Former Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi has blamed the economic policies of President Bola Tinubu’s administration for making it difficult for his family to afford medicines for his late mother.
Amaechi, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) vice-presidential candidate, made the claim during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday.
He said his mother had been healthy before Tinubu assumed office but that rising medicine costs later made it increasingly difficult to provide the drugs she needed.
“Before Tinubu, my mother was healthy. Suddenly, by the time Tinubu came, it was difficult to buy drugs for my mother,” Amaechi said.
He added that many Nigerians were facing similar difficulties in accessing healthcare because of rising costs.
Amaechi also claimed that Nigeria spent about N200 billion on drug imports in the previous quarter, citing figures he attributed to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
However, the NBS’s latest available Foreign Trade in Goods report is for the second quarter of 2026; its third-quarter report was not available as of October 3. The NBS data for Q2 showed significant pharmaceutical imports, including medicines from India valued at N64.87 billion and vaccines worth N63.88 billion.
Drug affordability has remained a concern amid Nigeria’s wider cost-of-living pressures. A 2025 survey found that prices of several essential medicines had risen substantially over 14 months.
The National Association of Industrial Pharmacists also said in May 2026 that Nigeria still imported more than 70 percent of its medicines.
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