The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and it counterpart, Trade Union Congress, TUC, have called for the sack of the Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control, NAFDAC, Prof. Moji Adeyeye, for allegedly colluding with multi-national companies to kill local companies involved in alcohol production in Nigeria.
The leaders of the NLC and TUC in Ogun State made the call during a protest against the decision of NAFDAC to stop the production of alcoholic products in sachet packages.
Recall that NAFDAC had banned the production, distribution and sales of alcoholic beverages in sachets, pet and glass bottles of 200ml and below.
Enforcing the ban, NAFDAC shut down some production factories for not complying with its directive. This has generated repeated protests by distillers and labour unions across the country.
Expressing their displeasure with the development both unions and members of the Food Beverages and Tobacco Senior Staff Association, FOBTOB, and the National Union of Food Beverages and Tobacco Employees, NUFBE, participated in the protest which took place at the Ogun State House of Assembly.
The protesters who were chanting solidarity songs were also armed with placards and banners with various inscriptions such as: “Sachet alcohol is not Nigeria’s problem”, “Our industries must not die of wicked policies MAN save our industries”, “NAFDAC don’t take away our work” and “Don’t create another problem, don’t make us jobless in this biting economy”, among others.
Addressing the Speaker of the Assembly, Hon. Oludaisi Elemide, the TUC chairman, Hakeem Lasisi, lamented that the ban would force over 500,000 workers out of job, while over N800 billion investment in the industry would be lost.
He said, “We believe this policy is anti-people, it is not welcomed by Nigerians. Drinking of alcohol is a choice, you either take it or leave it and a large quantity of sales in this industry comes from the sales of sachet alcohol.
“This ban will affect Nigerians seriously, especially the Nigerian workers. We have over 500,000 direct employees in these companies, we have over 2 million indirect employees in these companies, the direct employees will fall back into the labour market, the indirect employees will become unemployed.
“Even the Ogun State government will be affected by the ban because these companies pay billions of naira into the government account as taxes, the internally generated revenue of Ogun State will drop.
“With this ban, over N800 billion investment in these companies will go down the drain. The packaging material industries who are supplying materials to these alcoholic producing companies will also fold up.
“What we are saying is that this policy is anti-people, the Director General of NAFDAC, Prof. Moji Adeyeye should be suspended because we believe that she has colluded with multinational companies to destroy the indigenous and local industries. We will not accept this.
“Adeyeye must go. She has colluded with multinational companies to destroy the local economy. The arguments of NAFDAC to ban the production of sachet alcoholic drinks are baseless.”
On his part, the NLC chairman, Hammed Benco, also called on the lawmakers to prevail on NAFDAC to lift the ban so as to save the manufacturing sector.
Responding, the Speaker promised that the Assembly would intervene and pleaded with the Federal Government to reconsider the ban.
“We are in a very critical moment in this country, though the ban is a federal government decision, but we will let them know what and what pleases us,” the Speaker said.
The protesters later marched to the palace of the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo, where representatives of the labour unions met with the monarch behind closed doors.
Quadri Olaitan is a journalist and contributor to Freelanews.com, covering news, public affairs, and human-interest stories.
