adminThe Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) have called for the suspension of the Director General of NAFDAC, Prof. Moji Adeyeye, accusing her of conspiring with multi-national companies to kill local companies involved in alcohol production in Nigeria.
The labour union including members of the Food Beverages and Tobacco Senior Staff Association (FOBTOB) and the National Union of Food Beverages and Tobacco Employees (NUFBE) made the call on Wednesday while protesting the ban in Abeokuta.
Recall that the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) had banned the production, distribution and sales of alcoholic beverage in sachets, PET and glass bottles of 200ml and below.
Enforcing the ban, NAFDAC on the 1st of February shutdown 25 production factories for not complying to its directive.
The protesters who chanted anti-government songs stormed the Ogun State House of Assembly in Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, armed with placards 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.
They characterised the ban on sachet alcoholic beverages as an anti-people measure that will make Nigerians’ already dire financial situation worse.
In his address to Speaker of the Assembly Hon. Oludaisi Elemide, Chairman of the TUC chapter in Ogun State, Akeem Lasisi bemoaned the fact that the ban will result in the loss of over N800 billion in industrial investment as well as the forced unemployment of over 500,000 workers.
“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 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 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.”
In response to the demonstrators, the Speaker pledged that the Assembly will step in and implore 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 protesters then marched to the palace of the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo, where representatives of the labour unions met with the monarch in private.
