By Grace Essen
Imagine you are travelling out of town with a friend by road; you are hungry but waiting patiently for the bus to make a stop for you to grab something to eat. And then your friend pulls out some items in packs from her bag and hands you one with a smile, you feel the warmth on your palm and before you could ask, “what is this?” she hands you a spoon and says, “bon appetit!” She rips open her pack and begins to eat, it looks like jellof rice and the aroma confirms it. You look at the pack it reads ‘ready to eat jellof rice’. ‘Mmmmh! Who cooked this?” you ask and somewhere underneath the pack you read, ‘Made in India’!
That could easily have been your experience if not for the timely intervention of the Nigerian Custom Service (NIS) who recently intercepted a 20ft container load of ‘ready to eat’ jellof rice, ogbono, egusi soup and yam porridge brought into Nigeria from India. When I first heard the news, I thought I didn’t hear right until I got online to do a search and confirm the story. Nigerians have reacted to the news; many described it as an aberration, strange, unbelievable and described the importer as very unpatriotic.
Think of how many Mama Put joints, and other small food vendors and caterers that would be rendered jobless with such products all over the market, and even served at events or parties. Think of how the ‘ready to eat’ products would take over the place of sausage rolls popularly sold on the streets for people who care to have a bite on the go, and how it would be another ‘pure water’ in terms of street littering.
But while we all condemn this act, we should also look at it from a different point of view. I want to believe that for anyone to import a container load of products he or she must have brought in some samples first, and based of demands or feedbacks they would then decide to go ahead and bring in the products in large quantity. What I’m saying in essence is that the importer must have seen a market for the ‘ready to eat’ products … are we not all potential customers? And like they say, ‘anything sells in Nigeria’.
Next time you visit the mall or your favourite supermarket take a good look around, you will find products you may never have found five or maybe ten years back, like several brands of instant pap, instant moin moin etc. – for such products you only need to add water and cook. We also have fruits peeled, sliced and packed in plastic containers for those who don’t have the time to do that, and sold on the streets and in offices. We also have men mostly from the Northern part of the country hawking pineapples and pawpaw on wheelbarrows, and when they stop in front of people’s homes to sell the fruits they’re asked to peel them!
How about packaged and ‘ready to eat’ fish (sardines) we have eaten for several years, and instant noodles which over the years have become one of the fastest selling items in Nigeria? Who has time to cook a full meal these days when you can just throw a few packs of instant noodles in the pot and add water, in 2 minutes you have a bowl of sumptuous meal which children so love to eat? Even ‘hungry-man-sized’ packs of noodles are available for adults, and if you don’t have two minutes to spare cooking your noodles just walk down the street you will likely find an Aboki offering freshly cooked noodles with eggs. Just sit, eat and go!
I am not saying there is anything wrong with having quick food or fruits served on-the-go or wherever, for our convenience, I’m only pointing to the fact that it is the crave for instant food that could have brought about the importation of so-called ready to eat food which are indigenous to us Nigerians. It is clear that we no longer have time to prepare what we feed ourselves and our families but are so willing to pay to eat that which has been cooked and packaged by another without considering the conditions under which such foods are being produced, and the health implications.
Some packaged foods require heating before consumption, but most fruits and veggies are eaten raw which could have been prepared under unhygienic conditions. In that case we are satisfying an immediate need to eat but at the same time opening up ourselves to possible diseases and sicknesses that may arise from eating contaminated food, when we could buy whole fruits and wash them thoroughly at home before eating.
Importing jellof rice, egusi, ogbono soup, yam porridge into the shores of this country is no doubt most absurd of all, and I’m wondering what next we should expect! But rather than put all the blame on the importer, we should also blame our insatiable appetite for instant food.
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