Scrolling through my alma mater WhatsApp group platform, Ilesa Grammar School Ilesa, I saw the news that the Federal government is proposing legislation to ban the consumption of animal skin, locally known as ponmo to revive the leather industry. I consider it as a shocking and disturbing development as someone who is very close to the masses, who knows what they are going through and some of their survival tactics. The development was made known by Muhammad Yakubu, the Director General, Nigerian Institute of Leather and Science Technology (NILEST), Zaria. This step is being considered so as to revive the comatose leather industry in Nigeria. Yakubu said “Nigerians are the only people in the world that overvalue skin as food, after all, ponmo has no nutritional value” Muhammad Yakubu further hinted that “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”. According to him “banning ponmo that has no nutritional value will strengthen the sector, if we get our tanneries, our footwear and leather production working well in Nigeria, people will hardly get ponmo to buy and eat” Food science and nutrition wise, it is true that ponmo has no nutritional value, which is not being argued but contrary to the empirical claims, ponmo has got the following values which are facts not to be disputed due to the high cost of living in the land, and which is known that to eat certain foods without accompanying protein is a big stress and bring about a reminder of ones poor status.
Ponmo has taste value
When you immerse ponmo into the condiments very well, making the condiments to saturate the ponmo, the bites you get gives you a tasty meat and you cannot but enjoy the food
Ponmo has munching value
Eating food without munching something else makes the food look ordinary and poor, but when you cut, bite and see what a friend calls ‘obstacles’ that’s any other thing other than the main food itself, you feel the munching value of ponmo.
Ponmo has sight value
Seeing array of ‘obstacles’ in your food gives some psychological boost to the one who offers or eats the food.
Ponmo has health value
At least it doesn’t affect the body adversely the way red meat does. It doesn’t pose cholesterol danger to the body or fat issues.
Ponmo has economic value
It is very cheap to purchase. Recent visits to the market show that getting fish or meat to buy is seriously a big problem as what you come back with shows that to survive food wise in Nigeria is becoming a miracle. The banning of ponmo for the obvious reasons is a good plan to grow our economy in leather sector, but the timing is a wrong one. Let the government improve on the cost of living, making the masses to have money with buying power, to afford the power to buy fish, meat and other items to be in the soup or food, to enrich the meals so that banning of ponmo will be supported by all and sundry. Till then, let ponmo stay for the five values ponmo has.
• Rev. Fr. Victor Makinwa Ogunyemi, is a priest of Osogbo Diocese working in Abuja Archdiocese. He is an author and recipient of the Award of honour of the Catholic Institute of West Africa Port Harcourt The Best Journalist of the Year, 2022.
