Nigeria is facing a dangerous food crisis. It is rooted in food being preserved with chemicals. In the past couple of weeks, the country has been inundated with the scary news of beans being preserved with Sniper, a powerful insecticide (dichlorvos) that is commonly sold in the open market. In a video clip that has gone viral, some vendors were seen spraying the chemical on beans. Unfortunately, this underhand practice is gaining ground to the detriment of public health.
On different occasions, families have been wiped out after innocently consuming these poisoned food items. These chemicals are applied to crops during planting and post-harvest to “preserve” them before they reach consumers. The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh, said, “What we see now is the use of Sniper and they say it damages the lungs if it is put in your food. We also have weevil control in beans and people use aluminium phosphate.”
This deleterious venture affects food items like beans, banana, plantain, yam, vegetables, fruits, corn, sorghum and potato, which are commonly eaten countrywide. For instance, an affected carrot, when left overnight, grows fungi. Also, plantain, mangoes and oranges are artificially ripened with carbide, a dangerous compound. With regard to this, the Food Hygiene Initiative of Nigeria said, “A commonly used agent in the ripening process is calcium carbide, a material most commonly used for welding purposes. Calcium carbide treatment of food is extremely hazardous because it contains traces of heavy metal arsenic and phosphorous substances.” The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has warned that artificially ripened foods “cause cancer and other illnesses.”
Without doubt, these contaminated foods lead to diseases and premature deaths. In a recent case, which occurred on November 11 in Ilorin, Kwara State, four members of a family were found dead after a meal of amala (yam flour); four others who ate the same meal were hospitalised. In August 2017, five members of a family died in Okija, Anambra State, in controversial circumstances after they reportedly consumed rice suspected to have been poisoned. They all died vomiting blood.
Imported food items are not left out. Frozen poultry products, beef and fish, are reportedly preserved with chemicals like formaldehyde by smugglers. Local beef vendors also engage in this practice to drive away houseflies. Formaldehyde, said to be carcinogenic and could cause liver, kidney and heart failures, prompted Ogbeh to counsel sternly against consuming such products in 2017. In 2014, Ogbeh’s predecessor, Akinwumi Adesina, had uncovered 3,028 cartons or 60.5 metric tonnes of rotten fish, which were imported from Asia at a warehouse in Lagos.
Unfortunately, NAFDAC, the key agency of the Federal Government saddled with the task of sanitising both local and imported foods, is in disarray, and thus cannot enforce standards again. The Director-General of NAFDAC, Moji Adeyeye, told a bewildered nation last week that 80 per cent of the equipment being used to certify foods and drugs had broken down. They have not been repaired or replaced because the agency is battling with debts. The situation is so bad that when the World Health Organisation officials visited the NAFDAC laboratory in Lagos last year, they scored it zero. This is shocking, a sign that the government accords scant value to the health of the citizens.
In contrast, the European Union is very vigilant about the food items its citizens consume, whether produced there or imported. Using a continent-wide Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed, the EU enforces strict rules on foods. As a result, it barred 42 food items that originated in Nigeria from Europe in 2015. In 2016, the EU rejected 25 food items, making 67 processed and semi-processed barred items in all. Top among those rejected were beans, melon seeds, palm oil, bitter leaf, pumpkin, shelled groundnut and live snails. EU officials said they discovered glass fragments, rodent excreta, and dead insects, high levels of chemicals like dichlorvos, diometrate and trichlorphon in them. Sadly, these are foods consumed with relish in Nigeria.
The Federal Government and its agencies should do all within their powers to eradicate the practice. To change the narrative, government agencies concerned have to wake up, especially the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Health and NAFDAC. Ogbeh should revive the extension services departments, which will liaise with farmers on how to apply fertilisers and pesticide. This is vital because dangerous chemicals are being used to control weeds at the planting stage.
The Federal Government should revive NAFDAC, by equipping it effectively for it to discharge its critical responsibility of protecting public health. NAFDAC was most effective under the late Dora Akunyili. It needs a shake up. This scandal is also an indictment of the Nigeria Customs Service. In 2000, Nigeria banned the import of frozen poultry products. It is shameful that the ban is being observed in the breach because these dangerous products are all over the place. As the EU is doing, Customs and the quarantine officers should do their job properly at the borders, preventing smugglers from infiltrating our shores with these products. The smugglers that are arrested should face the law.
State governments have a vital role to play: they should have inspectors to test food samples from the markets in their domains. By doing so, they will detect foods that are tainted and save the citizens from grave danger.
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