Mr. Azibaola Roberts a cousin to former President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday advocated lifting of the ban on local gin popularly known as Kaikai.
The production and
consumption of the locally distilled
drink also known in local parlance as ‘Ogogoro’ was banned in June 2015 by
Bayelsa government following death of 20 people in Ondo state after consuming
the drink.
Other states in the Niger Delta region
subsequently outlawed the production and consumption of the local drink,
however the consumption has remained canelstine due to clampdown by security
agencies.
Roberts who made the advocacy in a
chat with newsmen in Yenagoa noted that it was regrettable that
‘Kaikai’ still remains outlawed in the statute books of
states in the federation.
He said it it was a ploy by the
colonial mastets to preserve their distilleries in Europe and brand gins
produced by artisanal distilleries as “Illicit” and wonderedwhy the
discriminatory tag was yet to be jettisoned.
According to him, alcoholic brands
brewed abroad are not different from the locally brewed ones, adding that that
the belief that locally made drinks were inferior was errournous and without
scientific basis.
.
He lamented that the erroneous belief
has hindered the growth of local drinks industry which would have helped to
reduce the level of poverty as the local drink could become an export commodity
to earnforiegn currency.
”Today l have the privilege to prick
your conscience on some basic things, basic things like ” Kaikai, as l speak to
you Kaikai is illegal in the books of state governments, such that it is
labeled illicit drink…
“Kaikai distillation is a basic
occupation of our people. How for God’s sake that Kaikai has labelled as
illicit drink for over 60 years since after Independence is what baffles people
like us.” Roberts said
He noted with dismay that people whose
livelihood is based on the local gin are arrested while those who deal in
alcoholic gins brewed abroad are treated as doing normal business.
Roberts called on politicians
especially the lawmakers of the state assemblies to expunge the obnoxious
laws from the statue books,.
According to him, if properly harnessed , the locally brewed
drink factories can turn things around for the economy of the states.
“Those foreign drinks are local drinks
of people elsewhere, just like our own Kaikai is brewed here, the only thing is
that we have failed to identify the potentials of our own and act accordingly
“.He said.
Roberts, a lawyer and rights activist
argued that basic science clearly showed th at alcohol is alcohol and produced
through same basic process of distillation and wondered why the craze for
foreign alcohol to the detriment of the local ones in the country.
“People spend up to N60,000 per bottle
for this foreign gins and do not do same for the local alcohol , there is no
difference between the two, they are all mixture of water and alcohol”.
Roberts submitted.
He also explained that the potentials
of the rain forest have not been tapped to create wealth, adding that, the vast
rain forest are just lying fallow without deliberate efforts by
governments and the people to take advantage of the abundant forest
resources.
Roberta further declared that his interaction
with the media has no political undertone as he does not nurse a political
ambition, having no future ambition to vie for an elective office but to
promote his patriotic ideas.
He emphasised further that youths in
the country are yet to unleash and exploit the potentialities of the
social media because they use the platforms to promote politically
exposed persons rather than using them creatively to make money.
He regretted that some of the wild
animals in the rain forests are going into extinction and cautioned against
poaching of the wild animals.
Roberts said that he
and his staff came to Bayelsa to explore the forests for two week and expressed
satisfaction that the expedition was successful.
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