The Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) is not resting on its oars in its quest to rid the nation of substandard products judging by its relentless drive against fakers, reports Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf
There is no doubt that the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has recorded some modest successes in its fight against product counterfeiters. Despite some of its successes, it is not resting on its oars just yet. Little wonder, it has continued to take the battle to the doorstep of fakers.
A case in point is the recent clampdown on eight blocks of flats in the Kirikiri area of Apapa, Lagos filled with expired products.
The SON Director of Monitoring and Compliance, Bede Obayi, an engineer who led the operation and who later took journalists round the vicinity, said the agency swooped on the place based on intelligence report.
“You can see the volume of expired products here and imagine the implication for our society in terms of health issues,” said Obayi, with an unmistaken apprehension in his voice.
Raising some posers, he said: “When somebody buys expired cream, what does it show? You are applying cream that the active ingredient has gone and that may cause reactions on the skin. SON has discovered eight flats where expired products are repacked for sale.
“More importantly, you are dealing with products that children use. Look at baby diapers that expired in 2015. Imagine what a product that expired in 2015 will do to a baby if used in 2017.”
Obayi further observed the four-storey building of eight flats with the toilets, bathrooms and all available spaces were filled with expired products.
“Look at this wrapper for disinfectant. What they do is to pick the expired ones and use this wrapper with new expiry dates to wrap it. When you have the old products inside this wrap that carries 2018 as expiry date, you will not know you are buying cloned products. The products have lost their active ingredients and efficacy,” the SON official lamented.
Following a recent intelligence report the SON stormed a warehouse in Badagry Lagos, where substandard tyres valued at over N5b were stocked. Two Chinese nationals, Taolung Shen and Xu Jing Yau were arrested in the process.
The suspects churned out the substandard tyres into the Nigerian market under brand names such as Powertrac, Aptany, Harmony, Duraturn, Bearway, City Tour, Winda, Glory, Chachland, City Grand, Grandsonte and Sunny.
According to the SON, the suspects brought the substandard tyres into the country by stuffing them into one another.
“Sometimes as many as five tyres were stuffed into one and the tyres have bent and ruptured in several places, thereby looking weak and slack.
“But the Chinese adorned the tyres with new labels and shinny linings to create the impression of being new and healthy,” SON said.
Some of the tyres found in the warehouse had post-dated manufacturing dates.
For years, the country has been battling the spectre of substandard products, with many counterfeit and expired products finding their way into the nation’s market.
This is even as report revealed that more than N5billion is lost annually to the substandard goods as the country is regarded as one of the biggest markets for fake goods.
“The effect of these products on the country is devastating. Buildings have collapsed, so many lives have been lost due to consumption of fake and substandard products,” a visibly angry Obayi submitted.
Between 2015 and 2016, states like Lagos recorded multiple incidences of building collapse, a development, many buildings and construction engineers blamed on the usage of substandard materials.
While the challenge facing the SON is enormous, the recent mantra of the agency to consolidate on the gains made so far through effective engagement, monitoring and enforcement of the SON Amended Act 2015 seems to be yielding results judging by recent breakthroughs in the campaign against dangerous and unsafe products.
Thankfully, since resumption of office as the Director General of SON, Osita Aboloma had said he would try to consolidate on the gains so far made by the agency.
He had insisted that “when you adhere to standards, your products will be trusted and your businesses will grow.”
SON, he said, would continue to propagate national and international standards through adoption and diligent implementation in both the public and private sectors.
“To this end, we have over the years developed competencies in various international management system and standards. These include quality, environmental, food safety management, among others. All are aimed at national capacity development and certification of systems for continual improvement,” he said.
The new vigour to enforce the SON mandate has indeed started yielding results.
He said by stuffing the tyres into one another and conveying them through the sea from China to Lagos, the quality of the tyres had already been compromised.
“The SON Directorate of Compliance intercepted one of their trucks on the highway, tracked and then confiscated it. “You can see the amount of danger that these people are posing to our people and our economy just because they want to make huge profits at the expense of the lives of Nigerians.
“It is a clear case of investing millions in illicit business in order to destroy the lives of millions of Nigerians. If we allow something like this, it will amount to killing Nigerians,” Aboloma maintained.
He said there would be no hiding place for people who deal in adulterated products in the country.
Aboloma advised users of automobile tyres nationwide on the need to be extra-cautious when making purchases of such products. It is in the light of all these that the SON faces a herculean task although some analysts claim that it is to their credit that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Like an assiduous worker who has his hands on the plough, the SON DG has since constituted a steel monitoring task force to rid the market of substandard iron and steel materials.
The agency believes that sanitising the iron and steel industry in Nigeria is key just it hopes that the rampant building collapse in the country which is as a result of substandard building materials will be a thing of the past.
Aboloma noted that the agency while creating a conducive operating environment for steel production must also ensure that companies comply with the set standards.
