With one week to the August 15 expiration of the deadline given by the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), to importers to take fake and substandard products out of circulation, tension is mounting. Our Special Correspondent, IKPO IGBINOBA who has been on the trail of the unfolding development highlights the odds on the path of the regulatory agency.
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If victories are determined in battles based on strategies, then the Director General of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Dr. Joseph Odumodu, should have won the war against fake and substandard products even before firing the first shot.
But the unfortunate reality for SON and Odumodu is that other factors outside mere strategies determine the outcome of wars. For Odumodu, some of these factors are just beyond his control.
Odumodu’s appointment in January by President Goodluck Jonathan to take over from Dr. John Akanya elicited mixed reactions from stakeholders. Some who have become cynics in the face of repeated failures from government agencies dismissed the new DG as another doomed to fail like his predecessors who have unenviable records of resounding failure.
But those who had followed the pharmacist’s antecedents in the private sector where he carved a niche for himself did argue then that Odumodu was coming to SON to make a difference.
The new DG had spent his entire career in the private sector where he had a distinguished career rising to the position of the managing director of pharmaceutical giants, May and Baker.
Seven months into his sojourn in the regulatory agency, Odumodu has convinced even the cynics that he is determined to make an impact in SON. He has indeed brought a new lease of life into the agency.
Odumodu has stated his mission very clearly at different fora which is to rid the country of fake and substandard products and protect the lives of the Nigerian consumers. When he assumed office, he openly declared war on those whose stock in trade had been flooding the Nigerian markets with fake and substandard products in spite of the adverse economic implications and threat to lives of their activities.
The SON chief unlike his predecessors also gave a deadline to the bad boys to turn a new leaf and embrace doing the clean business of dealing in genuine products. Odumodu warned those who were not willing to heed his appeal to get out of town with their merchandise of death and doom or face the full wrath of the law.
Odumodu did the unusual after issuing his ultimatum. Rather than sit back in his Abuja office, he shattered all existing civil service procedure and decided to reach out to all the stakeholders in this battle. He met with importers, dealers, traders at the Alaba International Market and other parts of the country which are notorious for fake and substandard products, clearing agents, other regulatory agencies, and even consumers.
In the beginning he issued a deadline that was to expire on May 31. But after series of meetings with different interest groups and listening to various views, Odumodu shifted the deadline to August 15 which is exactly one week from today. In fixing a new deadline Odumodu was conceding to request by stakeholders who complained of their goods trapped at the seaports.
From next Wednesday, the battle line would be drawn between those importers, dealers and traders who refuse to listen to the SON and insist in doing business as usual by flooding the markets with fake and substandard products.
Except something dramatic happens between today and next Wednesday, according to the schedule of SON, markets, shopping malls, shops would be raided by officials and goods which fall short of standards would be seized, destroyed and the owners prosecuted.
For those who understand the Nigerian terrain, the looming battle between SON and the bad boys has all the trappings of a battle royale with each side throwing every weapon at its disposal into the fray.
But just as Nigerians await the d-day, it is imperative to give an idea of what to expect. Without trying to disregard the resolve of SON to deal decisively with the crooks, it must be made clear that this is one battle that the government agency will find difficult to prosecute.
For starters, Odumodu and his men should not expect to have an easy battle. With the enemy they are confronting the SON chief and his field officers should be prepared to fight the battle of their lives.
The SON team will need to recall the experience of Professor Dora Akunluyi who as the head of the NAFDAC pursued the war against fake drugs with messianic zeal. The bad boys in that sector did everything to frustrate her and even went after her like some fury from hell. She is lucky to be alive today to relate her traumatic experience.
Odumodu and his men should be prepared to face such wrath from these callous businessmen who have not only done severe damage to the nation’s economy, but whose substandard products have claimed thousands of lives across the nation.
The DG’s situation is further worsened by the limited resources which he has at his disposal to prosecute this battle against a formidable enemy whose arsenal is loaded with a range of deadly weapons.
The DG is going into this encounter with the odds heavily stacked against him. For now Odumodu’s only weapon is his resolve and the handful of officers, ill equipped, de-motivated and underpaid. He does not have the kind of manpower required to carry out this fight. The SON has barely 1,000 men and women to police the markets, factories, land borders, seaports, and airports and other places where this nefarious trade is carried out.
This figure amounts to a drop in an ocean. Beyond that, the workforce is not the motivated type. Their pay is not the type that would make the civil servant resist the temptation that should be expected from the barons of fake and substandard products.
When he assumed office in January, Odumodu identified all the problems in the agency with a view of carrying out reforms. Consequently, the DG presented a range of proposals to government to enhance the staff welfare, but he encountered the usual red tape which is the trade mark of the civil service. As at today, the situation in SON has not changed.
Though, SON did well in interacting with the stakeholders, it clearly failed in the area of enlightening the citizenry about fake and substandard products.
Truth be told, many Nigerians do not know the difference between genuine and fake products. What determines their choice is the price of the product. With limited consumer education the Nigerian would prefer a cheaper product without considering whether it is fake or substandard and with its attendant risks.
With these odds, it will take more than the determination of the SON DG to win this battle. The odds favour the barons of the fake and substandard products. Odumodu’s has the will to win this battle, but even from the bottom of his heart he knows that he doesn’t have the resources. It is only the government that can provide the wherewithal for him and his troops to confront the monster. For now and sometime to come, the Nigerian consumer should resign himself to fate for he is at the mercy of the merchants of death.
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