Nigeria invites disease (3)
Herbal drugs which have not been certified or standardised are soaked in local gin, dyed in different colours, in some cases laced with hemp and hawked as a cure-all. Young men and women buy individually or congregate to consume these so-called medicines.
Barbershops and hairdressing salons present another set of hazards to the populace. Pretend sterilisation of equipment through applying alcohol to clippers and lighting them up to dazzle their customers, creates a fantastic impression of safety. But the barber shop and salon still regularly create bumps that end up being difficult to cure, create kelloids, transmit ringworm, lice, and eczema among others.
Roadside food is popular everywhere and is part of the culture of people. Families buy beans cake, commonly referred to as Akara, along with pap for breakfast or alone for dinner. Recently it was discovered that the women who do the frying use synthetic oils specifically refined for electricity transformers simply because the oil has a higher boiling point, does not evaporate as quickly as palm or groundnut oil, and leads them to more profit. They do not care about the damage the synthetic oil they use causes to the buyer’s health. Unfortunately bean cake sellers are on every street in rural and semi-urban Nigeria. They sell in cellophane bags which is ill-advised, carcinogenic old newspapers and often add spices which come in all manners of unknown mixes. Some of these spices are enhanced with dyes and colourants that may not be appropriate for human consumption.
Big eateries present a challenge as well. A study in America linked the high rate of obesity in that society to the kinds of addictive oils and additives in fast food. Big eateries also microwave a lot of the half cooked and overstored food they serve. Microwave ovens have now been classified as dangerous appliances to human health and the food they heat as substandard for consumption. The number of ways in which we poison ourselves as a society are numerous. It is therefore important to delve into the solutions.
Obviously, the first solution is to return to the standards. It is important that a National Sanitary Inspection and Community Health Commission be created by the Federal Government through legislation and properly empowered to do a very good job, along with relevant agencies of government. This commission has become necessary because a similar structure that operates at the local government level has continued to fail us. Fines and other punitive measures will ensure enforcement of standards. It should be recalled that the present Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, is a fall out of the success recorded by a similar body created by Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka in the south west due to some perceived inadequacies of the Motor Traffic Division (MTD) of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF). The FRSC, though not perfect, has returned sanity to our roads.
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The National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) also needs to up its game. They need to work with Nigerian Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD) and herbalism bodies all over Nigeria to standardise herbal products, register and licence producers and enforce the arrest and trial of defaulters. The Federal Ministry of Health also needs to set up a National Task Force on Elimination of Poisonous Substances, or a similar body immediately.
Very importantly, the National Orientation Agency (NOA) whose job it is to mobilise Nigerians should synergise with the Nigeria Customs Service, the police and all ports of entry monitoring bodies to ensure that things that will lead to disease and death are not brought into Nigeria. Along with relevant agencies in the Federal Ministry of Education and the Federal Ministry of Health, the NOA should work on a three year rolling plan of intensive public enlightenment towards educating the public on the many dangerous health practices citizens carry out.
Most importantly, the presidency must begin to see that Nigerians, who are faced already with all sorts of stressors and low life expectancy, must be salvaged from other dangers and cultures that will lead to painful and early deaths. A healthy population that adopts the right standards is a wealthy population. We must stop inviting disease.
