By Joachim Eluchukwu
In Nigeria’s cutthroat arena where corporate greed clashes with the fragile shield of public health, a damning pattern continues to emerge: powerful industries repeatedly bulldoze regulations designed to save lives, while complicit lawmakers play the role of enablers.
The ongoing fiasco surrounding the ban on alcoholic beverages in sachets and small bottles under 200ml exemplifies this betrayal.
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) is struggling to enforce a policy capable of stemming alcohol-fuelled deaths, addiction, and social decay. Yet, as the agency pushes forward, it faces relentless resistance from distillers hiding behind economic sob stories and, most egregiously, from a House of Representatives Committee whose actions scream collusion with these merchants of misery.
This is not oversight; it is outright sabotage—one that prioritises boardroom balance sheets over the graves of vulnerable Nigerians.
The 2018 agreement between NAFDAC, the Federal Ministry of Health, and stakeholders such as the Distillers and Blenders Association of Nigeria (DIBAN) provided for a five-year phase-out of sachet alcohols, acknowledging their role in driving underage drinking, addiction, road carnage, and violence.
These cheap, easily concealable products—often containing over 30 per cent alcohol by volume and sold for pocket change—prey on the most vulnerable. Yet enforcement has become an endless charade, sustained by the same industry tactics that have long derailed pharmaceutical and public health reforms in the country.
The House of Representatives: Chief Spoiler in the Assault on Public Health
At the epicentre of this betrayal stands the House of Representatives Committee on NAFDAC, chaired by Hon. Regina Akume, wife of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), whose relentless interventions have turned legislative oversight into a fortress for industry interests.
While the Senate, in November 2025, firmly mandated enforcement by December and called for a National Alcohol Policy to protect minors, the House committee has played the spoiler—recommending suspensions as early as 2024 and accusing NAFDAC of “defying” its directives.
The motivation for this opposition is glaring. The committee echoes industry talking points, amplifying exaggerated claims of massive job losses—over 500,000 allegedly at risk—and projected economic devastation involving ₦1.9 trillion in investments, while ignoring overwhelming evidence of the public health harm.
This is not a difference of opinion; it is deliberate obstruction. The House’s resolutions have created a legislative quagmire, reducing a clearly defined five-year phase-out to perpetual limbo, where deadlines dissolve into endless “consultations.” Protests orchestrated by DIBAN, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), and labour unions such as the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) receive sympathetic amplification from the House, which elevates threats of factory shutdowns while sidelining NAFDAC’s warnings.
This interference not only weakens regulatory authority but emboldens smugglers and counterfeiters, who flood the market with even more dangerous, unregulated alternatives.
Further compounding the sabotage, the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation issued a directive on December 15, 2025, halting enforcement—an action that aligns suspiciously with the House committee’s posture and leaves public protection hanging in the balance.
While concerns continue to mount over the origins of this policy reversal, it is deeply questionable that the SGF would undermine an established, executed agreement, particularly one reinforced by a Senate resolution. Civil society organisations, including the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), have responded with legal action, condemning the move as a constitutional abdication. Still, the House presses on, probing NAFDAC’s finances and enforcement raids as though the regulator—rather than the alcohol industry—is the real threat.
These manoeuvres trap NAFDAC in a Sisyphean struggle, where every attempt at enforcement is met with political rollback. Data documenting alcohol-related epidemics—liver disease, mental health crises, and the destruction of young lives—falls on deaf ears within a House where commercial appeasement consistently trumps citizen protection.
The time has come to call out these merchants of avarice masquerading as job creators, along with their legislative enablers in the House of Representatives. By sustaining this destructive cycle, they betray Nigeria’s most vulnerable citizens, trading human lives for lobbyist influence. The frustration of regulators like NAFDAC is palpable: decades spent confronting powerful industries, only to be undermined by betrayals from within the government itself. Nigeria deserves better—a public health system fortified against greed, not fractured by it. As protests mount and lives remain at risk, the question grows more urgent: will the House finally stand with the people, or continue as the ultimate spoiler in this deadly game? The nation’s health demands an answer—now.
.Eluchukwu is a public affairs analyst
