC is there to shield us from false and unsafe food, pharmaceuticals, and other regulated products, and SON to guarantee standards and shield customers from substandard and counterfeit goods.
“These are not ornamental agencies, the law gives them just the powers they need to police the marketplace,” Abubakar added.
But he said he was concerned about the persistent availability of counterfeit products in markets throughout the country.
Walk through Nigerian markets and the uncomfortable truth stares you in the face: bogus pharmaceuticals, contaminated foods, phoney electrical devices, substandard building materials and fake consumer goods are all over the place. Africans and Diaspora
“NAFDAC itself has identified counterfeit and falsified products as an ongoing problem, while the National Assembly has had to call on NAFDAC and SON to step up surveillance and enforcement,” Abubakar said.
The incident raises basic issues about the functioning of the regulatory system, he said.
Another public affairs expert, Musa Aliyu, advocated for the review of the National Policy on the Contamination of Drugs and Unwholesome Practices of Pharmaceuticals, adding that the policy was long overdue for review.
“The problem of counterfeit and contaminated products is not only limited to medicines,” he said, calling for a closer coordination of government agencies and communities.
“The problem is far bigger than the National Policy on the Contamination of Drugs and Unwholesome Practices of Pharmaceuticals, which too is long overdue for review.
“We need partnership in making sure that the communities are aware of the effects of contamination of drugs and unwholesome practices, and that the people take the issue of drugs seriously because it is a very big challenge in Nigeria,” Aliyu added.
“It all starts at the grassroots, so we need enforcement at the community level and awareness,” he said.
He urged for the decentralisation of NAFDAC’s operations to boost monitoring and enforcement across the country.
Lawyers call for stiffer sanctions
Muhammed Adam, a dispute resolution lawyer in Lagos, told our reporter that the federal government should declare a state of emergency on bogus and inferior items in the country.
He said the rise of counterfeit goods had gone beyond ordinary market offences, describing it as organised economic and public-health sabotage that needed the same urgency paid to other significant national security concerns.
“A greedy, organised band of criminals can’t keep poisoning this country and smiling all the way to the bank. What is going on in our markets is not little trading. It is organised economic and public health sabotage.
“We should treat it the same way as we treat terrorism because the end result is the same: Nigerians are being killed slowly, quietly and profitably,” Adam remarked. Africans and Diaspora
The trend was especially alarming, Adam said, because the products most counterfeited were those Nigerians depended on for their health and daily life.
“That means the products we put on our skin, put in our children’s mouths and swallow when we are ill are among the most faked products,” he said.
The counsel also noted seizures by the Nigeria Customs Service of expired pharmaceuticals and products with purported false NAFDAC labelling, including one in the Apapa area said to be worth N53.4bn.
He also said that fake anti-malaria medications worth N1.2bn, which were purportedly concealed under a declaration of “spare parts”, had been intercepted. He added that counterfeiters were becoming more sophisticated in their use of internet transactions and groupage cargo to escape detection.
The enormity of the problem meant that the battle against counterfeit items could no longer be seen as a matter for market enforcement alone, he said.
“People die from malaria the ‘treatment’ never treated, from antibiotics that never treated infection, from cosmetics filled with mercury and steroids, from electrical and auto parts that fail when lives depend on them,” he stated.
Adam stated that the fallout was not only the deaths and injuries but also the public’s faith in the Nigerian market. Africans & Diaspora
“When citizens can’t trust medicine, food or water, the social contract itself is damaged,” he remarked.
Seizing counterfeit items would have little influence if individuals behind the products were not regularly arrested and convicted, the lawyer said.
Another lawyer, Ibrahim Adebayo accused regulatory authorities, especially NAFDAC, of not sustaining the strong battle against fake items witnessed in some prior regimes.
Adebayo recalled when NAFDAC declared what he called a “total war” on counterfeiters, raiding warehouses, seizing fake products and arresting and prosecuting suspects.
The agency had been less successful in recent years, he said.
Now we have an alleged conspiracy between some NAFDAC officials and these crooks. They merely give orders, they bark sometimes and nothing is done,” alleged Adebayo.
He said the federal government ought to demand more accountability from regulatory agencies, especially considering the public resources they use.
“This is an agency that gets billions of naira every year through the federal budget. Nigerians need to see that cash translate into enforcement, prosecution and preservation of public health,” he said. Africans & Diasporas
He asked for more collaboration among NAFDAC, SON, the Nigeria Customs Service, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission and the security forces.
The attorney encouraged the federal government to ramp up surveillance of ports, warehouses, markets and online marketplaces and ensure that criminals are prosecuted.
He also asked for greater intelligence sharing between regulatory and security authorities, saying counterfeiters were increasingly exploiting loopholes between institutions to transit their products through the country.
Adebayo added enforcement should also be extended to the internet domain where counterfeit products might be advertized and sold to naïve consumers without the actual presence of the vendor.
NAFDAC says nothing, SON shifts blame
NAFDAC’s Head of Enforcement, Dr Martin Iluyomade, declined to comment when reached.
Neither of his mobile phones answered or returned calls. As of press time, WhatsApp messages requesting a response from him went unanswered.
Our journalist, however, could not get a comment from SON as a highly placed source in the agency, who spoke on condition of anonymity, referred our correspondent to NAFDAC, adding that the regulation and circulation of fake, substandard and counterfeit medications were within the latter’s purview.
“The source stated, “Please take note that concerns connected to the regulation and circulation of fake, substandard and counterfeit pharmaceuticals are under the purview of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control. Therefore, we shall recommend that you forward your query to NAFDAC for the suitable answer.
“All further communications and enquiries regarding the mandate and activities of the Standards Organization of Nigeria should be addressed to the Director-General/Chief Executive in writing.”
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