The Suicide We Must Stop

How healthy are we in Nigeria? With the polluted air we breathe daily, impure water we drink and use, and other unwholesome things we consume every day, one cannot help but wonder how many people in the country are healthy in the true sense of it.
Just six days ago, news broke about the existence of poisonous cow hide, popularly known as ponmo/kanda in Lagos State. According to the story, officials of the state government arrested three persons connected with the sale of the toxic animal skin in some local government aas and also confiscated the suspicious meat. The alleged culprits were subsequently charged to court.
To add impetus to the story, some traders in some markets visited by journalists said they were aware of the availability of the unwholesome meat in the state. Some admitted selling it. They even went further to tell the difference between the unhealthy meat and the ones that are safe for consumption. The most baffling aspect of the story was a revelation that the unwholesome animal skin is usually smuggled into the country from Niger Republic and that, most times, they are camel skin, preserved with series of chemicals. They are boiled with alum and other chemicals that make the ponmo to swell up.
The questions are, what is the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and control (NAFDAC) doing about this worrisome development? What about Customs, Immigration and other agencies responsible for manning our borders, what are they doing? How can we have all these bodies, yet Nigeria remains a dumping ground for all kinds of unhealthy, fake and substandard products? Not too long ago, we were warned about the existence of plastic rice in the country. About 19 years ago, the federal government, under the leadership of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, banned the importation of frozen poultry products into the country due to its danger to health. Medical experts have severally warned that the chemicals used in preserving these meats are harmful to health. How far has this ban been implemented? Our markets are still flooded with imported frozen foods due to poor implementation of the law at our borders.
What of our local foods? Visit our foodstuff markets and you will be shocked at the number of either adulterated or contaminated food items offered for sale. Nutritionists and other experts say some of the chemicals used in preserving these food items are injurious to human health. Recall the video clip showing two young men using synthetic chemical (sniper) to preserve beans that went viral on the social media last year. Investigations have shown that most of the grains consumed in the country are culprits of this poisonous preservation.
Even vegetables and fruits are not left out. Haven’t you experienced a situation where you buy fruits and even without refrigerating them, they stay for days without going bad? This is the work of deadly chemicals used in preserving them. Similarly, we have often heard of people ripening fruits, bananas and plantain with carbide.
These chemicals, according to experts, are slow killers. They go into the tissues and basic cells of the body and cause a lot of damages, resulting to sicknesses like cancer, diabetes, kidney, liver and lung diseases, drug resistant bacterial infections and other kinds of strange diseases.
So, it’s high time NAFDAC woke up from its slumber. Agreed, the agency has been carrying out campaigns to sensitize members of the public on the dangers of consuming fake pnomo and preserving food items with harmful chemicals, but that is not enough. Stronger measures should be taken to curb the practice. What about carrying out impromptu investigations in the markets, arresting defaulters and making them face the wrath of the law, as to serve as a deterrent to others? NAFDAC and other monitoring bodies in the agricultural sector should also embark on serious monitoring of use of pesticides in agriculture and food storage in the nation.
On the issue of ponmo, one thinks it will pay the country more to curtail the consumption rate or, if possible, ban the consumption of this meat that is said to have no nutritional value and rather channel the animal hide and skin into more economic ventures. Not too long ago, a global industry report hinted that Nigeria is losing out among the countries competing for the 75 billion dollar global leather industry because of ponmo consumption. We cannot afford to continue on this path, especially in view of the economic challenges facing the country.
We must, therefore, revive the leather goods industries in the country and start earning from them just like other countries. What other better way to diversify the economy and gainfully engage our teeming unemployed youth than this? Livestock farmers will also be the better off for it.

Calista Ezeaku