By Franklin Alli

Almost seven months ago, Dr. Joseph Ikem Odumodu, started from where Dr. John Akanya stopped as the Director General of Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON). No sooner he took over than he studied the document and visited zonal offices of the organisation spread across the country.

After this, he told Nigerians and the global community exactly what “milestones he would achieve in the first three months, six months one year, two year, and four years.”

“I am pleased to be part of this new family that I have just joined. I am very pleased and excited that I have a very good team that I can work with. I am going to work in concert with the experts within the system”.

“I have had interactions with the directors and deputy directors including some of the assistants’ directors, and I believe that working together as a team, we would be able to take the Agency to the next level. I am going to make SON the place all of us will be proud of. Within two years, Nigerians will cite SON as the best government agency in the country.”

“Our job is to ensure that Nigerians are protected from products that are substandard, defective products being brought in by suppliers and manufacturers.”

With those words, the Pharmacist was ready to fight the battle Akanya fought for nearly a decade without victory.

In spite of many achievements to Akanya’s credits such as the SON’s Conformity Assessment Programme (SONCAP) guideline for importers, he left office with regret.

“My regret is that the quality culture that we try to educate Nigerians to understand and imbibe, Nigerians have not understood it. And in the process of not imbibing quality culture, unscrupulous Nigerians have sabotaged all of us including them.

That is why provision should be made for the inclusion of standards in the country’s constitution. Such that when government is awarding contracts, they should always refer to standards on building projects that can withstand the test of times.

Dr. Joe Odumodu, DG, SON

If you spend money to build railways, roads that can not last a season, if you spend money to build water pipes that will burst, if you spend money to buy electricity meters that are substandard, then you will know that in five years’ time, we will be poorer than we are today.

So standard should be taken very seriously as in other countries. It should have a place in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.” However, Odumodu’s strategies to end the entry of substandard products into the country in the next four years are etched in a five -point agenda he recently made public.

Odumodu said top among his administration’s agenda is zero tolerance for substandard products. Accordingly, he gave August 15, 2011 as deadline for local and foreign manufacturers and their importers to recall substandard products from circulation throughout the country.

He warned that after August 15, products entering the country will henceforth be issued with certificates of free use from the country of origin in addition to SONCAP.

Fake goods from China being offloaded for destruction

“Products not good enough for citizens of the producer countries must never again be dumped on Nigerians, because we will no longer refrain from questioning what we buy and consume. “We have had enough of the idea that Nigerian importers always request for lower standards from producers,” he said.

According to him, SON will also insist that importers of goods and their agents bring in goods that conform to standards through proper monitoring of all ports of entry.

He maintained that after August 15, vendors of substandard goods would be made to explain how such goods come into the country.

He said that SON had worked out plans that would ensure that such foreign manufacturers were blacklisted from exporting goods to Nigeria.

Odumodu disclosed that SON would send a bill to the National Assembly to ensure that unscrupulous importers were made to pay compensation for importing substandard products.

However, LCCI’s President, Chief Femi Deru, believes extension of the deadline by another two or three months is necessary because of importers of machines, raw materials and Complete Known Down (CKD) items.

“The August 15 date for the take off of the zero tolerance and penalty deposit of N250, 000 for ordinary goods and N350, 000 on life threatening goods for those who violate the rule would help the initiative. But there should be aggressive campaign to create awareness to achieve the feat,” he said.

He further said that adequate measures should be put in place to ensure the exercise does not result to port congestion.

“The problem is that when there is congestion, government auctions goods which eventually end up in the market.”

In his submission, Dr Herbert Ajayi, President of Nigeria Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), said that it was a high time the country implements standards guidelines.

According to Ajayi, we support the initiative of zero tolerance on substandard products but the government should support SN for the programme to succeed.

In view of the foregoing, as laudable as Odumodu’s intentions are, Nigerians want to see how far Odumodu can go in reducing substandard goods in the Nigeria market.

In the words of MAN President, Chief Kola Jamodu, even if there is little pain and protest government should not bend policy. Government policy should be sustained for at least ten years.