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Rights Group to SON: Rescind ultimatum to cement manufacturers within 7 days

By BusinessNews Staff on August 10, 2014

A Human Rights Group, Alliance Against Monopoly (AAM), has given the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) seven days to rescind its 60 days ultimatum to cement manufacturers to comply with its directive on product labelling and traceability requirement.

The Group at a Press Conference in Lagos, addressed by its President Mazi Omife I. Omife, stated that SON was not well intentioned in its ultimatum to cement manufacturers and warned that it would seek legal redress against the organisation if it failed within seven (7) days to annul the 60 days ultimatum given to cement manufacturers on Monday July 21, 2014.

Omife noted that the Group’s demand for SON to rescind its ultimatum was predicated on two grounds. The first he said, was the unfeasibility of the 60 day ultimatum given that most cement manufacturers would need at least six months to retool its machinery to be able to meet SON’s labelling and traceability requirement. While the second reason was that contrary to what SON made it to be, the labelling and traceability requirement should not be open ended.
He contended that, “it should emphasise only three key factors to wit: (a) Manufacturing date, (b) Best before date, (c) Batch Number”.
Omife regretted that “the 60 days ultimatum given to cement manufacturers by SON was pre-dated by the ill-advised policy on cement standardisation which attempts to, through the back door, introduce unwholesome monopoly in an otherwise clement cement industry in Nigeria”.
He conceded to the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), its right to carry out its statutory duties in the manner that it deemed appropriate, but frowned at what he termed, “the organisation’s attempt to create division in the cement industry and enthrone monopoly in a most unconscionable manner”.

Giving further insight into his Group’s latest stance on the cement crisis, Omife disclosed that the Alliance Against Monopoly (AAM), “after careful examination, has come to the inescapable conclusion that the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) is not well intentioned in its latest guideline to cement manufacturers which gave a 60 day ultimatum to the manufacturers on product labelling and traceability requirement”.

He further explained that his Group’s action was predicated on the need to always ensure a level playing field for all cement manufacturers in Nigeria.

He lamented that the Standards Organisation of Nigeria’s (SON) 60 day ultimatum to cement manufacturers on product labelling and traceability requirement “is wrong headed and designed to serve only the narrow interests of a cabal determined to hoist monopoly in the nation’s cement industry”.

Such monopoly, he avowed “if left unchallenged will be detrimental to the Nigerian buying public and will ultimately stunt the growth of an otherwise vibrant cement market”.

Omife associated the Alliance Against Monopoly (AAM) with the recent stance of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) on the SON instigated cement crisis. The NLC had through its President Comrade Abdulwahed Omar noted that “the ongoing campaign against cement manufacturers in Nigeria is extremely dangerous to an economy that is already sliding in the negative and Congress wish to caution that government should not concede to any policy adjustment that will almost instantly impose severe burdens on the Nigerian society”.

The NLC further noted that “there have been recent campaigns, orchestrated by the Standards Organisation of Nigeria, SON that incidents of building collapse in different parts of the country occur simply because the quality of cement currently in use in the country is not the 42.5 type”, and disclosed that “this as a ruse and a violation of all principles and logic of standardization in relation with public interest.

NLC contended that the government, “exist in the interest of the public; and it would be wrong for any agency of government to be promoting policies that are obviously destructive to the economy and particularly harmful to the government’s determination to create jobs while sustaining existing jobs. The cement industry in Nigeria is a major employer of labour and policies directed at the industry must consider the collective interest of Nigerians and particularly the socio economic implications in terms of benefits to the economy and citizens of the country. While subsisting infrastructural challenges have done much damage to industrialization in Nigeria, leading to closure of several factories, the Federal Government should not give in to pressure as to allow manipulations that will ultimately rubbish its attempts at reviving our economy and reduce unemployment and its attendant societal burden”.

[This Day]

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