Heavily-dependent on imported goods and weakened by lax framework to detect counterfeit products, Nigeria has become a euphemism for a dumping ground. From electrical appliances to cables, drugs to foods and vehicle spare parts to arms/ammunition, the country is a colossal victim of forged imports, especially from Asia. Concrete proof emerged again in February when the Standards Organisation of Nigeria impounded fake tyres imported from China. This trend reinforces the uncomfortable belief that Nigerians are living dangerously.
The massive tyre seizure is worth more than N5 billion, says SON. This is an unpardonable act of sabotage for an economy on the ropes. They were retreaded and stuffed into each other to conceal them from Nigeria Customs Service personnel and evade the payment of duties. Two Chinese suspects were arrested in connection with the contraband.
Seizures like these raise serious safety concerns. Defective tyres pose danger to motorists: they crack, blister, bulge, rip in the sidewall and vibrate unusually while driving, according to experts. Eventually, they could blow out in motion and cause fatalities. In March 2016, the Federal Road Safety Commission, which is campaigning against the use of second-hand tyres, linked the auto accident that killed the then Minister of State for Labour, James Ocholi, his wife and son to a burst tyre of their SUV on the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway. Sadly, Nigeria is contending with much more adversity than just fake tyres, mainly because the NCS is negligent.
In January, NCS officers impounded 661 pump-action rifles on the streets of Lagos. The cache had escaped inspectors at the ports. The Niger State Police Command said last week that “arms and ammunition are being imported into the country from Benin Republic.” The command was alarmed that upon the arrest of 104 suspects, it recovered 12 revolvers, three AK-47 rifles, one submachine gun and 334 rounds of ammunition. In the recent past, wily importers had shipped a large consignment of arms from Iran into Nigeria. A 2014 study by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes estimates that of the 500 million Small and Light Weapons in West Africa, Nigeria alone is home to 350 million of them.
The trend of unbridled goods imports is observable in the quality of imported electrical products like iron rods, bulbs, sockets, cables and fittings. Bulbs blow up easily; fake cables often melt and trigger fire disasters; fake iron rods instigate building collapse. Electronics pack up easily, a huge cost for owners and businesses to replace them. SON raised the alarm in 2016 that 40 per cent of electrical and electronic appliances imported into Nigeria “are substandard and have caused disasters with destruction to lives and property.”
All manner of uncertified food items are dumped in the country. The National Bureau of Statistics says Nigeria spent N212.73 billion to import agricultural products in Q4 2016. Although the importation of frozen poultry products was banned in 2002, they are still found everywhere. Health-wise, it is very costly. Audu Ogbeh, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, says that they “are silent killers.” Frozen poultry are preserved with formalin, a chemical agent that experts say is associated with the rise in kidney failure, cancer and other deadly ailments.
In a major scandal, industrial waste was dumped in Koko, Delta State, in 1988. The imported waste was stored in drums by crooked businessmen from Italy. The impact was instant. Officials at the Koko General Hospital said the radioactive waste had a harmful effect on humans, wildlife, plants and aquatic life. The “seven premature births (that) occurred within a two-week period in July 1988 were due to the high toxicity of the rubbish dump,” they said.
A 2005 survey conducted by the World Health Organisation found that 50 per cent of the drugs on sale here were either fake or substandard. The uncommon drive of the late Dora Akunyili, as the Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, confirmed the mess perpetrated in our territory by dubious drug importers. Through her gusto, Nigeria was able to curb the deleterious impact of such unbridled importation. That was before four children died from adrenalin– which turned out to be water – administered on them during surgical procedures in an Enugu hospital in 2003. Akunyili closed down major markets in Kano and Onitsha, confiscated and destroyed large consignments of fake drugs. Sadly, her exit from NAFDAC cut short the war on fake drugs.
Fake drugs are a crime against humanity. Pfizer, an American pharmaceutical company, was engulfed in a legal battle shortly after it tested an experimental drug – Trovan – to treat meningitis, among some children in Kano, in 1996. According to court papers, 11 children died and several others suffered harm. The company however paid compensation to some of the victims after reaching an out-of-court settlement with the Kano State Government in 2011; but the company was sanctioned in Europe.
To safeguard the health of the people and defend local businesses reeling from the influx of cheap imports from losses, government has to rewrite the story quickly. It should set a target for the Customs, Nigeria Immigration Service and other security agencies to reduce smuggling to near-zero level. This will wipe out the dangerous food imports. Also, enthrone tight regulatory checks at the seaports and airports.
Through surveillance and technology, government agencies should be made to earn their spur by identifying and bringing fraudulent importers to book. NAFDAC and SON should be reinvigorated, equipped and motivated to embark on the arduous task of dislodging fraudulent businessmen posing as genuine importers.
