The head of Nigeria’s food and drug regulator on Wednesday strongly defended the ban on alcohol sold in sachets and small bottles, saying the measure is essential to shield the country’s young people from harm and curb related social problems.
National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) Director-General Mojisola Adeyeye told Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme that unrestricted access to cheap, small-packaged alcohol was damaging the health and future of Nigerian youths and even encouraging banditry.
Adeyeye said the agency had already closed three major manufacturers for three weeks and arrested several people to enforce the prohibition on alcoholic drinks in containers under 200 ml.
“You know, when you are doing something that is right, something that is going to safeguard the health of our people, something that is going to foster trade, you will step on toes and get pushback. We are surprised by the pushback,” she said.
Looking back at the original decision to allow sachet packaging decades earlier, Adeyeye said the consequences had proved far worse than expected.
“This sachet alcohol was approved maybe 30 years ago, and when it was approved, I don’t think my predecessor who did the approval knew what was going to happen,” she explained. “But this monster became uncontrollable. This monster stood out to destroy the future of our workforce, of our children.”
She confirmed that NAFDAC had ensured a full ban on the products.
“We shut down the three major companies for three weeks and put some people behind bars. That, I believe, is not sitting well, but Nigeria is pleading for our own children. That is why the ban is now in place,” Adeyeye declared.
Responding to recent protests in Ibadan against the restriction, the director-general said demonstrators were focused only on short-term concerns and ignoring the long-term damage.
“They were demonstrating because they are seeing the situation now; they are not seeing into the future that alcohol destroys the brain, it destroys the lungs, it destroys the kidneys, the liver; it encourages banditry,” she added.
Adeyeye noted that the National Alcohol Policy launched by the Ministry of Health explicitly includes the ban on sachet alcohol and small PET bottles.
