Perhaps, I am one of Nigeria’s poorest citizens, existing, but not living and domiciled in one of the country’s least of slums, in an obscure state too. In there and against all persuasions, I hate to remember my state and much more the stark reality; it midwifed my ancestral identity as a Nigerian.
Most nights, I spend without a blissful sleep. I toss from one angle of the bed to the other, until nature descends its slap on my soul to embrace the momentary respite, suspending my troubles and worries. I wail loudly most nights to God Almighty, as a Christian, anxious of His intervention in soothing the pains I suffer daily as a Nigerian citizen. I pray fervently for His consolation. Sometimes, it comes. At other times, my spirit fails me. In some instances I feel I have lost the delicate divine nexus between me and my Saviour, the Lord.
My predicament replicates in many homes and on multiple souls in Nigeria. Having projected ourselves as the worse breed of Africans, who delight in the destruction of our cherished national treasures, Nigerians anywhere in the country woke upto assailed afflictions that should not be our bane. We have made life and existence, so hellish, an experience.
We elect upon ourselves to rubbish all structures designed and empowered to give us comfort in homes or offices, to restore our dignity and pride as a nation. The other day, my neighbor woke up to a flat tyre he has been managing for a while. He opted to replace the two front tyres with new ones manufactured by companies licensed in Nigeria. Three months later, he was livid with anger that the inner trade of the two tyres gave way in quick succession. They damaged beyond usage.
It’s only in Nigeria that buildings, especially mini-estates, are erected without recourse to approved standards. Yet, we have the Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) staffed and equipped to checkmate such fraudulence. Farmers buy bags of fertilizer in the market, only to discover it is a mixture of sand and stones at the point of applying it on the farms. Much is also true of cement bags.
Vehicle owners constrained to replace damaged spare parts are faced with a recurring dilemma. They end up with spare parts worse than the replaced ones. The cabal of counterfeiters in the country is thick, solid and widespread. It is so vicious and nobody or segment of Nigeria is spared its fury.
And SON, one of the agencies with mandate to checkmate this menace has only manifested woeful failure in the last 16 years. There is no palpable indication that SON has made appreciable progress in the fight against counterfeit products ravaging Nigeria.
But as Nigeria battled its burden half-heartedly, the phenomenon of fake products became more pronounced during SON’s headship by Dr. Joseph Odumodu. Many Nigerians have perceived his manifest incompetence as the justification why the Federal Government under the change mantra of President Muhammedu Buhari sacked its Director-General among the first of 26 bosses of federal agencies and parastaltals.
I quiver to imagine that the Federal Government has over 500 of such agencies covering diverse areas and SON is fingered in the first batch of sacked bosses, rated as deserving urgent attention for revival, bespeaks of the decay within, which is visible even to the blind.
It is therefore laughable that the sack of Odumodu who has obviously presided over the blossoming of counterfeited products in the country is being praise-sang for a reappointment. Nigeria as a country has over 170 million sons and daughters. But very few among them really love their country, because if someone like Odumodu finds fanatics, who are so passionate about him, then no worse mischief can surpass it.
Worse still, the advocates of “No Odumodu, is death of SON,” have anchored their arguments on his initiation of Product Standardization Laboratories and the dire need to be allowed to complete them. More to it, the inclusion of SONCAP and MANCAP logos among the four new logos introduced by the sacked SON DG and describing it as a revolution is dragging the joke too far. They existed before he came on board as SON’s boss and what can be rightfully ascribed to him is his poor foresight and application of these logos for quality in local or imported products.
In essence, to mount media campaigns for the retention of Odumodu is like indicting the Federal Government for carrying out “improper” checks before terminating his appointment. It is the height of insensitivity to the plight of Nigerians, who are routinely assaulted by the overwhelming flooding of our markets with fake products.
And it is safer to conclude that those championing his comeback, through media propaganda and projecting a successor outside of Odumodu as a taboo are probably the masked counterfeiters. They apparently thrived on his ineffectiveness to lead the agency for positive results, but afforded the counterfeiters the ambit to flourish in their dubious traps at the expense of Nigerians.
They feel appointing a competent successor to replace Odumodu, would terminate their nefarious activities. The Federal Government should be wary of such campaigns.
However, there is certitude at the end of the tunnel. The actions of SON’s Ag. Director-General, Dr. Paul Angya in a few weeks on assumption of duty – have exposed the emptiness of the Odumodu’s reign of shame at this focal agency of government. Interpreted differently, Nigerians now understand through his actions so far that SON had no machinery in operation for the standardization and regulation of quality for local products and imported ones.
And also, SON before now neglected a critical function such as proper inspection of local factories to enforce adherence to approved quality standards or the inspection of foreign goods to ascertain their approved quality before shipment into Nigeria. The Acting DG is poised to redefine SON in such directions.
He has begun preliminary works toward the establishment of a Standard Laboratory Testing Company in Nigeria, which would test all locally manufactured products, as against the previous practice of testing them abroad and incurring expense in foreign exchange for avoidable trips. Since government is continuity, Angya has pledged to complete projects initiated by his predecessor and his recent inspection of the Standardization Laboratories in Lagos is manifest expression of a boss determined to march words with action.
Testimonies of Angya’s impressive performance at SON have been profound. A Nigerian identified as Jimoh attested to this as he wrote in Vanguard newspaper;
“As soon as he took over as the Acting DG, SON, Dr. Paul Angya fired a warning shot to importers of products which similar locally produced counterparts enjoy core competence and high quality. He promised to do everything to protect local manufacturers from unhealthy competition with imported products, adding that this would help to create more jobs and grow the economy.”
Besides, Angya is not a greenhorn in the management or administration of SON. He is a Lawyer and scholar who specialized in Standardization and consumer protection laws. Before his appointment as SON’s Ag DG, the 53-year old lawyer was the agency’s Director, Corporate Affairs and SON’s Consultant and honorary legal adviser to the African Regional Organization for Standardization (ARSO), Nairobi, Kenya. He doubled as honorary legal adviser of the African Eco-Labelling Mechanism (AEM), an AUC agency with mandate in Environment and Sustainability Standards in Nairobi.
He holds a Ph.D in Law from the University of Jos; a bachelor and Masters degrees from the University of Lagos and the Benue State University, Makurdi respectively.
No evidence of his deep knowledge of SON than the fact that he acted as secretary to Council of SON at various times and director, Administration and Human Capital Development among others. As a passionate team player anywhere he served. Dr. Angya returned to SON after a one year stint as Acting director, Legal – Enforcement department, National Film and Video Census Board (NFVCB).
I believe that the Odumodu campaigners have no basis for such media hype, beyond mocking Nigerians. At all times, Nigeria should test fresh brains to tap from their wealth of knowledge. So the antics deployed by the masked agents of counterfeiters cannot be strange to Nigerians.
They shall be disarmed soon.
***Bello wrote in from Kaduna.
