NIGERIA-FOOD: Beans Back On The Menu

By Toye Olori Reprint | | Print |

Toye Olori

LAGOS, Oct 4 1996 (IPS) - Brown beans, the main source of affordable protein for most of Nigeria’s 100 million people, are back on the menu following reports this week that the popular legumes are safe to eat.

For about a month, most Nigerians eliminated brown beans from their diet after it was reported that at least 16 people in the country’s south-western states had died after eating beans.

Nigeria’s National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) quickly collected samples of the “killer beans” from markets in Lagos, Ogun and Oyo states.

Preliminary results, according to NAFDAC official Gabriel Osuide, showed that the beans are safe for eating.

“As soon as the investigation is concluded, the results will be forwarded to the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture which called for the investigation,” Osuide said.

Armed with the results, the Lagos State military Administrator Colonel Muhammed Marwa told journalists as he publicly ate the popular ‘Akara’ (bean cake) at Ketu Market, that the reported deaths in some areas was due to cholera and not the beans.

“The result of the investigation carried out by the state health officials and the Ministry of Agriculture showed that there was no proof linking some deaths recorded recently to the consumption of beans,” Marwa said.

According to Marwa, the people in one area contracted the cholera from drinking water in an area where a pipe had burst and the “environmental condition” was poor.

The situation, he added, had now been brought under control.

Despite the state official’s assurance, some people are still shying away from a plate of beans.

“I have not started eating beans though they say it is safe to eat them. I want to be double sure nobody is dying of beans before I can join them,” said Shina Ogundipe, a civil servant here.

Roseline Kehinde is also sceptical.

“The Administrator ate Akara in public, but government officials could have taken the beans to the woman who prepared the cakes, and who knows if it is the old stock,” said Kehinde.

“The Administrator would not have been risking his life if he was not sure that the ones he ate were not free of chemicals,” she added.

While citizens are gradually returning beans to their menu, traders are still counting their losses. In some markets, the price of beans fell by more than 50 percent.

Before the scare, a bag of beans sold for between 10,000 and 13,000 naira (125 and 163 u.s. dollars). Now a bag only fetches between 4,500 and 6,000 naira ( 56 and 75 u.s. dollars).

The Market Women Association in neighbouring Osun State lost some 10 million naira (about 125,000 u.s. dollars), according to reports.

Their Lagos State counterparts are also bemoaning their losses. Unsold beans in the state were valued at 400 million naira (about five million u.s. dollars) with the average loss per week put at 50 million naira (about 625,000 dollars).

In Agege, a suburb here, about 500 bags of beans were sold weekly, with an income of about 3.5 million naira before the scare. In some other markets, the average weekly sales ranged between 1500 and 2000 bags.

But the public relations officer of the Association of Lagos State Bean Sellers, Kingsley Chukwu, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the falling prices were due to the seasonal appearence of new beans on the market, and not the fear that the beans might contain poisonous substances.

“This is the season for new beans. As soon as new beans come into the market, they force down the price of the old ones,” he said at the end of a meeting of beans sellers in the state.

A seller of cooked beans said that her business is slowly picking up after the NAFDAC announcement this week.

“We have started cooking beans, but not on a large scale as many people are still afraid to buy them,” said Bose Humpati.

Before the “killer beans” episode, Humpati who cooked beans and yam porridge in her canteen at Onike, a Lagos suburb, made about 75 u.s. dollars daily. But during the scare, she earned only 2.50 u.s. dollars a day from cooked yams.

“I hope to get back to full business in the not too distant future,” she told IPS Friday.