CAPPA Trains South-east Journalists on Trans-fats Reporting

Sunday Ehigiator

The Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) recently trained journalists from the five states of the South-east on effective reporting of trans-fats.

The two-day training organised in conjunction with the Network for Health Equity and Development (NHED) in Enugu was funded by the Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI).

The training was facilitated by local and international public health, media, and communications experts including the Country Director of the GHAI, Joy Amafah, Executive Director of Network for Health Equity and Development (NHED), Dr Jerome Mafeni, and a representative from the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Dr Eva Edwards who shared information on the status of the NAFDAC regulations on trans fats.

The journalists were drawn from print, broadcast, and online media from Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo States.

The training module targeted building the capacity of Nigerian journalists to understand and exhaustively report on TFAs and their link with poor health for consumers, Strengthening the relationship between Nigerian journalists, civil society advocating a trans-fat-free Nigeria and the regulatory agency (ies), particularly NAFDAC, and Sharing knowledge about local, national, and global issues relating to TFAs and the oils and fats industry.

In his address, Enugu State Commissioner for Health, Professor Prof. Ikechukwu Obi who was a special guest at the event explained that the goal of this training is in sync with the visions of the Enugu State government for a healthy citizenry as espoused in its Health sector reform law, which provides for a legal framework for citizen participation in the health sector and the setting of new standards for health research and information system management.

The commissioner noted that the high levels of trans fat in foods consumed by Nigerians, from fast foods to re-used oils, means the nation is sitting on a keg of gunpowder that might explode at any time in the form of cardiovascular disease of many kinds.

He revealed that the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2021 reported that cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death globally and that a year earlier, an estimated 17.9 million people died from cardiovascular diseases, representing 32 per cent of all global deaths.

According to him, “of these deaths, 85 per cent were due to heart attack and stroke,” even as he added that if there is anything that public health advocates learned in the fight against COVID-19, it is the realization that working together, the challenge that threatens the collective well-being of the citizenry can be overcome.

He also commended NAFDAC for approving the draft Fats and Oils Regulation 2019 and the Pre-Packaged Foods, Water, and Ice Labelling Regulations 2019, insisting that once the regulations are gazetted, Nigeria will leapfrog into the list of countries that have put in place effective regulations to limit or eliminate trans fats in the diets of her citizens.

Earlier, CAPPA Executive Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi explained that the training was informed by the need to capacitate the media to play effective roles in reporting trans fats and amplifying the work of the Trans fat-free Nigeria coalition.

Oluwafemi explained that what is consumed should be everyone’s business hence the importance of well-informed media in getting the right message to ordinary Nigerians and policymakers to elicit the change that the #Transfatfree Nigeria coalition craves.