WIND OF CHANGE

The Standards Organisation of Nigeria is redefining the war on fake and substandard products, writes Reuben Ojim

One federal government agency where the change agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari has been in top gear is the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON). The SON is redefining the war on fake and substandard products. The verve and steam of the organisation that seemed threatened some years ago due to a combination of factors are being gradually re-invigorated under the Director-General, Mr. Osita Aboloma.

Beneath the veneer of Aboloma’s legal background is the toughness of a battlehardened reformer. His coming on stage has left no room for chattering and vacillating in the topflight regulatory organisation. Chivalrous yet genteel, Aboloma’s sprightly and self-confident approach to the battle against substandard and adulterated products have been yielding huge dividends. He goes about his duty with uncommon gusto. His gravitas in sifting and analysing the labyrinth of products within the country and those coming in, while getting the companies and organisations to comply with the rules and regulations, is uncommon.

Leveraging on his productive will power coupled with his strong aversion to quackery, Aboloma has been disarming many violators of set standards thereby warming himself and the organisation into the hearts of many Nigerians.

Through the unprecedented passing of its amended act by the National Assembly in 2015, the SON has now acquired new powers not only to arrest, prosecute and jail purveyors of fake and sub-standard products across the country, but prevent importers of such products into the country. With this upgraded status, the war against fake and sub-standard products has gained additional impetus. In view of the danger the criminal activities of those dealing in substandard and counterfeit products poses to the lives and wellbeing of Nigerians, the SON has deployed modern electronic platforms to tackle the menace. The platforms include the Mandatory Conformity Assessment Programme (MANCAP) for locally manufactured products; the off-shore Conformity Assessment Programme (SONCAP) for certification of imported products from source; product registration for documentation and traceability of all products in the market and library services for access to relevant standards for local production import and export with ease among others.

Determined to provide guidance on how businesses and organisations can operate in a socially responsible way, the SON has launched the ISO 26000. ISO 26000 is guidance standard on social responsibility.

Under this change dispensation, the SON has worked relentlessly to make a positive mark in the war against fake and substandard products. Worthy of note is the evident reduction in the rate of production of substandard goods in Nigeria. Considering the propensity of some Nigerians to cut corners in their insatiable quest to acquire wealth by all means, especially in the area of faking products, what the SON has achieved so far is worthy of commendation. This is not to say that the war against substandard and counterfeit products has been fought and won. No, the battle is a continuous one.

A checklist of SON’s recent triumphs include its arrest of two Pakistani nationals and importers of consumables by the organisation’s eagle-eyed enforcement team while changing manufacturing and expiry dates of already expired imported fruit juice at a warehouse in Lagos.

The discovery was another in the series of the SON’s concerted efforts to protect Nigerians from the consumption of lifeendangering products being distributed by unscrupulous persons.

Earlier this year, the SON had recorded the seizure of N5billion worth of substandard tyres and the arrest of two Chinese nationals in connection with the importation. Fired by Aboloma’s redemptive disposition, the organisation has also sealed off several shops in Jos for selling substandard foreign electric cables worth millions of naira; prosecution of 40 suspected producers of substandard goods in Ondo State; seizure of substandard telephones worth millions of naira in ICT market, Ikeja. Others are: confiscation of N200 million worth of substandard handsets; impoundment of three containers of substandard gas cylinders in Lagos and the sealing off of four warehouses with substandard products worth N400 million and the seizure of over N200 million fabrics in three different markets in Lagos.

Equally worthy of note here is the seizure of about N2 billion worth of expired household products in a three-storey building in Lagos. The goods were being clandestinely sold to supermarkets and open markets as wholesome products within the city and other parts of the country.

Similarly, in a bid to ensure that offenders are severely punished for infringing on the laws of the land either through production, importation or selling of substandard products, the organisation has imposed a fine of N1 million or life imprisonment on offenders. The arrest and diligent prosecution of the Chinese nationals who imported a whopping N5 billion worth of fake tyres, for instance, clearly demonstrates that it’s no longer business as usual for purveyors of substandard products in the country.

With such sure-footedness and solid attainments in barely a year, the SON under the leadership of Aboloma appears primed to go places.

Ojim wrote from Abuja