When you place a ban on a product, which the people need desperately, you merely succeed in driving the economy underground. Ultimately, a new industry, smuggling, springs up. People will go to any length to obtain anything that they truly desire. In doing this, they are prepared to break the law.
By Hon. Josef Omorotionmwan
Admittedly, adulterated ogogoro has wreaked havoc on the Nigerian psyche but a wholesale ban on ogogoro is not only unjust but also counter-productive.
We are guided by the lessons of history: In 1919, America stood on the threshold of a new era when it observed that alcohol was killing its people just like what ogogoro is doing in Nigeria today.
That was when America came up with the National Alcohol Prohibition Law, which proscribed the consumption of all alcohol beverages.
Unfortunately, this simplistic approach brought exactly the opposite results: A billion-dollar criminal syndicate sprang up overnight.
To counter this, the government had to expand its drugs-policing forces, composed principally of incorruptible federal agents. By 1928, about $25 million was being spent daily to quench America’s thirst for alcohol.
In 1933, America was forced to repeal the alcohol prohibition law but the harm had been done. During the 14 years that the prohibition lasted, a criminal syndicate, which still exists till date, had been born.
Today, the situation in Kenya is precarious: over 14,000 youths are alleged to have died from incidents traceable to the illicit brews, through car crashes, homicides, suicides, alcohol poisoning and associated injuries.
Again, illicit and heavy drinking have been blamed for the violence and social challenges facing the nation, including adults abdicating family responsibilities, like men unable to father children!
Women have severally taken to the streets to protest that their men’s performances are “grossly below the mark”.
Indeed, the situation in Kenya today reduces Nigeria’s to fritters and it is giving the Kenyan authorities sleepless nights. Yet, they have resisted the urge to place a blanket ban on the largely re-enforced drinks.
Hear the Kenyan Interior Cabinet Secretary, Joseph Nkaissery: “Effective from midnight of Thursday, 2 July 2015, Government has revoked all licenses for ‘second generation alcoholic drinks’. Besides, the legal age at which people can buy and consume alcohol as well as the price of alcohol are to be reviewed upwards”.
Prior to our independence, ogogoro was outlawed in Nigeria. It was given various derogatory names – illicit gin, push-me-I-push-you, kai-kai, akpeteshi, etc.
The police hunted all those who were engaged in the business. It took the intervention of the late Tai Solarin, who in the early 1960s, walked into a Police Station with a bottle of ogogoro and demanded to be arrested, to unban the product.
Claims advanced in favor of protectionism continue to flourish because of their political attractiveness. It is easy to make an appeal based on the health of the youths.
Some youths who were randomly sampled on the issue even felt that the law was coming too little too late because ogogoro had wasted a large segment of the youth population.
Over the years, judges themselves have come to recognize that criminal law is a poor instrument for radical change. Trade involves two parties – a willing seller and a willing buyer – with both of them getting what they want from the transaction.
When you place a ban on a product, which the people need desperately, you merely succeed in driving the economy underground.
Ultimately, a new industry, smuggling, springs up. People will go to any length to obtain anything that they truly desire. In doing this, they are prepared to break the law.
At this point, you only succeed in securing a kind of monopoly interest for the entrepreneur who is willing to break the law.
All that the smuggler is told is, “We shall create a barrier to entry into this line of trade by making it illegal and therefore very risky.
As long as you are prepared to bear the risk, you will be protected from the competition of those who are unwilling to do so”.
Again, there is the loss of income resulting from an unreasonable prohibition. Under normal circumstances, government would collect taxes from the activities of those banned products. The smuggling industry thrives on non-payment of taxes.
In the particular case of ogogoro, what has just happened is the lengthening of the unemployment line because all those who were previously engaged in the production and distribution of ogogoro have now been put out of business.
Because we are dealing with voluntary commerce in commodities whose buyers are willing to submit to any price increase; as we increase the risk on the commodities, we also put a corresponding increase on the potential gain to the seller.
In essence, the harder we work to make the banned commodities risky, the higher we drive up the price that would make the risk worth taking.
We remember Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), “The calculus of pleasure and pain produces equilibrium at a higher price level. And at that point, the theory of deterrence breaks down completely.”
One major fault in Nigeria is the near-absence of enforcement of our laws. Evidence of this can be seen in the presence of the same banned products on our streets and markets.
The moral message communicated by the laws is contradicted by the absence of enforcement. While the public sees the conducts condemned in words, it sees in the dramatic absence of enforcement, that they are not condemned in deed.
This is undermining of fate in the system and, in the long run, it invariably breeds cynicism and indifference to the process of law, which augments tendencies towards disrespect for those who make and enforce the law.
Admittedly, adulterated ogogoro kills. So do cigarettes, whisky, brandy, vodka, rum, etc., both imported and locally made.
Why must we then single out ogogoro for an outright ban, other than that ogogoro is the only one that is within the reach of the poor?
The alcoholic is a lonely, desperate person whose act is a deep cry for help. Rather than seek to make a criminal of him at every turn, society must give him the much-desired care.
The challenge before us is to correctly identify the root-causes of the problems. A blanket ban is a mere cop-out!
Hon. Josef Omorotionmwan is a public affairs analyst and Chairman, Board of Directors, Edo Broadcasting Service. He can be reached at: joligien@yahoo.com
