‘Ban Importation Of Human Hair, Bleaching Cream’ – Reno Omokri Writes

Reno Omokri has called for a ban on the importation of human hair and bleaching creams into the country.

In a post, he titled ‘A Bitter Pill To Cure Nigeria’s Chronic Inferiority Complex‘, the ex-special assistant will help the country’s foreign reserves and eradicate wastage. He was also of the opinion that banning bleaching creams will help prevent skin cancer and kidney disease.

Read the full article below.

It might be considered necessary, for the moment, for Nigeria to spend much-needed foreign exchange on foreign education for courses that cannot be studied in Nigeria, or for health tourism on account of ailments that cannot yet be treated in Nigeria. But why do we deplete our foreign reserves to import human hair into Nigeria? That is crazy! God gave our women hair. Why do they need to buy hair from India and other places? This recent tax on beer is good.

But what will be better will be to ban the importation of human hair into Nigeria and its sale in Nigeria. It may shock you to note that Nigeria imports multi-millions of dollars worth of human hair annually. And much of that hair is unwashed, untreated human hair from Bangladesh. What a waste of our reserves. And for what? To make our women look like very bad copies of European, Latin, and Asian women?

And while we are at it, let us save another hundred of millions of dollars by banning the importation and sale of bleaching creams into Nigeria, by whatever name, be it toning, organic, or exotic creams. The degree of self-hate these products evince should have alarmed a responsible government ages ago. A major cause, if not the number one cause, of skin cancer and kidney and liver diseases in Nigeria is skin bleaching. And that means that the close to $250 million we spend on these harmful chemicals annually is not the actual financial cost.

You must add the loss of man hours to our economy, the medical expenses, and the cost of raising children who have lost one or more parents due to health problems arising from skin bleaching. And beyond banning these hairs and creams, we can help our people, especially the younger generation, acquire a better self-image. The National Broadcasting Commission and the National Orientation Agency can introduce edicts that make it compulsory for Nigerian TV anchors to have natural hair and complexion and speak in Nigerian accents. This should also apply to Nollywood. 

There is nothing draconian about that. Today, Nigerian music is dominating the world. But it was not always so. The reason Nigerian music is now popular worldwide is that President Obasanjo and Senator Ben Murray-Bruce came up with a mandate FORCING Nigerian radio and TV stations to play a minimum of local Nigerian content. And then, as we began to hear these songs, we started liking them. And when we liked them, the world joined us and liked them. Look at our oil industry.

The reason Nigerians are now heading various international oil exploration companies in Nigeria is not that the corporations were nice. No. It is because President Goodluck Jonathan initiated, passed, and signed the Local Content Law mandating them to do so in 2010. Without that law, our people would still be saying yes sir and yes daddy, to oyinbo! As with our music and oil industry, let us do to our bodies, which are made in the Image of God and are His Temple. People imitate what they see on television.

If Nigerian men and women start seeing ebony black, nappy-haired people on TV and Nollywood, we will begin to love ourselves as Black nappy-haired people. And when we love ourselves, we will find that others start loving us and even go further to pay us the most sincere form of flattery-imitation.

Reno Omokri