Sachet alcohol lobby

Lobbyists seeking to overturn the ban by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) on alcohol in sachets and pet bottles less than 200ml are connecting deep within government machinery. They lately got the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) to issue a restraining order on NAFDAC that seemed like the handiwork of a fifth column.

NAFDAC began implementing the ban on production and sale of alcohol packaged in sachets and polyethene terephthalate (pet) bottles less than 200ml on January 21, this year, after a five-year grace period allowed producers to phase out the containers. But distillers, food and beverages sector workers and umbrella labour unions as well as civil society allies have plied pressure against the policy, arguing that the decision would cripple  investments and result in job losses. They urged NAFDAC to reconsider the ban in the interest of the economy and local investors. NAFDAC, however, insisted on staying its regulatory course in the interest of public health, and because it had allowed a long adjustment time for the producers.

Since the regulatory agency began enforcing the ban, the dissuaders have been pressuring it to back down. In recent weeks, members of Distillers and Blenders Association of Nigeria (DIBAN) and Association of Food, Beverage and Tobacco Employees (AFBTE) joined forces with civil society actors, including the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), to stage protests at the regulatory agency’s offices. They argued that investments and livelihoods connected with the sector were at stake by reason of the ban, citing a purported statement by the office of the SGF advising policy suspension. NAFDAC, however, persisted on the strength of reported green light from government, including a nod by the Senate chamber to go ahead.  

Arguments canvassed by lobbyists centred on protection of commerce. A prominent spokesman is AFBTE Executive Secretary Solomon Adebosin, who said over five million people could get thrown out of job and some three trillion naira investments put at risk. “We appreciate our President (Bola Tinubu) for his various proactive measures to strengthen the economy. Killing local investments and throwing people out of jobs will definitely frustrate his commitment to boost the economy,” he recently told journalists, arguing that the ban on sachet alcohol targeted indigenous producers as they were mostly involved in that sector. “Unfortunately, this will have multiple negative effects on the economy as all the people engaged in the value chain of sales and production would also be affected,” he added.

Some of the lobbyists accused government of using regulatory agencies to impose policies that disadvantage low-income earners. “Millions of Nigerians decided to go low-key by consuming those products because of their income level. It isn’t everybody that is rich enough to afford big drinks. So when you now say we shouldn’t take such drink, it’s like saying don’t take sachet water but only take bottled water,” a civil society actor said during one of the protests at NAFDAC offices. Lobbyists further argued that regulatory action should focus on moderation, rather than product prohibition. They even canvassed sachet and small-size pet bottles as in themselves supportive of moderate consumption, “because when you just have it in bits, you take it and then you are okay; you are not compelled to take more than is necessary,” one campaigner said. They advised control of access to the products rather than outright ban on product lines.

“A chilling possibility is that lobbyists could be getting government functionaries to speak up for their cause when government itself hasn’t spoken”

NAFAC, for its part, argued from the perspective of public health. Besides, the agency said its enforcement of the ban followed many years of back-and-forth with the alcohol industry over eliminating the small-size packages. Industry operators had, in December 2018, signed an agreement with the Ministry of Health and NAFDAC to phase out the controversial packages by January 31, 2024. When the deadline expired, an extension was given to enable the operators adequately prepare for the ban. In an interview on national television, NAFDAC Director-General, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, said upon negotiations, there was a document generated, “an agreement that was signed by AFBTE and DIBAN that we should consider that they have machinery and people in the industry producing these alcoholic beverages in sachets and less than 200ml bottles, that we should give them time.” According to her, the producers signed a pact for a five-year phase out period from 2018 till the end of January 2024, that they would no longer produce sachet alcohol and should have slowly phased out the product lines within the given time.

The NAFDAC boss said the Ministry of Trade and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) were co-signers of the agreement, and her agency was just implementing, and not that it wanted businesses to fail. Asked why NAFDAC seeks to eliminate alcoholic beverages in sachets, she said: “Children in primary schools and secondary schools are drinking alcohol in sachets or less than 200ml pet bottles. Beer has four to eight percent alcohol. The alcohol content in sachet is 30 percent – six to seven times the amount of alcohol in beer. We did not ban alcohol in bigger containers, we are not against trade. We are banning alcohol as implementing agency under the health ministry in conjunction with ministry of trade. We are banning alcohol in sachets and pet bottles less than 200ml because these packages can be easily concealed.”

Speaking on dangers of the products in question, the NAFDAC boss said: “It is harmful because it can be easily concealed. You can imagine your child, a primary school child, concealing the sachet in his pocket. I was talking with a principal two days ago, and she said that they normally seize those sachet packages with alcohol inside them from children, that sometimes a child may consume up to seven during the day during school hours.” 

According to Adeyeye, it has been documented by international agencies that children who start drinking alcohol at a young age will very likely abuse substances, and that alcohol abuse can cause over two hundred types of diseases. “We gave a five-year notice. If an association did not disseminate that information to their member-groups, then that’s a problem. We gave a five-year notice: ‘please phase these out because our children will have liver cirrhosis, because our children, by the time they get to twenty-something, may be having cancers.’ Which one do we want? We want children to die or we want money?” she said.

It is common knowledge that other than schoolchildren over whom NAFDAC expressed concern, motor drivers, mostly in the commercial transportation sector, abuse sachet alcohol and consequently constitute grave hazards to other road users. But the lobbyists obviously are not relenting, as they press their campaign to tie the regulatory agency’s hand over its sachet alcohol ban. 

The latest indication of their mark was a statement penultimate week by which government purportedly directed NAFDAC to suspend all enforcement measures relating to the ban on sachet alcohol. The directive was announced in a statement by Special Adviser on Public Affairs to the SGF, Terrence Kuanum, who said the order followed joint intervention by the offices of the SGF and the National Security Adviser (NSA), which allegedly raised concerns over security implications of enforcing NAFDAC’s ban in the absence of a fully implemented National Alcohol Policy. “Accordingly, all actions, decisions or enforcement measures relating to the ongoing ban on sachet alcohol are to be suspended pending final consultations and implementation of the National Alcohol Policy and the issuance of a final directive,” Kuanum’s statement read in part.

But NAFDAC, in a rejoinder, rebuffed the claim that government had ordered it to suspend implementation of its ban on sachet alcohol. Adeyeye said the agency was operating strictly within its statutory mandate and in line with duly communicated government policies. “The said publication is false, misleading, and does not reflect any official communication received from the Federal Government. At no time has the agency received any formal directive ordering the suspension of its regulatory or enforcement activities in respect of sachet alcohol products,” she stated.

Neither the SGF’s office nor that of the NSA subsequently came up to press the purported restraint order on NAFDAC or counter the agency’s pushback. So, you wonder at whose behest Kuanum issued his statement when government had not formally instructed NAFDAC as he purported. A chilling possibility is that lobbyists could be getting government functionaries to speak up for their cause when government itself hasn’t spoken. That would be the surreptitious power of lobby. But truth remains that this country can’t afford to prioritise profit over public health.