Civil society organisations protecting consumer rights have threatened to shut down offices of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, nationwide in a bid to push for the lifting of the ban on sachet alcoholic drinks.

Last weekend, members of the Food, Beverages and Tobacco Senior Staff Association and the National Union of Food, Beverages and Tobacco Employees held protests at the Lagos office of NADFAC, explaining that the ban could displace no fewer than 5.5 million Nigerians from their jobs.

NAFDAC DG, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, had affirmed that the reason behind the ban was to protect children from indiscriminate intake of alcohol.

However, yesterday in Lagos, the aggrieved union members, unsatisfied with the DG’s unyielding stance, vowed not to withdraw until their demands were met.

Comrade Declan Ihekaire, who represented the coalition of civil societies of Nigeria protecting consumer rights, said the initiative was in solidarity with members of the distillers’ association, under the aegis of the Food, Beverages and Tobacco Senior Staff Association and the National Union of Food, Beverages and Tobacco Employees, who had been shut out of work, following the regulatory action by NAFDAC.

He maintained that the ban would worsen economic hardship, noting that millions of Nigerians were employed across the value chain of sachet alcohol production, distribution and sales.

Accusing government of using regulatory agencies to impose policies that affect low-income earners, who were mainly consumers of the products, Ihekaire said: “The ban can only be justified when there are serious health challenges.

“So when you now say we shouldn’t take such a drink, it’s as good as saying don’t take sachet water but only take bottled water.”

He, however, insisted that regulation, rather than banning the products, should have been adopted if there was any issue the regulatory agency wanted to address.

Addressing the protesters, Branch Chairman of Food, Beverage and Tobacco Senior Staff Association, FOBTOB, in Lagos, Comrade Somefun Olamiye, said NAFDAC DG was misrepresenting facts to justify the ban on sachet alcoholic drinks, stressing that the claim that sachet alcohol contained excessively high alcohol content was false.

Faulting the NAFDAC claim that the sachet alcohol contains up to 95 per cent alcohol, Olamiye said: “No sachet alcoholic drink exceeds 43 per cent alcohol content.’’

While appealing for the ban to be lifted, he said: “Many low-income Nigerians, including widows and small-scale traders, depend on the sale of sachet alcoholic drinks, alongside other products to sustain their families and fund their children’s education.”

“We want the Tinubu government to save our jobs. After this, we will be marching to the National Assembly to inform them of our grievances because this is not the renewed hope that President Bola Tinubu promised us.” (Vanguard)