SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT ON THE OCCASION OF THE NATIONAL CONVENTION OF ASSOCIATION OF PHARMACEUTICAL MARKETERS OF NIGERIA (APPMAN) HOLDING AT XYZ HOTEL, ABUJA

It’s my singular honour to welcome you all to this august occasion of the annual convention of our great association of resilient individuals and sagacious business leaders and critical stakeholders in the health and wellbeing sectors of our Great Nation, Nigeria

2.0. Preamble
I give glory to Almighty Allah the one without a beginning and the one last without an end. I equally thank Him for giving us the grace to gather here to take stock of our activities in the past year and probably a bit more years behind; and to discuss our mission and agenda for greater future of members and our businesses, and to fashion a roadmap for our collective prosperity.

3.0. Introduction
This Management team was inaugurated at Benin City on (Date); as is usual in all human endeavors our takeoff was a bit challenging because our association didn’t really have the expected national coverage; operating only in few states like Ogun, Lagos, Edo, Oyo, Kwara and Abuja and with few membership. We thank God that the story has changed significantly with more chapters across states. Today, we can conveniently boast of our effective presence in at least 28 states. This glory severally and collectively belongs to our founding leaders and the former Executives for laying the foundation; especially our Immediate Past President, Chief O. Gabo

4.0. The Journey so far
Our journey as the current Executives began with aresolution in Benin City Edo; where I was made the Chairman of
mobilization committee with the responsibility of touring round the nation to preach the gospel of our APPMAN. My committee members included:
· Elder Isaac Oyemomi;
· Alh Kazeem Abubakar; and
· C .C Chuks .
We all travelled through 24 states to the preach gospel of APPMAN, today 28 states (including FCT) are on board.
We are still working even at present to bring the remaining states on board.
It is noteworthy that, I was also made the Chairman of Electoral Committee after mobilization; the committee comprised other 10 members. We rolled out election guidelines in line with the constitution and members showed interests in various positions across the country except the President. Though, I never had the ambition of contesting for the post; but to my surprise, all stakeholders across the national pressured me to step down as Electoral Chairman to contest for President. It was a tough decision for me, but after due consultation and prayers, I accepted the challenge and emerged unopposed. I was elected as President exactly a year today November 13 2019. In my acceptance speech on that occasion, I promised that every 13th day of November shall be APPMAN convention day; here we are today
Within the past 12 months, our modest achievements
could be summarized as follows;
i. Improvement in membership strength with 28 states now on board. Distinguished members, you’ll agree with me that this is no mean achievement giving our trajectory as an association
and the developments in the nation especially with the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic in the past 9 months and the perennial security challenges. In fact, many members did not even see any need for coming together to pursue common goals initially.

ii. Good relationship with PCN and other regulatory agencies. We chose to collaborate with other major stakeholders in healthcare delivery system in the country; the results are beginning to show with successful engagements with such bodies as Pharmacist Council of Nigeria (PCN),and others (you may list others if available). We shall continue to work for environments that foster mutual understandings and partnerships for development.

iii. Tackling members’ challenges across the nation. Beyond the common challenges that affect members generally and nationally, we’ve also been able to rise up to occasions that demand our intervention at local and state chapters. For instance, (Give few examples in some states). It’s regrettable however that our similar representation to PCN for a downward review of annual N100,000 fees for wholesale premises licence and renewal suffers some setback, but I must assure our members that we not relenting on this course too.

iv. Legal intervention on challenges in Lagos Nasarawa and other state in Nigeria. The national body had made legal representations in some states. To the glory of God, our Nasarawa chapter early in 2018 had been able to get favorable judgment when the Court of Appeal sitting at XXXX in a case instituted by ACPN Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Keffi LGA and others which declared that demand notice for payment of business premises was illegal, null and void. Our attorneys are already engaging with the authorities in that state to enforce this judgment.

v. Workshop and seminar been organized for members. We believe the biggest room in any building remains the room for improvement, therefore, the executive continues to prioritize knowledge economy for our members in order to keep pace the realities of our globalised world. We cannot even joke with this continuous development in our industry which is characterized by new challenges with global consequences every minute. To this end, we have organized various seminars and workshops for members and executives on topical issues that affect us. We also continue
to encourage members to attend such workshops elsewhere as long as they are relevant to our sector. Let me also hint that, we proposed a re-envisioning workshop as part of this conference and the participants are witnesses to the new insights gained in order to move our association to enviable heights. We shall intend to progress on this course.

vi. Visitation to states. This executive believes that continous engagements with our members shall not only engender sense of belonging across board and at all levels, we also believe that it shall assist us more to connect with members, it shall also enbables have a firsthand understanding of their local plights and peculiarities and enable us intervene in a timely manner when occasions demand. As at the last count, we have covered up to XXX states in the past one year despite the challenges of security, rising costs and the Vovid-19 induced lockdown.

5.0. Appreciation
Again, I cannot forget the pioneering efforts of our founding leaders and past executives. If my team has been able to see and act so far, it’s because we have been privileged to stand on the shoulders of the giants that you all are. I also use this occasion to appreciate our co-travelers in the industry including PCN, ACPN, xxxxxxx; we promise to always make ourselves available in order to jointly improve safety and service delivery in the healthcare delivery sector

6.0. Conclusion
To us, improvement and excellence is a journey and never a destination; therefore, we promise to be much more innovative and inclusive as we pilot the affairs of APPMAN to become the pride of all members. I appreciate this opportunity and shall never take it for granted.

Thanks and God bless you all

ADEKANBI, Afolabi Nurudeen
President
13th November, 2020