I know that the dominant health topic
now is Coronavirus (or, if you like, Chinese Virus), but I feel
compelled to draw attention to some egregious practices by some callous and
cruel Nigerians that are ruining many lives daily in this country. These vile
characters are able to unleash this grievous harm on innocent Nigerians because
the various regulatory agencies like, the National Agency for Food, Drug
Administration and Control (NAFDAC) or the Standard Organisation of
Nigeria (SON, are either in very deep slumber or very sick and nigh unto
death, or even dead and awaiting burial!
I think that if some far-reaching
interventions are not urgently undertaken, we would not be able to rule out the
possibility that the rest of the world might wake up one day and discover that
this large, unproductive territory called Nigeria has become one wide stretch
of empty space, devoid of humans or littered with decaying corpses? Is it that
human life has since totally lost its value before Nigerians or what? How far
should rational human beings tread on the path of mutual annihilation before
they realise that it is, perhaps, time to do a rethink, beat a retreat and
commence the homeward journey to self-reclamation?
Let me explain. Just recently a young
Nigerian medical doctor put out a message on the social media warning Nigerians
about these beverages mostly prepared at home by diverse vendors and supplied
to offices, business places and at events to Nigerians who eagerly purchase
them these days because of the growing emphasis on “natural drinks”
as healthy alternatives to “machine processed” beverages which have
been established to contain very harmful (especially, carcinogenic) chemicals
used as either preservatives or sweeteners. Some of the sodas (or what
Nigerians call “minerals”) people drink with relish here are
just concoctions of carbonated water, flavours, colourings and lots of sugar or
sweeteners.
A growing number of Nigerians are
becoming aware that sugar, amino acids and fats in the
body constitute rich food for cancer cells and that their growth might be
halted if they could no longer find any of these to feed on. But more
specifically, too much sugar (especially, the processed variety) hastens one’s
embrace with diabetes and the disastrous consequences that go with it. This
awareness also appears to be reducing the seductive capacity of the usually
attractively packaged concoctions called “fruit juice” sold in our
supermarkets.
The young doctor’s worry is not even
the mostly unregulated nature of their productions which (judging by merely
looking at many of the people that produce and market them) are most likely
prepared in very unhygienic environments with largely contaminated water. His
main concern is with the plastic bottles in which these drinks are stored and
sold.
These people go to all manner of
places to gather these bottles which people had discarded after drinking the
water they once contained. Many of the bottles are even from hospitals and were
mostly used by patients. Many of these patients are battling terrible
infectious diseases like Tuberculosis and others, and after drinking the
water, several of them keep the bottles for a while and spit into them each
time they are pressured by the disease to do so. There are also patients who
are too weak to visit the lavatories and so urinate into these bottles. At the
end of the day, these are disposed of at the hospital dustbins (where other
disease-carrying unmentionables are also thrown into) from where the cleaners
retrieve them, pour away the various liquids they saw inside them and sell them
to these “natural beverage” producers, who may only rinse them with even the
unhealthy water available to them and use them to bottle the “Zobos”, “Kunus”and
the diverse “natural” fruit juices they bottle and sell to unsuspecting
Nigerians.
Now, if companies that are subjected
to periodic inspections by regulatory agencies could be caught cutting corners
to the detriment of the health of the citizenry, what should one expect from
people who produce these beverages in the safe confines of their homes and
whose eyes are solely glued to the profits they are expecting to rake
in? And so, with your N100 or even less, you buy and take home
diseases-bearing liquids in unsterilised bottles from which you might contract
ailments that might either eventually take your life or consume millions of
naira before leaving you. Now, while you are chewing on that, let’s look at another
aspect of the problem.
Recently, I read a report that a
Lagos-based journalist had taken ill after consuming some fruits he bought from
some vendors. He was taken to the hospital where he eventually died. The
doctors blamed the death on food poisoning. It is a popular belief
in Lagos that traders use some chemicals (calcium carbide and
others) to ripen fruits or even preserve them from over-ripening and spoiling.
According to a Wikipaedia entry, “when calcium carbide comes
in contact with moisture, it produces acetylene gas, which is quite similar in
its effects to the natural ripening agent, ethylene. Acetylene
acts like ethylene and accelerates the ripening process.”
Now, have you noticed that sometimes
after consuming some fruits – banana, mango, pawpaw, etc., you would begin
to have this strange, uncomfortable taste lingering down your throat. That’s
the residual taste of the chemical used in accelerating the ripening of the
fruits or preserving them. And they could be very dangerous to health. The best
alternative for wary consumers has been to go to some markets where the local
farmers supply these fruits, buy unripe ones, take them home and keep them
until they become ripe naturally and ready for consumption.
Nigeria is suddenly having too many
cases of organ failures, cancer and other malignant ailments attacking both
young and old people. These have largely been attributed to these chemicals
people take in while consuming these fruits and other food items. Now, who
among our health bodies and regulatory agencies are trying to find out if there
is indeed a proliferation of these harmful practices by fruit sellers (as is
widely believed) and are deploying preventive measures to save the
lives of Nigerians? The other day, a video of a girl peeling some unripe
oranges was in circulation. After removing the outer coverings, the girl would
dip them into some liquid in a basin and immediately the oranges would assume
the colour of ripe ones? Now, in the process of doing this, who knows the
amount of poison transferred into the oranges?
There are other varieties of these
dangerous practices. Recently, a video featuring some beans sellers (who were
heard discussing in the Hausa language) spraying the Sniper brand of pesticide
on the beans they had spread on large mats, perhaps, to prevent weevils from
attacking them, was widely circulated on the social media, especially,
WhatsApp. It is popular knowledge that Sniper is one of the deadliest
pesticides today. Most of the cases of suicides reported in Nigeria in the
recent past had showed that majority of the people involved had used it to end
their lives, prompting calls for it to be banned in the country.
Now how can human beings use this
same deadly poison to safeguard a favourite food item from infestation by
weevils? How far can Nigerians go to sell poisoned food items just to make huge
profits? What are the authorities and regulatory agencies doing
about this? Have they investigated it, and what are they doing to discourage
this dangerous method of preservation? Or would they continue to pretend that
those viral videos had not got to them? Shouldn’t the people perpetrating these
criminal activities be fished out and prosecuted for attempted murder to serve
as deterrence? By the way, what healthy alternatives have the authorities
offered to the grains traders for the preservation of their goods since it is
possible that these fellows engaging in these dangerous practices might be
quite oblivious of the many lives they are harming, including their own, since
they also eat from their stock of the commodities?
Some months ago, the social media was
awash with reports that dried fish sellers also use this same Sniper to prevent
weevil infestation of their fishes. Now, what is being done to save the eager
consumers of this food item relished by many? There is also the information
trending on the social media that people use a mixture of transformer oil and
vegetable oil to fry “Akara”, “Puff-puff”, Yam, etc., for sale
while butchers and fish sellers also use Sniper to ward off flies from their
wares.
Again, on January 10, 2020, the Nigerian
Tribune published an editorial on the warning reportedly handed
down by the Osun State Government to caterers and food vendors involved in “pernicious practice
of using paracetamol to [boil and] tenderise meat and using bleaching
detergents for cassava processing, ostensibly to induce whiteness in the
popular foods, fufu and gari.” According to
the Tribune, at a joint news conference in Oshogbo, the
Governor’s Special Adviser on Public Health, Siji Olamiju, and the state
Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Mrs. Funke Egbemode,
stressed the “harmful effects of the practices on vital organs of the body such
as the liver, kidneys, heart and the small intestines.”
Now, with all these harmful
situations facing hapless Nigerians, where are our public health authorities?
Where are NAFDAC and SON? The story out there is that NAFDAC died with Dr. Dora
Akunyili. And as for SON, I wonder if anybody has ever taken them serious.
There is another body called the Consumer Protection Council, what exactly is
it doing to justify its existence? How is it “protecting” the consumer?
Not too long ago, I stumbled on a news
item conveying the warning by the Director-General of National Agency for Food,
Drug Administration and Control, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, about the grievous
damage fruits ripened with calcium carbide could inflict on the health of the
people. Now what are Nigerians supposed to do with this vacuous warning? Do
they have the equipment for detecting fruits ripened by calcium carbide?
Shouldn’t NAFDAC be out there fishing out the people involved in this devilish
practice and prosecuting them to deter others in order to save the lives of
Nigerians? How exactly will this empty warning help save Nigerian
lives?
In societies where human lives are
valued, regulatory agencies do not just sit behind their huge desks and issue
useless warnings. They swing into actions to halt every practice that poses
danger to the lives of the citizenry. They prosecute the perpetrators to
deter others. Well, what do you expect from a country where some group of
herdsmen wake up almost daily to kill, maim, rape and sack villages without any
consequence? And the authorities do not lift any finger to ensure they are
punished for their crimes. Does Nigeria qualify to be called the land of
rational human beings? A huge shame!
*Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye is a journalist and writer (scruples2006@yahoo.com)
Thanks for your article. We need to pay serious attention to these ills
ReplyDeleteThe author of this piece and CEO of this blog knows that I battled against GM Foods and the synthetic chemicals sprayed on farms which are fundamental causes of the terminal or deadly diseases that he wrote about because my views were published by the newspaper that he worked for much earlier while he worked for the newspaper.
ReplyDeleteAfter a lot of my thankless endeavour to make Nigerians demonstrate that they have value for food, their lives and good health unsuccessfully, I concluded that the easiest and most secret way to kill Nigerians of any academic and social status is to give them foods.
Yes, just give Nigerians anything they is called "food" or looks like food and they will accept it, consume it, whether it is liquid or solid, and defend it as food.
Medical doctors, NAFDAC, FMH, SMH, NABDA, NABMA, FMA and FMSC are all guilty of negligence of duty to Nigerians.
The president and governors for promoting agriculture without dealing with the issues about GMOs, GM Foods and synthetic chemicals used as herbicides, pesticides and fertilisers, and additives, are also guilty.
*Prince Peter Awele Odor