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Former Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has raised an alarm over the use of dangerous chemicals in growing, ripening and preserving farm produce, after a lab test revealed his wife’s freshly-squeezed orange juice was “not fit for human consumption.”
Osinbajo spoke at the Open Day for Gardeners’ Seminar themed “Leaving the Earth Better Than We Found It,” held in Lagos on August 28.
A video of the event was shared on the ex-VP’s YouTube channel on Wednesday.
Osinbajo recounted how his wife, Dolapo, developed frequent headaches after switching from carbonated drinks to daily fresh orange juice.
Speaking on food preservation, he said, “Dolly, my dear wife, likes to have a full glass of freshly squeezed orange juice every day, a very healthy habit by the way, especially since she stopped consuming any form of carbonated drinks many years ago. And she look at my own Coke-drinking habit with a lot of disapproval.
“But then after a while she started having some strange headaches drinking her fresh juice every day. Then she checked everything she was eating and drinking and we were wondering what could the cause of this be? (We assumed) of course it couldn’t be the ‘healthy’ orange juice.
According to Osinbajo, after nothing else showed up, she sent a batch of the juice to a lab.
He said, “The results came back. It showed the orange juice, freshly squeezed, was not fit for human consumption. This is freshly squeezed orange juice. She should have just stayed with coke, right? (Laughs).”
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Osinbajo blamed the result on harmful chemicals used by farmers and fruit sellers.
The law professor said, “Apparently farmers use dangerous pesticides for fruits and vegetables and fruits and vegetables sellers use very dangerous chemicals sometimes to ripen or preserve fruits and vegetables.
“Calcium carbide is used very frequently to force fruits such as bananas, mangoes, pawpaws and tomatoes to change colour and look ripe very quickly.”
The ex-VP quoted a 2024 study in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital in which researchers found that half of 20 fruits sellers interviewed admitted using calcium carbide while another study in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital found that 25 percent of fruits sellers also admitted using it to ripen fruits.
In another 2023 survey in Lagos, Osinbajo said , 22 out of 50 fruits retailers admitted using chemicals to preserve the produce.
“These were the ones who agreed they do,” he said.
Osinbajo call for stronger enforcement, public awareness, safer practices, and consumer vigilance around how farm products are produced and preserved in the country.
