The House of Representatives’ Committee on National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) on Friday called for a five year extension on the ban placed by NAFDAC on sachet alcoholic drinks across the country.
This was disclosed by the Deputy Chairman, House of Representatives’ Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Hon. Phillip Agbese during a press briefing held at the National Assembly complex, Abuja.
Hon. Agbese who gave update on the meeting held at the instance of the Director General of NAFDAC, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, argued that both parties agreed that the timing of the ban was wrong considering the declining economic situation.
He however noted that the initial 5-year ban placed on sachet alcoholic drinks suffered major setback as a result of COVID-19 pandemic, hence the need to revisit the prohibition policy.
He said: “The issue of health implications, as a matter of fact we are all Nigerians if you pick a packet of cigarettes, you see on it cigarette is dangerous to our health. In diverse languages they expressed this thing but people still buy cigarette to smoke. You see it is within, people’s fundamental human rights to decide what they consume, especially for adults who can make their own decision.
“The health implications of consuming the sachet drinks when people consume the same content in bottles, I think to be very mild, is highly hypocritical.
“Following the presentations we received at the carousel of the hearing, a certain segment of the country, the lower population those who earn lower income who made their presentations even raised the issue of fundamental human rights, discrimination, harassment and victimisation.”
While noting that people should be allowed to exercise their right, Hon. Agbese said: “We believe strong from the presentations made before us, the leadership of NAFDAC now we are on the same page. So, we are not going back and forth on that. They have agreed they are talking about health implications again, the health implication is not a reason why that ban was placed.
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“Talking about children consuming sachet drinks, and if you look at it, what about Benylin, Codeine and other cough syrup being consumed by the children of the rich? They are still sold at the pharmacies and stores. Nobody has placed a ban on them. We are here as the representative of the people to protect the interest of the masses and I think as a matter of fact, it was one policy of government that was targeted at a point.”
On the issue of job loss, Hon. Agbese who could not provide the actual number of job losses claimed by the petitioners, maintained that the private sector employs more people in this country than the government.
“What government do is complementary. It is an industry, because it has to do with food, what people consume on daily basis, in Nigeria here if you’re bereaved, you look for this product; if you’re excited, you look for this product. So, whichever way you look at it, it’s a product that many of us cannot actually do without. So, it plays a very critical role religiously, economically and socially in our day to day lives.
“Our appeal to NAFDAC which we believe they would take, the DG has equally confessed that she has full respect for the Parliament. Nigerians want to see a time that their elected representatives, they are able to run to them with their problems and because we are in democracy, when people talk about whether the health implication is right or not, this is democracy if the man has said I want to die, I think in democracy the man should be allowed to die!
“This is subtle suicide, let e just add, recently my Family member went to the hospital and she w told not to eat semovita, in another hospital they had told her not to eat Eba. In another place they had told her not to eat pounded yam, she calculated and said this is the last thing that I am allowed to eat, today they will said I should not eat, it means I can no longer eat any food apart from water.
“What am I saying in essence, people have received lots of medical advice here and there, I used to drink before, but I’ve stopped. NAFDAC should educate people. Like I always said, the issue of children consuming alcohol is a parental failure. It’s as a result of parental failure. It is not something that everybody in society should be punished for.
“If you don’t control your children and they go drinking alcohol why should you punish the manufacturer whose only intention was to produce and sell to adults? Why do you punish them? So, in answering that question, we believe that five years is not too much for the manufacturers to put themselves together and for us to come out of this economic situation.”
