The federal government says it is considering legislation to prohibit the consumption of animal skin, known locally as ponmo, in the country in order to revitalize tanneries.
On Sunday, Muhammad Yakubu, director-general of the Nigerian Institute of Leather and Science Technology (NILEST), Zaria, stated this in Abuja.
He claimed that the lawsuit was necessary to resurrect the country's dormant leather industry.
He believes that eating animal skin, which has no nutritional value, should be discontinued in order to save the industry and boost the nation's economy.
The institute, in collaboration with industry stakeholders, will approach the national assembly and state governments to propose legislation prohibiting "ponmo" consumption, according to the director-general.
“To the best of my knowledge, Nigerians are the only people in the world that overvalue skin as food, after all, Ponmo has no nutritional value. At one point, there was a motion before the two chambers of the national assembly, it was debated but I don’t know how the matter was thrown away,” he stated in his words.
According to him, the consumption of animal skin is partly to blame for the tanneries' current state of coma in Nigeria.
He also stated that the current National Leather Policy had addressed some of the sector's fundamental issues.
In his words; “If we get our tanneries, our footwear and leather production working well in Nigeria, people will hardly get pomo to buy and eat. When implemented fully, it would turn around most of the comatose tanneries and ginger greater output in production.”
Yakubu urged stakeholders to support the legislation and the national leather policy in order to revitalize the industry.
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