Lawmakers Plan Intervention In SON’s Exit From Seaports.
GILBERT EKUGBE
Federal lawmakers may intervene to return the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to the nation’s seaports and airports following the influx of fake and substandard goods that have left many dead and properties worth billions of Naira destroyed.
The spate of failure of buildings and fire incidents in the last five years has been alarming and the lawmakers blame the incidences on the absence of the SON at the airport and the seaports to test and check imported goods before getting to the market.
House of Representatives Committee on Industry which toured SON facilities in Lagos Thursday stated that the customs officials that are left to man the ports do not have the requisite skills to ascertain the quality of goods imported, indicating that the federal government decision to exit SON from the ports would be reviewed.
The House of Representative Committee seems to be taking a cue from its counterpart from the Senate which visited SON recently and also frowned at the absence of the agency at the nation’s point of entry.
SON was at the ports until 2011 when the federal government directed that the agency and about over 40 others leave, owing to the proliferation of agencies that the government said hamper efficiency and free flow of work.
The organization in it defense says that it was able to curb the influx of sub-standard goods while at the ports during which it took several legal actions that landed some unscrupulous importers in jail over issues of counterfeiting, forgery of SON certificates, false declaration and other vices.
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The House Committee Chairman on Industry, Dolapo Badru, at an oversight function Thursday to SON laboratory in Ogba said,
“We will make sure that we do everything within our powers to make sure that SON gets back to the borders, most especially the ports and the airports because we are so overwhelmed in the country with fake and substandard products especially those products that take lives of innocent Nigerians. We have seen lots of failure of buildings these days and most of these were caused by substandard building materials most of which are imported. We have also seen most buildings destroyed by fire because of the imported substandard cables. You don’t expect the customs officer to carry out tests and analysis of cables because he was not trained for that.”
The lawmakers subsequently planned am invitation of the Director-General of SON and the Ministry concerned to review the law that mandates SON to be at the ports.
“There is an existing law and I wonder why the law is not complied with. We are going to get to the root of this matter. We are going to the needful on this one. We are going to call for a hearing. A lot of building collapse would have been averted, probably a lot of fire outbreak would have been averted, a lot of death would have been averted. These things were imported and nobody checks these goods when they come in because the agency that supposed to check for the quality of these goods have been evicted from the ports,” he said.
“We are going to work the ministry and the executive to make sure SON gets back to the ports. Nigeria has become a place where anything can be dumped just because the people who are supposed to check for standards are absent. We have resolved that within the shortest time possible, we will be working with the executive and ministry concerned to get SON back to the ports. We will support SON in their quest to carry out sensitisation activities in the country,” he averred.
In his response, the Director General, SON, Osita Aboloma, commended the House or Representatives for their support, stating that SON has the capacity to create possibilities.
According to him, the agency had invested so much in human capacity development to be at par with its counterparts all over the world.
“We appreciate your keen interest to sending us back to the ports while also creating the enabling environment for effective service delivery. If we are well-positioned we will do more. The task to rid Nigeria of substandard product is a responsibility for everybody. As members of the committee on industry, you are by extension standards ambassadors. We implore you to advocate our course wherever possible because we need to be positioned to enable us to carry out our mandate effectively and safeguarding the lives of Nigerians through standards,” he said.
“We will continually put in our best to make sure we safeguard the lives of Nigerians through quality assurance and standards. From the little we have, we have done so well but we know there is room for improvement, but I assure Nigerians that if we have an enabling environment for effective service delivery, we will do more,” he assured.
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