Decades after Abuja became Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the city is yet to have a befitting meat haulage system as obtains in modern cities across the globe. The implication is unhygienic meat handling and transportation. In this interview with JOSEPHINE ELLA-EJEH, the Secretary, FCT Agriculture and Rural Development Secretariat, Hon. Nzekwe Stanley Ifeanyichukwu, speaks on state of the city’s abattoirs and a new meat haulage policy for the FCT which takes effect this month.
How would you react to the way meat is currently being transported around the FCT?
The manner in which meat is transported from the point of slaughter, which is the abattoir, to other points where it is sold is very critical in view of the health hazard associated with poor meat handling.
And that is why we want to stop that old system where meats are conveyed in all sorts of containers -wheel barrow, motorcycle, basins, truck, bags etc that are constructed in such a way that when you look at them, they constitute health problems, how much more when you put the meat into them. So, when we looked at it we saw that the transport system in the FCT is still problematic. Although we do not have the kind of system available in the advanced countries but then, we must improve on what we have.
If you go to rural China, you will see that they ride bicycle and use it to carry certain things. What they do is to put a carriage in a box at the back, same thing with motorcycle, tricycle, any type of Hilux or truck.
You mentioned that you want to stop the old ways of meat haulage, can you throw more light on this?
One of the important aspects of Agriculture is veterinary health. The veterinary department of the FCT has the sole responsibility of ensuring that all our livestock and animal production are produced in a healthy from both the human capacity to the actual transportation.
For instance, a poultry farmer should not be a disease carrying agent and the poultry house itself should be free of any form of animal disease. Therefore, in the health aspect of meat haulage under the veterinary department of the FCT, the whole essence of introducing meat haulage is to ensure that what we consume in FCT as meat is wholesome.
They must be produced in a clean environment, transported in a clean environment; even the driver of the truck must also be clean. Handling must be clean because you may be carrying bacteria in your hands and that could be a means of disease transmission.
So, all these constitute what we call the hygiene nature of our meat processing, production or slaughtering.
What we have done recently, is to invite the various transport unions so that we carry them along in the new meat haulage system that we are about to unveil, so that there won’t be chaotic situation in the communities surrounding the abattoirs.
After all these dialogues they, transport unions, agreed with us that there is need to provide some level of hygiene in the system of transportation of all slaughtered animals.
Based on that, we went into some prototyped models with a very good survey by the necessary staff of our secretariat under the headship of Dr Regina Adulugba.
At the beginning we called the transporters-motor owners, keke owners, bike owners, name it, for a dialogue after which we came to an agreement of a prototype. If it is a bicycle, what should be in the bicycle? If it is motorcycle-like in Gwagwalada. If it is keke, Hilux or truck, what kind of carriage should be in it depending on what kind of vehicle you have.
So, there is a design and what you will now do is you model that your vehicle or motorised object into the model of the carriage of the meat so, you own it. It is your business.
We believe that it will soon kick-off this month of June and when it does, what it means is that in the FCT we won’t even know that we still convey slaughtered animal within the FCT from slaughter houses to the market because they will be conveyed in such an enclosure that you won’t know but, we will know because we have some symbols to identify them.
You mention that meats must also be produced in a clean environment. What efforts are you making to ensure this?
You need to go to the abattoirs yourself and do a comparison between what it was and what we have done. Why I said so is because you need to take some photographs. Before now, the place was filled up with debris, animal wastes but we cleared them through the assistance of the minister of the FCT.
As I speak, the renovation of abattoirs is on-going and it will be massive in a short while. We now improved upon the daily cleaning of the abattoirs and today, we have consultants who are trained with the specific techniques.
Through our veterinary doctors we regulate the use of disinfectants by ensuring only good ones that are safe are used to keep the abattoirs clean because some of these disinfectants can even constitute nuisance and health hazards to human beings.
And fortunately, we have procured 3 brand new generators to ensure adequate water supply because in any abattoir one of the primary raw material is water. Water is very important to ensure that all the spilled blood and every other waste are washed out.
In the past there have been security issues in some abattoirs in the FCT.
We have also done some kind of enumeration trying to identify those coming into the abattoirs to ensure hoodlum don’t hijack the slaughter houses for safety and security of residents.
Is there provision for haulage vans in the new police?
You know government is disengaging from participation in business. We have a lot of transporters. All they need is to see the system work and a whole lot of them will turn their vehicles into meat haulage. We are not monopolising it to one company, contractor or one person. It is open to every transporter, every person who thinks he can model his truck to our standard and use it for meat haulage so, we are not going to engage in provision of any vehicles.
An attempt by the previous administration to enforce usage of specialised meat haulage van failed in the past, how can you guarantee the success of this new policy?
While the approach of the previous administration towards introducing a meat haulage system failed was that it was just like going into Zuba Motor Park and you tell all the drivers and transporters that you are taking over the park and all the vehicles and brining in this and that.
What it means by implication is that you are throwing them out of job. You are displacing them and no man will accept that. What we would have done in this case assuming we want to provide meat haulage vans would be to purchase vans that are modeled after that type and now give them as micro credit scheme, but the fund is not available.
We will not engage in the haulage itself. This is the best system. In fact, if you go to advanced countries, all the mass transit vehicles are owned by private companies who key into the system.
What measures are you putting in place to ensure compliance with the new policy when it takes effect?
Why we have not taken off since is because we want to ensure proper enlightenment. We are preparing for public enlightenment to kick start because without proper public enlightenment you cannot put the policy into place. You need to get the public to be aware of what you want to do and when you make them aware, when you start they will not say they are not aware. Then you can begin enforcement.
We will have the enlightenment in all the major languages so that everybody engaged in slaughtering processes or meat business will know that something is coming up.
