The plastic rice scare
A rumour that had been circulating in this country for many months, alleging that plastic rice was on sale in the country, was suddenly given a quasi-official imprimatur last week when the Federation Operations Unit [FOU] of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) said it had discovered bags of the plastic rice. Customs Area Comptroller, Federal […]
A rumour that had been circulating in this country for many months, alleging that plastic rice was on sale in the country, was suddenly given a quasi-official imprimatur last week when the Federation Operations Unit [FOU] of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) said it had discovered bags of the plastic rice. Customs Area Comptroller, Federal Operations Unit, Zone ‘A’, Ikeja, Haruna Mamudu said the unit had seized 102 bags of the plastic rice at a warehouse in Ikeja, Lagos. He also said the imported rice, which was branded as ‘Best Tomato’ had no manufacture, expiry date or NAFDAC registration number.
Mamudu said, “We are still investigating to ascertain how many of this rice has been circulated and how best to retrieve them in order to protect and safeguard the health of Nigerians and bring those behind it to book.” He also said he previously thought plastic rice was a rumour but he was now “totally convinced” that such rice exists. “We have done the preliminary analysis on the plastic rice. After boiling it, it was sticky and only God knows what would have happened if people consumed it,” he said. He however said that the unit would hand over the sample to the
National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) for proper investigation.
This sounded like an afterthought since NAFDAC is the agency mandated by law to carry out such tests in the first place. This Haruna Mamudu is a national scare monger. His words, uttered at the onset of the Yuletide season, scared thousands of Nigerians from buying rice. Given that rice has become the major staple food in Nigeria, the consequences could hardly be imagined. It was gratifying that our health authorities acted with despatch and dispelled this rumour. Within a day Minister of Health Professor Isaac Adewole came out and said preliminary laboratory tests revealed no evidence to back up the claim. Adewole said after a meeting with NAFDAC that the rice tested negative for floating, cooked and smelled normal and had regular off-white colour. He also said its moisture and pre-washing tests also indicated normal levels. He said NAFDAC “will release detailed findings to the public as soon as it concludes investigations. We urge all Nigerians to remain calm for now.”
We hope this assurance by the minister would lay to rest the purported presence of plastic rice in Nigeria. The Customs’ “revelation” was preceded by panic in Jos last month over unsubstantiated reports that Chinese businessmen were shipping plastic rice into this country. We condemn the sloppy handling of this matter by the Customs Area Comptroller who overstepped his official bounds by “confirming” the presence of plastic rice when it was another agency’s duty to do so. Even if he suspected the rice to be the so-called plastic one, he should have chosen his words carefully and handed over the matter to NAFDAC.
The work of Customs is to say if items are smuggled and they should restrict themselves to that. Without having the duty or the expertise to rule on this matter, the Customs officer caused mass hysteria, depriving people of eating rice during the Yuletide period. We call on officials to restrict themselves to their jobs so as to avoid trying to do what is not their work, which can cause embarrassment and even conflict. In this major blunder, the Nigeria Customs Service should apologise to Nigerians, particularly those that were scared off from eating rice during this festive period. We commend the Health Minister and NAFDAC for their prompt intervention and we urge them to conclude their investigation and make the result available to the public as soon as possible.