ABATTOIRS AND UNHYGIENIC PRACTICES
Health authorities should do more to ensure public abattoirs are in healthy conditions
The recent closure of the popular abattoir market in the Agege suburb in Lagos State was attributed to unsafe and unhygienic practices by traders. “People cannot be sleeping in an animal field; it’s not going to work, and let’s try to do something right. When we shut it down, somebody will sit down and think,” the state Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, wrote in the video accompanying the post of his X (formerly Twitter) post. But while the health of citizens should concern every responsible and responsive government, especially when it comes to what they daily consume, many of the states don’t bother about unhygienic practices in their abattoirs.
On several occasions on this page, we have had reasons to express serious concerns that the manner of producing and handling beef in many of the public abattoirs is inimical to the health of the final consumers. And there appears to be no credible step by the authorities to arrest the problem. This may also explain why members of the Nigerian business and political elites, as studies have shown, prefer imported, frozen poultry products, even when no one can also guarantee the safety of these imported products.
We must commend Lagos State, which has made remarkable efforts towards ensuring a healthy and hygienic abattoir condition by upgrading some abattoirs over the years to suit their laws. In many other states, such facilities stink with butchers still killing cows and preparing carcasses of their meat on wet, dirty, muddy floor. In many of these abattoirs across Nigeria, the vicinity is littered with heaps of waste materials.
In Nigeria today, almost as a matter of routine, many butchers convey their meat on bicycles, motorbikes, motorised tricycles and sometimes on some rickety meat vans, under unsanitary conditions. The beef is simply packed and transported without regard to safety measures. Using wheelbarrows and rickety vehicles speak to the increasing health hazards in consuming the beef prepared in many parts of the country. Besides, most of the abattoirs are in unacceptable condition, with the beef almost always left in open spaces that attract all kinds of contamination.
Besides, after these animals are slaughtered, the fur is burnt off in the open, using firewood and lorry tyres, each producing smoke continuously on a daily basis. These tyres constitute the greater part of the fuel. Apart from the hazard it poses to the health of consumers, the practice also produces lots of smoke that pollutes the environment. In all, the facilities of these abattoirs are not sanitary, mainly due to a lack of certain basic amenities. The case of Agege where butchers were found sleeping in slaughter slabs is a common occurrence across the country.
Against the background that statistics indicate that Nigerians consume over 3500 million kilogrammes of beef a year, health authorities should encourage the establishment of modern abattoirs, through partnerships with the private sector.
Although medical experts differ somewhat as to the exact causes of the cancer scourge in the country, there seems to be some agreement that the habit of the people could be contributory. Increased awareness campaigns, improvements in public health are all likely to lead to a decrease in the incidence of this killer disease. We feel that the public as well as critical stakeholders in the business should be adequately enlightened on how to handle beef. By so doing, we will be able to save our people from cheap deaths.
