- Christmas, the ‘rice and chicken’ season is here and we fear Nigerians may be binging on toxic staples
The scourge has been with us for decades but the need for a change has grown more urgent now for two reasons: Nigeria’s dwindling oil revenues require that she reduces her import bills and second, the health hazard of these imported food staple to Nigerians can no longer be ignored. Two recent reports have further called to notice the need for Nigeria to produce locally, two of her major staple food – rice and poultry products.
Just last weekend, the Lagos State Government had raised the alarm concerning the sale and consumption of killer chicken and turkey meat in circulation in some parts of Lagos. According to the report, contaminated poultry products seized by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), destroyed and buried in Badagry area of Lagos have been exhumed by some unscrupulous Nigerians and put back into the market for sale to unsuspecting consumers.
The Lagos State Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr. Toyin Saurau, had harped on the need for more sensitisation over the dangers associated with consuming these exhumed, poisonous poultry products in view of the havoc they cause to the public. He noted that imported poultry were preserved with chemicals, including formalin, which is poisonous and could lead to slow death.
Also this week, stakeholders in the rice value chain have raised the alarm at what they consider the dangerous influx of expired rice into Nigeria through her land borders. They noted that hundreds of trailers laden with expired or substandard rice have been seen being smuggled across various land borders into Nigeria. With Christmas only a few weeks away, it is expected that smugglers would seek to meet the acute shortfall in demand for rice and poultry products during this period.
Stakeholders like the National Rice Millers Association of Nigeria (NRMAN), have queried the rationale in the NCS lifting the ban on the importation of rice through land borders.
Just like imported poultry which was totally banned in Nigeria about a decade ago, the importation of rice through land borders was also banned about two years ago while legitimate importers through the sea ports were required to pay a discounted tariff and levy of 70 per cent instead of 110 per cent.
However, the NCS especially has been derelict in its duties and smuggling has continued to flourish unabated. Apart from allowing unwholesome rice that is dangerous for human consumption, emerging local producers and millers are suffering huge setbacks as a result of the smuggling in of cheap, poor quality rice. Government also loses huge revenues. In like manner, local production of poultry products is stymied by unbridled smuggling coupled with attendant revenue loss by government.
However, beyond losing huge revenues and the stultifying of local economy, there is an even more troubling danger of a national health crisis that may arise from the populace consuming these staples. This situation is hardly sustainable and calls for an urgent, sustained intervention from by the Federal Government.
There is a need for multi-pronged approach to tackling this debilitating national malaise. There may be a need for an inter-ministerial commission to drive the required change. Most crucially, the Federal Government must make the NCS perform by all means necessary. Other MDAs like the ministries of finance; agriculture and rural development; health; the National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), and all the stakeholders in the poultry and rice production chains would have to interface regularly to combat this grievous national crisis.
Considering that Nigeria spends trillions of naira annually importing these staples, it has become apparent that in this era of acute revenues shortage, she must resolve to breed her own poultry and grow her rice, among other agric products like fruit juices, tomato puree, vegetable oils, to name a few. Certainly, Nigeria cannot afford the huge import bill expended annually on these products which can be produced locally.
Neither can she accept an endemic situation in ailments such as diabetes, kidney and heart failures that may result from the consumption of contaminated products. It is indeed a national crisis that requires serious attention from all tiers of government.
