A coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) protecting consumer rights has threatened to shut down the offices of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to push for the review of the ban on sachet alcoholic drinks.
The Guardian had reported over the weekend that members of the Food, Beverages and Tobacco Senior Staff Association and the National Union of Food, Beverages and Tobacco Employees staged a protest at the Lagos office of NADFAC, warning that it could displace no fewer than 5.5 million Nigerians from their jobs.
Meanwhile, the NAFDAC DG, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, at a meeting with the union on Friday, affirmed that the reason behind the ban was to protect children from the indiscriminate intake of alcohol.
She said: “What our own liver can take, the children’s liver may not be able to take it. We are thinking about this in terms of protection and extending a child’s lifespan. Our stand is that we obey those who created the law for us. It is in the interest of public health because the probability that a child who started drinking at the age of 10 will have liver cirrhosis by 40 is very high.”
Returning to the NAFDAC Lagos office yesterday, the aggrieved members vowed not to dismiss until their demands are met. Declan Ihekaire, who represented the coalition, said the move is in solidarity with members of the distillers’ association, under the aegis of Food, Beverages and Tobacco Senior Staff Association and the National Union of Food, Beverages and Tobacco Employees, who have been shut out of work following the regulatory decision.
He argued that the ban would worsen economic hardship, noting that millions of Nigerians are employed across the value chain of sachet alcohol production, distribution, and sales.
While accusing the government of using regulatory agencies to impose policies that affect low-income earners, who are the consumers of the products, he noted that the ban can only be justified when there are serious health challenges.
“Millions of Nigerians have decided to go on low-key by consuming those products because of the income level. It’s not everybody that is so rich to afford Hennessy and other big drinks. So when you now say we shouldn’t take such a drink, it’s as good as saying don’t take sachet water but only take bottled water,” he said.
Ihekaire, however, insisted that regulation rather than banning the products should have been adopted if there is any issue the regulatory agency wanted to address.
In his remarks, Branch Chairman of Food, Beverage and Tobacco Senior Staff Association (FOBTOB) in Lagos, Somefun Olamiye, accused the NAFDAC DG of misrepresenting facts to justify the ban, stressing that the claim that sachet alcohol contains excessively high alcohol content was false.
Faulting the claim that sachet alcohol contains up to 95 per cent alcohol, he explained that no sachet beverage exceeds 43 per cent alcohol content.
While appealing for the ban to be lifted, he noted that many low-income Nigerians, including widows and small-scale traders, depend on the sale of sachet alcoholic drinks alongside other products to sustain their families and fund their children’s education.
Executive Secretary of FOBTOB, Solomon Adebosin, wondered why the sachet alcohol, which the regulatory agency considered dangerous now, was earlier approved, tested, registered, and periodically renewed by NAFDAC itself.
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