Who is responsible for brand faking in Nigeria?

This question has called for a great concern today because brand faking is dangerous and poisonous. It is dangerous in the  sense that it has thrown confusion in the world of products where customers or consumers who are victims  pay for fake products thinking they pay for the original.

It is also poisonous because a lot of people have met their early deaths after consuming such fake and expired products they bought at a high cost thinking that such products  are  original that will serve  the purpose for which they were bought.

There are many as I  write who are hospitalised as a result of skin cancer contracted through the use of  fake and expired products. Today, skin diseases abound everywhere in Nigeria which led to many deaths and others suffering as a result of constant use of fake and expired products found at every corner of the Nigerian market. Who knows who will be the next victim?

Today,  hardly can one differentiate fake products from  the original.  Recently, a man bought a bottle of Guinness Stout and when he poured the contents  into a glass, it turned out to be bitter-leaf water corked in Guinness stout bottle.

Investigations have proved  that  there are a lot of fake drugs packaged in original brand packs. It is worrisome, considering the fact  that fake, substandard and expired products are out -numbering original brands. It keeps ringing bell in the minds of innocent Nigerians who  are  responsible for this menace. Fake drugs  are  weapons  of mass destruction .

For instance, “My Pikin”  was a product which  killed many children without notice after consuming it  thinking it would  cure sicknesses  but reverse became the case.  Fake drug  consumption  is genocide.

The producers should be sentenced to life imprisonment. Human lives are no more safe in the midst of  fake and expired products.

Some of these products are imported from Asian countries and this  affects some  good original locally  made goods, while many fake products are produced locally.

It affects industries’ capacity utilisation and when capacity is affected, it leads to manpower downsizing which compounds the  poverty problem in the country. It is something that is disastrous and it affects every segment of  the manufacturing industry. It affects industries’ turn -over as the manufacturing sector suffers the heat from time to time.

Recently, we have seen the moves made by NAFDAC  like procuring equipments  that can easily detect fake drugs. We also acknowledge that SON is doing its bits to help curb the menance, but the problem we must admit is beyond both NAFDAC and SON put together.

It cuts across every sector of the economy, from the east to the west, south and north, the song remains the same. However,  Nigerians have questions for the government agencies at our seaports, airports  and other borderlines to explain what is going on at our borderlines. It’s agreed that a lot of these fake and substandard products being paraded in Nigeria today enter through our borderlines .

Two, Nigerians value  goods produced abroad ignoring the fact that  most foreign products are not superior to Nigerian products. We have seen a good number of Chinese and Korea products inferior to Nigeria- made ones.