PONMO IS UNTOUCHABLE!

  More than 70% of the food consumed today in all industrialized nations has some atom of health hazard in them; they either contain some harmful chemical materials in their production, elaboration, preservation and packaging…. Even the potable water we drink. If harmful beverages like Coca-cola, coffee or very poisonous things like cigarettes and alcoholic drinks are still at the fingertips of just anybody in Nigeria, including under-aged persons, then any idea to ban people from eating hides and skin popularly called ponmo in Nigeria would amount to a terrorist action against the masses of our country.

  What a sensible and an effective government does is create a functional standardization units, where food chain is controlled exhaustively before getting to the final consumer, unfortunately, most African nations, Nigeria inclusive, do not protect their citizens from possible food poisoning or general health hazards from uncontrolled food quality checks and uninterrupted laboratory investigations, anything gets to our market and straight into the consumers ´pot.

  I am happy that the ban on ponmo being contemplated this time even has nothing to do with health issues because then it would have meant that our government is beginning to show concern for our people, but as is expected and according to the agriculture minister the ban is being contemplated purely on economic conditions; Ban Nigerians from eating ponmo so that there can be enough for exportation as leather material rather than continue to primarily consume it. Is that not madness? Won´t we rather satisfy our local demand first before thinking of export? And if indeed we want to really boost export can´t we look for other incentive ways to increase the production of hides and skin rather than opting for a ban on a delicacy that was prompted by hardship on Nigerians in the first place?

  The eating of ponmo which has turned today into a general tradition in Nigeria started as a struggle for survival among poor folks decades ago, It was the only means that so many people had to ingest their compulsory ration of protein, although today, due to the improvement in our cuisine, ponmo has ended up becoming a choice-meat for so many people. What is surprising and at the same time disgusting is the speed at which our government contemplates and decides on anti-people policies and are hardly ever seen taking decisions that reflects the true yearnings of the people. Sometimes, one gets the notion that those who are elected into policy making offices in Nigeria lack the sensibility and the capacity needed to serve our nation. If anything is long overdue to be banned in Nigeria that thing is definitely not Ponmo but criminality in government, so Mr. Minister, Ponmo is not the enemy, corruption is.