Former member of the House of Representatives ,Hon Bamidele Faparusi has admonished President Muhammadu Buhari not to accede to the request on the proposed ban on Ponmon consumption warning that ,” it could be injurious to the APC in the SouthWest “
Faparusi described the move as not only unpopular but insensitive at this crucial time when the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC) is desirous of retaining power beyond the 2023 .
Recall that Director-General, Nigerian Institute of Leather and Science Technology, NILEST, Zaria, Muhammad Yakubu, recently made such proposal in Abuja. saying the policy will promote leather production as provided in the Agricultural Research Institute Act of 1975.
Speaking to a cross section of journalists in Ado-Ekiti ,the former legislator warned that the proposed ban will throw many Nigerians back to the unemployment market.
The immediate past Ekiti State Commissioner for Public Utilities, reminded that many Nigerians , particularly people of the Southwest didn’t only consume the delicacy in large scale, but trade in it, and that such individuals will be sent out of the employment market in brazen fashion, if effected.
Faparusi said: “Ponmo is a known delicacy of the people of southwest Nigeria. Ponmo is not a hard drug, it is not harmful to the body. Sugar is harmful to people living with diabetes. Salt is harmful to people living with high blood pressure. Can we now say that this item be banned?
“Or what is the nutritional value of salt aside from taste. In fact, Ponmo is recommended to elders instead of red meat. Yes, Ponmo may not have nutritional value, but it is a harmless delicacy.
“I see this proposed ban as an attempt to pit the people of the southwest against one another in other to make APC looks bad in the eye of the masses in the region.
“It is a mischievous proposal against APC in the southwest. We reject it and demand that those behind the proposal should forget this ignoble idea.
“Some will say what is in Ponmo that is capable to affect the outcome of 2023 elections. Ponmo is the only affordable alternative to meat and fish for the masses,who are struggling to cope with the current economic challenges facing the country. Any attempt to take this away from them may cause revolt.
“Furthermore, this is not a time to even suggest controversial policies. Campaign or partisanship apart, one of the responsibilities of good governance is to make sure you don’t inflict more hardship on the people”.
Going down memory lane, Bamidele stated that such policy was once rejected when the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo was vying to be president of Nigeria in 1979.
“Chief Awolowo said he would initiate a policy policy that will ban stock fish if he becomes president . Igbo people justifiably opposed such, because they are the major consumers .
“the southwest particularly will definitely resist the suggestion and it’s better to bury that idea immediately”, he warned.