By Richard  Anyamele

The House of Representatives  has  endorsed  the 42.5  mpa  cement grade as the minimum  in  the Nigerian market.  The House  thereby bars the 32.5  grade  which the Standards  Organisation  of Nigeria (SON)  had allowed to be produced and  sold but  limited to plastering jobs  only. Following from  the House  Committee’s  surveys  and analysis, the 32.5 grade  poses greater danger to largely uninformed Nigerians  than the 42.5 grade.

The House  arrived at  its position on  a  simple logic:  If the 42.5 grade is misused as  also  the 32.5 grade, the  42.5 grade  would  still have more resistance and  pose less danger than the  32.5  mpa. It further reasoned that if the public was offered the 42.5 and the 32.5 at  about  the same price as currently obtains, the  people would prefer the  stronger  42.5 grade.  The promoters of the 32.5 grade had  argued that standard was not the problem as much as misapplication but the House believes, and rightly,  that if a stronger quality is misapplied as also a lower grade,  the stronger quality would  fare better. Elsewhere, the  producers  argued that  the  consumers demand the 32.5 grade  without  pointing out  the  fact  that  consumers were not given a choice or informed about the various grades.

But the House made more far-reaching recommendations.  It  demanded  quick  recalling of all expired cement in  warehouses and markets  which  is a  standard practice in business and  more incisive when it concerns life-endangering products.  Thus, auto makers recall  vehicles once a part that poses danger is  ascertained. It is same for drugs and foods. The manufacturer bears the full costs of recovery and, as the House  further  recommended, the destruction also.

Given the  way the champions  of  the 32.5 grade for all purposes have acted, they will pretend the House  recommendations are mere suggestions that do not carry  weight and continue in their business as usual attitude.  And this is where the Minister of  Trade and Investments must  act;  and fast too.  The House’s recommendations cannot be the personal opinions of the members.  Indeed, what the House has done is give the minister  the marching order to fully reposition the cement industry in Nigeria and make it more  globally  relevant by producing  more superior quality products that  can  sell anywhere on earth.

Ministers  have  the right to make  orders,  guidelines (executive  orders) under the  Constitution and they become binding without going through House’ approvals.  Thus the full range of recommendations should be studied and quickly adopted. If the minister had not gone far in his earlier guidelines which sparked off the recent uproar that have now culminated in these wider recommendations, it was not for lack of vision or  appreciation of the challenges.  On the contrary, government (therewith SON) wished a graduated move in  upgrading the industry.  But seeing that the main challenger in the brouhaha has not upgraded  its  system in the last 50 years, the reason the House recommended urgent retooling and upgrading become obvious: some players will not improve  until they are forced to do so.

And that brings us to the recommendation to withdraw expired cement from the warehouses and markets.  Will the manufacturers and importers obey this recommendation?

Cement

The Nigerian business environment is like no other on earth today: it is dog-eat-dog whereby even if manufacturers ask distributors to return  products for full refund, the latter will not obey and for good reasons: marketers pay above recommended sales’  price  on almost all items.

Except for the My-Pikin  drug scandal, rarely are products effectively removed after  have been found wanting on  entering  the Nigerian market.  There is too much ignorance and poverty that together make Nigerians too careless even when lives are in avoidable danger.

The point being made  is that  the  cement manufacturers are not going to recall expired products; not when they refused  to inscribe date of manufacture or grade.  What it  means is that SON would have to  do the job and charge whoever it picks selling  the products.

Every cement bag without date of manufacture or grade qualifies  for  expired and substandard and must be taken out.  States would  need  designated  collection  point(s)  which  manufacturers would bear  the  full  cost at  the end of the day.  This is not a Nigerian rule or practice. It is global.

The House also recommended that Cement Fund be set up  withN10  charged on  each 50 kg bag either manufactured  or N20 for  imported  others.  The fund has diverse uses including help in training artisans and  unskilled  builders,  re-kit  technical schools  to  train and  develop the needed capacity for the building industry.  SON and  the  stakeholders  have a huge task in educating the public as well as wider media  engagements/enlightenment.  The level of illiteracy  and  resistance to know is vast so that government  (SON)  will  need  deploy resources to reach the grassroots.

The House ultimately called  manufacturers to start  upgrading in order to meet the new standards. That is what  SON  has long proposed but the  manufacturers preferred to test their  strength  at the courts and the National Assembly. After  the wrangling, the manufacturers would still have to upgrade  or pack up which they dared not  and  so  one  wonders why the uproar from  onset?

Experts  say that  the costs  of the upgrading  are marginal – about ten percent increase and achievable within months while the operators claim it would take two years.  Whatever the case, the manufacturers have more challenges in their hands now than what the SON had presented them but  they  took in bad faith. Now, they are required to follow the universal  standards  for both manufactured  and imported cement, namely: That all cement packages must clearly and boldly indicate their  grade,  uses and expiry date with tamper-proof on the packages to guide against repackaging by middlemen; SON should ensure that all cement distributors withdraw expired cement from their warehouses and markets and destroy them.

By proposing that expeditious actions be taken on the National Building Code, the House meant to place Nigeria where the rest of  the world is presently: building secure structure capable of withstanding earth tremors, floods and other emerging environmental dangers  that are fast hitting regions  and nations  that were previously considered safe havens.

Taken together, the House’s  position should not be seen as victory for one group and defeat for the other. Rather, it is victory for the Nigerian  cement and  building industry and Nigerian citizens at large.  No  one  can  say for sure which building would go down or where emergency would hit.All the efforts are geared to securing safer and saner society for us all  –  owner,  builder, occupier and  mere  passersby.

Trade and Investment  Minister, Dr.  Aganga, has a duty to connect with the parties and see how the industry grows stronger  and stronger.  It  is what the House has  given  direction  and impetus to and calls  a  halt to the  unnecessary  crises. The court cases should be withdrawn because there is no success there – unless of course someone wants to be heady for its own sake.

Come to think of it, the House recommendations and the entire cement  uproar are blessings just as challenges are opportunities to those who read and see things differently.

*Anyamele lives in Lagos.