Stop Deflecting, Protect the People" — Actress Mary Remmy Njoku Tackles NAFDAC Boss Over Comments Blaming Nigerians for Fake Food Products

Nollywood actress and ROK Studios founder Mary Remmy Njoku has called out NAFDAC Director-General Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, telling her to stop deflecting and do the job she was appointed to do. The reaction follows comments Adeyeye made in a Business Day TV interview on Monday, in which she pushed back on Nigerians who blame the agency for the circulation of fake food products in the country.

In the interview, Adeyeye said Nigerians "are ignorant in this country," adding that "we don't read" and "we don't understand," pointing to the country's roughly 56 percent illiteracy rate as a key reason food safety messaging fails to reach much of the population. She also drew a line around NAFDAC's jurisdiction, arguing that regulating pesticide use on raw farm produce falls under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, not NAFDAC, which she said is responsible only for processed and semi-processed food items.

Njoku disagreed directly on social media, rejecting the suggestion that the burden belonged with consumers rather than the agency. "We cannot READ our way out of weak inspection, inadequate testing and poor enforcement," she wrote, before telling the NAFDAC boss to stop deflecting.

The exchange lands at a tense moment for the agency. NAFDAC says it received 225 complaints over suspected counterfeit products in August alone, and typically logs over 200 public complaints a month through its reporting channels, numbers that have fuelled growing public frustration with how the agency is handling the fake products crisis. Nollywood figures have increasingly waded into the conversation in recent weeks, with actress Ruth Kadiri also releasing a video urging Nigerians and regulators alike to take the counterfeit products problem more seriously.

Njoku, who founded ROK Studios in 2013 and has built it into one of the most prominent production outfits in Nollywood, is among the industry's more outspoken voices on social issues, having previously used her platform to push back on public figures she felt were dodging accountability.