OSTENSIBLY worried by the influx of substandard products into Nigeria from overseas, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) recently indicated that its Product Authentication Mark (PAM) would commence on July 1. During a sensitisation workshop on the scheme in Lagos, the Director-General, SON, Dr. Ifeanyi Okeke, who was represented on the occasion by the Director, Product Certification Department, Onuchenyo Enebi, said the initiative was introduced to enable consumers verify the authenticity of all SON-regulated products in the market, in its continuous efforts to curb the influx of substandard imported goods into the country. The agency, he said, would issue an ultimatum on enforcement, and would give companies enough time to adapt to the PAM project. Lamenting that imported goods accounted for over 80 percent of substandard goods in the country while the manufacturing industry was already battling with the lingering effects of such products, the SON DG said: “This scheme places the power to detect, reject and report substandard goods in our markets in the hands of the consumers by simply scanning a QR code with their smart phone or sending an SMS to 281 before they buy. It will no doubt better position us at SON to protect our fellow citizens and ensure that we all get value for our money.”
According to him, sanitising Nigeria’s industries and markets had become more urgent than ever before, and over the years, SON as an organisaion had substantially reduced the importation, manufacturing and distribution of substandard products in the country through its Mandatory Conformity Assessment Programme and Standards Organisation of Nigeria Conformity Assessment Programme schemes respectively. This, he said, was in line with its mandate and backed with the provisions of the SON Act 2015, which is to facilitate trade and ensure that all imported and manufactured products meet the requirements of the relevant standards, thereby promoting public safety and improving the lives and security of Nigerians.
To be sure, the statement by the SON DG must be disturbing to right-thinking members of the public. If anything, it is a terrible verdict on the operations of government agencies mandated to protect and ensure the safety of Nigerians regarding the products imported into the country. With agencies like the SON, National Agency for Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), among others, Nigerians can be forgiven for thinking that their safety ought to be guaranteed in this regard. Who is supposed to stop the influx of fake products into the country if the agencies mandated by law to do so have either gone into deep slumber or, worse still, become captured regulators?
It is a no-brainer that the regime of fake and substandard goods has deleterious effects on the health of Nigerians and the economy. Thousands, if not millions, of Nigerians have gone to their early graves after taking adulterated products and naturally assuming that they would receive the benefits expected to be derived from such products. Therefore, as SON has indicated, Nigerians should be vigilant. In the climate of callousness that pervades the country as people seek to make money by making life miserable for others, vigilance has become much more than a talking point. When they see something, they should say something. Speaking up when you have doubts about a product, including on social media, can help to engender positive conversation and action that would help to unmask drug and other syndicates. This is, of course, without prejudice to the existence of business owners who treat online critiques of their products like a treasonable felony.
Still, it is quite interesting that SON wants to be commended for starting a PAM scheme to combat the pervasiveness of substandard products within the Nigerian market. What exactly has SON been doing all these years that it is just coming up with a mark to establish genuine products and differentiate them from fake and substandard ones given its mandate to ascertain the genuineness of products and protect the society from fake and substandard ones? How effective were its Mandatory Conformity Assessment Programme and Standards Organisation of Nigeria Conformity Assessment Programme? Evidently, the problem has always been with SON and those assigned to preside over it who have tended to look the other way while fraudsters flooded the country with fake and substandard products. Besides, what guarantee is there that even now, the SON leadership is serious about its PAM initiative or is simply flying a kite, pretending to be working?
SON and the relevant agencies should track down the syndicates behind the substandard products, or simply keep quiet. They have a mandate to protect Nigerians but have instead been killing them gradually over the years. Everything boils down to corruption. To have operated for so long and at the alarming level ascribed to them, the syndicates behind the substandard products must have compromised the agencies in charge of monitoring imports. These agencies are destroying the country for their own comfort. There is nothing big about delivering on the mandate of SON if there is resolute will and commitment on the part of those running the organisation and those who appointed the managers. We expect SON to realise that bemoaning the pervasiveness of substandard products in the country is a pointer to its failure, and therefore step up its game. Nigerians expect much more than the throwing of hands up by the SON leadership. They should rather clean up their acts and save the country from the current situation of avalanche of fake and substandard products.
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