‘Ban On Sachet Alcoholic Drinks Targeted At Killing Local Industries’- TUC, NLC

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), have described the ban on sachet alcoholic drinks as an anti-people policy which according to them is targeted at killing local manufacturing companies in the country.

The labour unions argued that the policy would further worsen the economic hardship currently being experienced by Nigerians.

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 shutdown some production factories for not complying its directive. This has generated repeated protests by distillers and labour unions across the country.

Leading another protest in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital on Wednesday, the Chairman of Ogun State chapter of TUC, Akeem Lasisi and his counterpart at NLC, Hammed Ademola Benco called for the suspension of the Director General of NAFDAC, Prof. Moji Adeyeye, accusing her of colluding with multi-national companies to kill local companies involved in alcohol production in Nigeria.

Members of the Food Beverages and Tobacco Senior Staff Association (FOBTOB) and the National Union of Food Beverages and Tobacco Employees (NUFBE) also participated in the protest.

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.

Lasisi while addressing the Speaker of the Assembly, Hon. Oludaisi Elemide lamented that the ban would force over 500,000 workers out of job, while over N800 billion investment in the industry would be lost.

The TUC chairman said, “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.”

On his part, the NLC chairman called on State Houses of Assembly to prevail on NAFDAC to lift the ban so as to save the manufacturing sector.

The Speaker while responding to the protesters promised that the Assembly would intervene and plead with 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 Speaker said.

The protesters later matched to the palace of the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo, where representatives of the labour unions met with the monarch behind closed-doors.