Sachet alcohol ban sparks protest as unions demand policy review

Protesters on Thursday stormed the Isolo office of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), opposing the enforcement of a ban on sachet and 200ml PET bottled alcoholic beverages.

They urged the agency to adopt stricter access control measures instead of an outright ban, arguing that regulation and public education would better address concerns about underage alcohol consumption.

The demonstrators, conveyed in more than 10 coastal buses and comprising workers of affected manufacturing companies, carried placards with inscriptions such as “Don’t Kill Nigeria’s Economy” and “NAFDAC Is After Our Livelihood.”

Security operatives were deployed to maintain order as protesters blocked vehicles from accessing the agency’s main entrance during the demonstration, which caused temporary disruption around the premises.

NAFDAC Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, had on Jan. 21 announced the commencement of enforcement on the ban on production and sale of alcoholic drinks in sachets and PET bottles below 200 millilitres.

Adeyeye said the measure was introduced to safeguard public health and protect vulnerable groups, particularly children, adolescents, and young adults, from the harmful effects of alcohol consumption.

The announcement sparked protests in Lagos and Abuja by manufacturers and labour unions opposing the enforcement, arguing that the ban would negatively affect jobs and investments.

Mr Anthony Michael, an executive member of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), who spoke on behalf of the protesters, said NAFDAC had not provided empirical evidence supporting claims that children had easy access to sachet alcohol.

Michael argued that the agency should have engaged manufacturers and other stakeholders to consider access control measures.

He said such measures could be implemented through mass education campaigns in schools and other public awareness channels, rather than enforcing an outright ban on the products.

“You cannot cut off the head because you have a headache. Tramadol has been banned for years, yet it still finds its way into the country through porous borders,” he said.

He added that manufacturers had invested trillions of naira in the sector, warning that continued enforcement could hurt the economy and rendered more than five million Nigerians jobless.

Michael urged the Federal Government to convene a broader stakeholders’ meeting involving unions, noting that organised labour was not part of earlier tripartite consultations between NAFDAC and manufacturers.

Meanwhile, the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare told the Federal High Court that NAFDAC was legally empowered to enforce the ban on alcoholic beverages packaged in sachets and 200ml PET bottles.

In a counter-affidavit filed on Feb. 23, 2026, through its counsel, Jumoke Motilayo Falaye, the ministry stated that it neither interferes with nor controls NAFDAC’s enforcement decisions.

The ministry explained that NAFDAC was a statutory agency established under the NAFDAC Act with clearly defined regulatory and enforcement powers over food, drugs, and related products, including alcoholic beverages.

It maintained that it lacked the legal authority to direct or restrain NAFDAC from carrying out its statutory mandate, adding that no further extension of the moratorium on the sachet alcohol ban had been granted.