Govt, NAFDAC, join fight to stop consumption of ethanol-based liquor in Benue State
From Simeon Nwakaudu, Makurdi
FOR years, concerned citizens of Benue State, especially in the Tiv-speaking areas had expressed concern over an ill-wind that had been blowing over their land.
Agriculture had been the thriving mainstay of the state's economy, and for years, Benue State was the undisputed food-basket of the nation
In the past, rural-based farmers worked hard at their farms, enjoyed rich harvests, made a lot of money and when they wanted to relax, drank beer.
Then came 1999 and the brand of politicians it spawned.
Agriculture fell out of favour as a priority government policy as people and their governments began to pay scant attention to agriculture
Youths, whose strength wielded the hoes and knives in the farms, found a distraction as they lent their energies to the services of politicians around whom they flocked for easy but paltry handouts of cash.
When such money reached the pockets of these misguided youths, they went to, not the beer parlour as in the past but to dinghy, huts, where local gin is sold.
No thanks to politicians in the Tiv- speaking area of Benue State, the dignity of farming, which predated the present experience of democracy in the country, has been eroded.
It is now difficult to find serious-minded youths involved in farming in the state.
Easy money that politicians throw about during their campaigns has been blamed for discouraging youths from farming and consequently thrown the entire Tiv communities into social crisis.
After the campaigns, the youths refuse to return to the farms as they move from one politician's home to the other begging for money.
Such money invariably is lavished in the innumerable huts where the local gin also commonly called ogogoro or akpetesh all over Nigeria, is sold.
Perhaps, in acknowledgment of the deleterious, damaging effects of the liquor, the Tiv have other names for the drink, such as Jem Usuh which roughly translates to live charcoal, norgema-tyo, which means elephant-turns-its-buttocks and gyoor begha, meaning, a knock from a lion.
But now, politicians and traditional rulers in Benue State have woken up to realise that the cheap ogogoro, a source of alcoholic pleasure in the rural communities of Tivland, portends grave danger to the people.
They have seen the Tiv rural economy diminish in the last decade because of the failure of youths to farm, while health problems caused by ogogoro have become commonplace.
As a first step, the Benue State government moved to enact a law to ban the sale, transportation and consumption of ogogoro in the state.
Many thought it was a political gimmick bound to fail, especially as government officials were known to buy gallons of ogogoro for youths in the rural areas to garner political support.
Now, the Benue State government has found an ally in the National Agency for Foods, Administration and Control, (NAFDAC,) and jointly, they have begun to sensitize the people on the law as well as the dangers inherent in consuming ogogoro.
Ogogoro is now considered a cankerworm, a demon that must be exorcised and even politicians and traditional rulers are coming together to join in the fight.
Last week, NAFDAC, through its Director General, Dr. Paul Orhii and a Benue-based non-governmental organisation, Benue Who is Who Initiative, mobilised people and traditional rulers from the 23 local councils to flag off a campaign on the dangers of consuming and selling ogogoro.
The NAFDAC D. G., Orhii, has every reason to be concerned because he hails from one of the councils where food production has declined drastically.
By 10.00a.m. that Thursday, the venue was parked full of participants, waiting to hear the message from the agency and the professionals accredited to provide credible information.
Orhii spoke of the importance the agency attached to the sensitization campaign as a result of which he came, despite the misfortune that befell NAFDAC that morning when arsonists attacked its headquarters in Abuja.
Speaking on the fire attack, Dr. Paul Orhii declared the organisation would intensify its efforts to track down fake and sub-standard drugs dealers in the country, despite the recent onslaught of arson carried out by suspected fake drug dealers, who know that the agency was closing in on them.
"We are strengthened by the knowledge that we are hitting these merchants of death where it hurts and we shall continue to hit them. Since they have started fighting back, we shall increase our vigilance and completely remove them from our system. There is nowhere in the world where the fight to remove the merchants of death comes easy", he stated.
On the campaign against the consumption and sale of ogogoro, Orhii expressed happiness that the Benue State House of Assembly has passed a law sponsored by the state government, banning the beverage.
He said the composition of ogogoro, which has over 60 percent alcoholic content with ethanol, makes it extremely dangerous for consumption, adding that NAFDAC was in the process of moving across the nation to stop its sale and consumption.
He said that the agency was already collaborating with stakeholders in the South South to stop the production of the alcoholic beverage, because it falls within the mandate of NAFDAC to do so.
He noted that the fight against the sale and consumption of ogogoro fell under NAFDAC's mandate, stressing that the agency would rise to the challenge by saving Nigerians from the dangers it posed.
He said any person who sees the way ogogoro ignites when exposed to fire would know that it was not a substance that should be ingested under any circumstance.
The State Governor, Gabriel Suswam while launching the campaign stated that his administration was committed to removing ogogoro from the Benue people's menu to free them from the dangers posed by the substance and kick-start the rural economy when youths return back to the farms.
Suswam said that the nicknames that people call ogogoro around the rural communities indicated the danger posed by the drink. He said that his administration could not stand by and watch ogogoro destroy the lives of youths of the state.
The governor said that after his cabinet sponsored the bill to the State Assembly, the legislators carried out a state-wide public hearing on the bill where the people completely rejected the sale and consumption of ogogoro and expressed their support to have it completely eradicated from the system.
He said: "They call ogogoro 'push me, I push you' and yet, people take it to destroy their lives. With the law that banned ogogor, which received the support of the entire state, we shall work hard to save our youths suffering from the addiction to this deadly substance. I call on all residents of the state to cooperate with law enforcement agents to ensure that those who sell and those who drink ogogoro are brought under the law."
The Tor Tiv, Dr. Alfred Akawe Torkula, who is the chairman of the Benue State Council of Chiefs had harsh words for some Tiv lawyers, whom he said were in court to challenge the legality of the law banning ogogoro in the state.
The Tor Tiv represented by the Ter Ushongo, Ambrose Iortyer, advised the Tiv lawyers to withdraw the suit, otherwise they would face the wrath of the ancestors.
