‘Import of charcoal, chicken, beef killing us’

A professional caterer, Mrs. Stella Dimowo, said the government should not fold its arms and watch people destroy the health of unsuspecting members of the public and the economy.Mrs. Dimowo said she is concerned at the increasing rate of importation of frozen chicken and beef despite Nigeria’s position as a major producer of meat through […]

A professional caterer, Mrs. Stella Dimowo, said the government should not fold its arms and watch people destroy the health of unsuspecting members of the public and the economy.
Mrs. Dimowo said she is concerned at the increasing rate of importation of frozen chicken and beef despite Nigeria’s position as a major producer of meat through livestock, poultry and fisheries that are found everywhere in the country, adding, “I was shocked when I realized that lately, ordinary charcoal for roasting meat is imported. Women in Abuja now use imported charcoal to roast meat and chicken in their houses. It is amazing!
“All these ‘imported this, ‘imported that’, do we know what they contain? Most of them could be harmful to the consumers as they are harmful to the economy. How are these things coming into the country by the way? Don’t we have customs in this country again? So, we have descended so low, to the level of importing ordinary charcoal? Government should do something fast to stop this rape on our economy,” she said.
Earlier in an interview with Daily Trust, the Minister of Agriculture, Dr Akinwumi Adesina expressed concern over the increasing importation of frozen chicken into the country, saying, “There is an issue with regard to the porous borders that we have. Again, our economy is pounded by wings and legs of chickens. So, the borders are too porous and the smuggling is killing our economy.
“We must make sure that we deal with the issue of smuggling, because a number of our neighbouring countries are just transit points for things into Nigeria, Benin in particular. Everything goes in there and they come to Nigeria. Some of the things that they do with the poultry is that they bring in these birds, because the customs is making it very difficult for them they hide it inside the trucks; by the time those trucks come to Nigeria, they’re spoilt.
“Because they don’t want them to get spoiled, they treat them with formaldehyde, which is used to preserve dead bodies (human corpses). They take the poultry products and sell them off here. You ask yourself the question: Why are we having cancer in Nigeria? Could that be some of it? We are actually a dumping ground. It’s not everything that is cheap that is good. It creates big health problem for us,” he said.
The minister wondered why Nigeria imports beef rather than export same, saying, “In Nigeria today, we move cattle, but we don’t move beef. The Fulani farmers move the animals. In the North, they fight the farmers and kill one another. They go to the South and kill one another. What are they fighting over? They’re fighting over grazing lands.
“Well, as the population rises, as urbanization occurs, there will never be enough grazing lands. So, we have to change our approach. Look at it; in terms of number of pilgrims that go for the Holy Pilgrimage in Mecca every year, Nigeria has the second largest number of pilgrims going there after Indonesia. When our brothers and sisters get there, what do they eat? They eat Halal certified beef, but it is coming out from Spain, Argentina and Brazil.
“In other words, we’re using our population, wealth and income to support the big industries of those countries. We’re not eating a single kilogram of beef from here. You know Nigerians like beef. We have decided that we must restructure the beef industry in Nigeria.
“As we speak, it has taken us up to eight months to develop a Halal certified beef strategy for this country. We have finished that strategy. It is to develop a Halal strategy meat slaughter packaged core-chain system in the North that will supply Halal certified beef for those local and international markets. We’re not just talking about it,” he said.
When this reporter visited some of the big shops, supermarkets, and plazas in Abuja, the federal capital, imported charcoal, frozen chicken and beef smuggled into Nigeria from different countries of the world were seen displayed for sale.
Mrs. Philo Ifeanyi who was seen buying imported frozen chicken at one of the supermarkets said, “The imported frozen chicken, beef, fish are very clean. You can just turn it into your pot if you like. They come very clean and cheaper than the local meat in the market. A kilogram of meat in the market is N1,000 while a kilogram of imported frozen meat is N870. The imported charcoal does not also smoke like the local one. It catches fire easily.”