Nollywood actress Mary Remmy Njoku has publicly challenged the Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, after the regulator blamed Nigerians for failing to read labels amid a fresh uproar over fake and substandard products.
Njoku posted the rebuke on Instagram on Tuesday, October 6, 2026, a day after Adeyeye’s comments appeared in a BusinessDay interview. The actress, who runs ROK Studios, told the NAFDAC boss to stop pushing the responsibility of food safety onto ordinary buyers.
“Madam NAFDAC!! Stop shifting the burden to consumers. We cannot READ our way out of weak inspection, inadequate testing and poor enforcement. Are you effectively regulating processed and semi-processed foods? Are you? ARE YOU?” she wrote.
She pushed the point further.
“This isn’t about whether Nigerians READ labels. This is about whether the regulator is REGULATING. This is public health. Please, STOP DEFLECTING!!!!! Protect the public! Hear the cry of the people you have been called to serve!”
Adeyeye had used the interview to answer criticism of NAFDAC over counterfeit and substandard goods. She said many Nigerians do not understand which agency does what.
“First of all, we are ignorant in this country. We are very ignorant. We don’t read. We don’t understand,” she said.
She then drew a line around the agency’s brief.
“NAFDAC’s mandate is for processed or semi-processed foods. The oranges you buy in the market, we don’t control the oranges you buy in the market.”
Fresh produce, she said, sits primarily with the Ministry of Agriculture, though NAFDAC still has a role where pesticides are involved. She also pushed back on social media posts that treat yam, fufu and market fruit as if they were NAFDAC products.
The public mood was already foul. On September 9, Adeyeye was filmed laughing when a journalist raised calls for her resignation at a briefing on suspected fake yoghurt, adulterated palm oil and counterfeit drinks. She later defended her record, saying she had lived in the United States for 34 years, taught for 30, and came home to serve. Many viewers read the laugh as disdain.
Njoku is not new to this fight. In July 2025 she said Imodium bought from a well-known Nigerian pharmacy chain failed to ease food poisoning she suffered on a film set, while the same drug her husband, Jason Njoku, brought from abroad settled her stomach within minutes. She called it a public health risk and asked NAFDAC to take it seriously. Actress Ruth Kadiri added her own appeal on Tuesday, warning that people are buying food, drinks, medicines and cosmetics they believe are safe and then falling ill.
Fans have largely backed Njoku’s post, treating it as a demand for enforcement rather than a lecture on literacy.