A Walk against Substandard Products in Nigeria 

World Standard Day: SON Walks for Standard

In commemoration of the 2023 World Standard Day, themed, ‘Shared Vision for a Better World’, the Standard Organisation of Nigeria, SON, recently held a one-day fitness walk tagged, ‘Walk for Standard’.  Sunday Ehigiator writesthat the objective was to reiterate its unflinching stance against substandard goods and products in Nigeria 

Every year, on October 14, people worldwide observe World Standards Day, also referred to as International Standards Day.

The primary aim of this day is to educate consumers, policymakers, and businesses on the importance of standardization. It also serves as an opportunity to raise awareness among nations and their citizens and encourage them towards a better quality of life.

World Standards Day is organized and led by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which are the primary global developers of international standards.

The Theme

The theme for the 2023 World Standards Day is ‘Shared Vision for a Better World: Incorporating Sustainable Development Goal for Good Health and Well-Being’. This theme reflects the focus on working collectively to achieve a better world, particularly in the context of promoting good health and well-being as outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals.

Aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for peace, prosperity, and the welfare of both people and the planet, each SDG presents an urgent call to action, and achieving them requires a collective effort.

The SDG 3 focuses on ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all; this plays a crucial role in global shared vision. Hence, with the theme, the leading developers of international standards (IEC, ISO, and ITU) thereby urge the global community to unite against substandard products capable of harming human lives in any form that negates the SDGs.

Speaking about the theme, Director, Human Resources, SON, Engineer Timothy Abner, said, “The theme of this world’s standard day is very clear. It’s a vision, and we are here with the rest of the world for better standards.

“We all agree that the world is merging towards having common activities and products.  This is why we are sharing the vision to make sure that the same standard subsides wherever you are in the world.

“To do that, what happened? If you look at it, you will see the world is supporting democracy, the ability for people to lay down rules for how to even choose who leads them, that is basically standards.

“This is also shared in every other thing. We have heard a lot about goods moving from one country to the other, and of course we have international standards to be able to ensure that such goods are accepted wherever they go.

“In Nigeria, what we are trying to do is to key into this vision by making sure that we have standards for everything, including activities that Nigerians carry out.

“We are pulling the artisans together to even have standards in their operation. Because if we do not move together with the rest of the world, we are going to face a lot of challenges because other people will key into these standards, and flood the markets with them, including our markets, thereby forcing our economy to crumble.

“Standards are very essential for us as a nation, and it’s our mission to ensure that we share the same standard vision with other countries.”

Walk for Standard

In commemoration of the day, the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), held a road walk tagged, ‘Walk for Standard’ aimed at raising awareness about substandard products and the need for Nigerians to unite and demand for standard in everything they do or use.

The exercise took-off at exactly 9 am from the SON Ogba Laboratory located along Surulere Industrial Street in Igba Lagos, and saw participants numbering over hundreds walk through Acme Road, Agidigbin, Awolowo Road, Allen Avenue, Isaac Jones before heading back to the Ogba Laboratory.

Speaking about the walk, the Director, Standards Development, SON, Engr. Yahaya Bukar said the walk for standard was to demonstrate fitness, and send a message of unity in the fight against substandard products.

“We are celebrating standards. How do we celebrate standards? The first thing to do is to walk. When we walk, we send the message that we are fit to carry on with our job. Fitness and standards go the same way. The other message we are also sending is that we are united to fight substandard products. Substandard products have a lot of impact on society.

“It is a negative thing, it is unproductive, and money is lost. Imagine yourself writing an exam, and in the midst of the exam, your biro stops writing. That’s a substandard product that could cost you to fail your exam even though you know the answers to the questions.

“So this is one of the consequences of using a substandard product, and we are united to fight substandard products, and we are carrying our stakeholders along so that they understand the advantages of standards, and when the standards are implemented, it is for the benefits of all of us.

“We fight together to fight tomorrow’s battle. We have a lot of standards that we have elaborated on. Based on these elaborated standards, we are going to work with our stakeholders to ensure that we eliminate these substandard products.

“We are also going to sensitise the people that standards are what we need to be able to be at par with other countries in the world. What differentiates America from Nigeria is all about standards.  So we have to move on to ensure that we are at par with them through standards.”

Speaking further about the theme, Bukar said, “We cannot achieve anything without having a common force. It calls for global unity against the menace of substandard products, which is a problem for society.

“For instance, we have climate issues and health issues, and there is no way we can fight this without unifying our forces and resources globally with a common vision.

“Every day, every year, and every month, we carry out factory inspections by going from factory to factory to sensitise the people about the need to implement standards. 

“Those that are not compliant with our standards, we get them prosecuted because almost all the products that are manufactured in Nigeria are such that they have to comply with the requirement of the mandatory conformity assessment program. And these are the things that we do daily.

“Also, our PR and marketing department is very strong in such a way that they carry out sensitisation to make people understand the need and benefits of standards.”

He stressed on the need for Nigeria to value standards “in the sense that if there are no standards, we cannot exist.

“In fact, the standards that we look at are the holy books, the Quran, and the Bible. These are standards from God telling us that we have a specific way that we should behave. If you don’t behave in line with the requirements of those books, then you are not in conformity.  If there is no standard, there is no way we can exist. Everything goes with the standard.”

Speaking on SON’s efforts against substandard goods over the years, he said, “SON has made a lot of efforts in promoting standards per the years. If not, Nigerians will not be able to survive.  The water they are drinking, they will not be able to drink it, or be able to wear the shirt they wear today.

“A lot of things will be substandard in society, including the tires that we use on our vehicles. You will be seeing a lot of accidents happening. So SON is working and we will continue to work.”

Also speaking, Director of Laboratory Services, SON, Richard Adewunmi, said, “I think when you talk about conformity assessment,  there are three legs, inspection,  testing, and certification.  For you to achieve certification, you need to undergo testing. 

“Every product, after inspection, is sampled, sent to the lab, and carries out the test based on the established standard. Then there is a verdict on whether the product has conformed or not. This is very critical in decision-making when it comes to certification.  Without test results, certification cannot fly.”

Earlier while addressing the press, the Director, Public Relations, Standard Organisation of Nigeria, Foluso Bolaji, noted that when Nigerian products embrace standards, they will be able to export them to anywhere in the world.

According to her, “The aim of this walk for standard is to tell Nigerians to embrace standards.  And we are also saying to them that, ‘When you see something, say something’. We all need to embrace standards because it will help our economy to be very strong.”

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Substandard products have a lot of impact on society. It is a negative thing, it is unproductive, and money is lost… we are united to fight substandard products, and we are carrying our stakeholders along so that they understand the advantages of standards, and when the standards are implemented, it is for the benefits of all of us