CAPPA tasks Tinubu on Coca-Cola’s $1bn investment pledge, others

The Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has enjoined President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to be wary of Coca-Cola’s $1 Billion Investment in the country over a period of five years.

A statement from the organisation on Wednesday signed by its media and communication officer, Robert Egbe, said Coca-Cola’s latest investment promise was nothing more than a recycled, unfulfilled commitment first made three years ago to the Muhammadu Buhari administration.

 “It is a matter of grave concern that the news is once again awash with Coca-Cola’s promise of a $1 billion investment in Nigeria. 

“This is the second time in three years that the company has made this hollow pledge to different ruling governments, and yet it failed to deliver the first time around,” it said.

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CAPPA said despite the company’s failure to honour its previous commitments, the government of the day has not only embraced its latest pledge “with undue fanfare but also quickly risen to defend its dubious track record of dangling promises that never materialise with evidence.”

“While the government may claim that Coca-Cola couldn’t fulfil its earlier commitment due to a ‘challenging business environment’, the disturbing truth remains that, beyond its woeful record of unmet financial pledges, Coca-Cola’s presence in Nigeria has more than any other thing been defined by its persistent onslaught against public health and regulatory infractions than anything else,” it said.

CAPPA also highlighted that a Lagos High Court in 2017 issued a damning judgement against the company, revealing that its products were unfit for consumption as they contain high levels of sunset yellow and benzoic acid which, according to European and American food and drug agencies, can form the carcinogen benzene when combined with ascorbic acid (Vitamin C). 

It said that the court had mandated the company to place warning labels on its beverages, advising consumers against combining their intake with Vitamin C but that the corporation has till date refused to comply with this directive.

It said, “This contempt and disregard for public health and judicial authority should ordinarily disqualify the company from receiving any form of state endorsement, let alone at the highest level of government.”

CAPPA also stated that barely two months ago, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) found Coca-Cola guilty of deceptive trade practices as the commission’s investigation which began in 2019, revealed that the company had on multiple occasions and counts engaged in false and harmful marketing practices that could mislead customers.

CAPPA’s Executive Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi said, “The question the Nigerian government must ask itself in light of all this is what truly it stands to gain by endorsing a multinational corporation with a dark history of non-compliance, and whose products are even actively contributing to a public health crisis in the country?

“Sugar-sweetened beverages, like many of Coca-Cola’s products under such category, are well known and documented contributors to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, obesity and heart disease and other associated health conditions that are already straining Nigeria’s healthcare system and economy,” he stated.