The harm Nigerian importers have done to the Chinese brand is incalculable. For years, we had been led to believe that Chinese products were inferior. Even now, despite empirical evidence to the contrary, I still hesitate to buy Chinese spare parts whether they are for my car or house. That is how deep the ‘brainwashing’ has gone. And it is not without reason. Several Chinese goods which were branded as cheaper had disappointed in the past. But the same Chinese goods were making in-roads into European and American markets with relative ease.
These are countries that are historically fussy about standards for imported goods. How can a country that has become so industrialized that it is giving the almighty US sleepless nights be so negatively branded in Nigeria? The mystery was confounding. Yet the answer turned out to be relatively simple. Nigerian importers, AKA as ‘businessmen’ went and combed the hinterland in China to deliberately access or request for inferior goods, and sometimes scraps, for greater profit. In other words, Nigerians made Nigeria a dumping ground. And the regulating authorities were complicit to say the least because these goods pass through our borders and ports.
This was the same thing they reportedly did with pharmaceutical products from India as that Asian country was emerging as the pharmaceutical capital of the world with its cheaper, generic versions of branded drugs. Things got so bad that many popular antibiotic brands had either been faked or their potency significantly reduced. The result was that drugs that were supposed to heal caused deaths. Inexplicable and sometimes painful deaths. Doctors started prescribing less common but probably more expensive alternatives just to protect the lives of their patients. Nothing I have stated here is unknown to the average Nigerian, let alone the relevant authorities. These fake goods and drugs must have come in shiploads to have made the kind of impact they had made. Yet, where are the authorities? Where is intelligence? Our official borders, with their several layers of government agents, are probably among the most manned in the world. They are adept at straining gnats while allowing camels a safe passage. Meanwhile, NAFDAC is fighting for needless turf with Nigerian Heart Foundation over certification of some drugs. Talk about leaving leprosy to fight scabies. Seems to me that authorities can be blind, deaf and dumb when there is no personal gratification in an assignment even if it is of dire national consequence.
It gets worse. Fake products are no longer coming through our borders alone. Factories, of different sizes are being set up to ‘manufacture’ all manner of things. Many of the factories are not hidden. Many of the distributors know the products they are helping to push into the market are fake. Many of the pharmacies, supermarkets and retailers know the products they are selling to the public are sub-standard if not fake. Yet, every fake product that enters the market has serious health implications. The hot drinks market has been completely taken over by these merchants of death. The packaging has been so vastly improved upon that even a suspicious customer might not know the difference. So he consumes away. So the poison goes into the system, only to be treated by fake drugs when he falls sick. Nigerians destroying fellow Nigerians so deliberately, so callously for money. And when these so called businessmen throw parties, which they often do to celebrate their heist, they know how not to patronize their own products. Sometimes, I wonder how they sleep at night knowing they are killing people slowly with every fake product they push out. I wonder if the money they have and the lifestyle they lead are worth the lives they endanger?
It gets even worse. If alcohol can be an indulgence of choice for adults, what about baby foods? Why would anyone fake foods that would be consumed by babies? How low can some people go for money? All over the world, souls are striving to leave the world better than they met it. Here, some depraved souls are striving to make their country worse than they met it. All for a commodity they can’t take with them when they die. It gets worse – as if that is even possible. Agricultural products are increasingly becoming dangerous for human consumption in Nigeria. Some are genetically altered. Some are coated with chemicals to preserve or to ripen. Some are injected with drugs to make bigger and more succulent. Many of these chemicals will damage human organs. They are even more dangerous on fruits and vegetables that have to be eaten raw. People are going to become inexplicably sick due to food they have put in their own mouths thinking they are nourishing their bodies. The social media is full of the antics of these merchants of death. Yet authorities are seemingly silent. Waiting perhaps till one of their own becomes a victim.
Meanwhile, the same people who have been flooding the market with substandard products recently cried foul when the nationals of the same country came with better and cheaper products. And possibly more genuine products. They claimed the Chinese were ‘taking market’ from them – a popular phrase among these people. They expected sympathy. They expected decisive action from government. These are people who have dominated the retail market and fended off opposition through the supply of fake, substandard goods and use of underhand business practices. Nigeria, in my opinion, would be better for it if authentic goods came in at cheaper prices in this age of cost of living and affordability crises. Unless there is a law somewhere stopping foreigners from retailing. Besides, what moral rights do we have to condemn South Africa for trying to protect, among others, the livelihood of its citizens if we are picketing the Chinese?
But the deeper question to ask is why fake products and nefarious activities abound at the level they are in Nigeria. Other countries have their problems. But why is our own so widespread? From fake products to yahoo-yahoo to kidnapping? Why does it defy demography? Everyone is in on the act – from peasants to the elites; from youths to elders; from atheists to religious fanatics; among men and women. The destruction of Nigerians by Nigerians has defied profiling. Except for one unifying factor – quick money. Why is it so pervasive? My answer is the absence of values in our social system. I grew up with certain civic values; certain ingrained moral values that would make certain things difficult for me to do. These values are no longer active in the society. They have been dulled by a national lust for money and wealth. They have been dulled by the absence of decisive consequences for criminal and even anti-social behaviors. They have been dulled by a tacit acceptance of moral failures and even criminal tendencies by the society.
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