It was a one-day journalism training that brought together media practitioners across media houses in Lagos State.
The workshop was organised by the Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) with support from the Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI), and was facilitated by seasoned public health, media, and communication professionals.
Participants were drawn from across the print, broadcast, online, and digital media sectors.
The one-day media workshop was tagged: Salt Target and Front of Pack Warning Label (FOPWL).
It also had the theme: ‘Industry Interference and Response Building’.
Many of the journalists arrived early at the avenue for the training and from the beginning the atmosphere was charged with the participants’ expectant.
The participating journalists were trained on the dangers of excesses salt intake, policy framework behind salt reduction and food labelling. They were exposed to the political economy that governs what the public consumes, understands, and internalises as truth.
In their presentation, the medical experts and CAPPA charged the federal government to mandate front-of-pack labelling of food products to enable Nigerians to know what they are consuming.
The experts stated that most food producers often deliberately poorly label them to hide warnings from consumers from knowing whether it is high in salt, sugar, or saturated fat.
The experts stated that most producers and manufactures are now subjecting Nigerians to taking above the World Health Organisation (WHO) maximum daily salt recommendation as people now consume foods that are heavily processed, high in salt, harmful food ingredients.
Speaking at the event, Akinbode Oluwafemi, Executive Director of Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), pointed out that more people in Nigeria are falling sick not from hunger, but from what they eat as illnesses like hypertension, diabetes, and stroke have become widespread.
He stated that there was the need for Nigerians to check what they consume and ingredients used in meal preparation.
Akinbode warned that according to the World Health Organisation, the recommended maximum daily intake of salt is 5 grams but Nigerians currently consume between 7 and 10 grams daily, nearly double that amount.
Akinbode further revealed that the overconsumption is largely hidden in everyday items such as seasoning cubes, instant noodles, snacks, bread, sauces, and drinks. These products are often marketed as convenient and modern, yet their nutritional realities are either obscured or entirely missing from labels.
The CAPPA boss noted that as in many other places, the consequences of this situation are devastating as non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are rising sharply, underscoring the urgent need for key actors such as the government and the media to reclaim control over both the policy space and the narrative.
According to him, “That is why we are here today. This training is part of a broader struggle to reclaim public health from corporate capture, equipping us with knowledge that empowers us to confront structures that profit from public confusion, and a regulatory system that too often remains weak in the face of multiplying challenges.
“Let us begin with the facts. Non-communicable diseases, especially hypertension, stroke, and cardiovascular conditions, now account for over 30 percent of all deaths in Nigeria.
They are killing our people at scale, and one of the leading and entirely preventable risk factors behind these diseases is excessive salt intake, much of it coming from prepackaged and ultra-processed foods that dominate our markets”.
Akinbode stressed that in recognising this crisis, the Nigerian government has taken an important first step with the launch of the National Sodium Reduction Guidelines, saying that these guidelines, which form a key component of the country’s strategy to combat non-communicable diseases, outline salt targets for priority food categories and, if properly implemented, could save thousands of lives.
“But like many public health interventions, the real challenge lies not in the policy itself, but in the politics of enforcement and in the gap between policy ambition, public awareness, and sustained public support. This is where effective communication and responsible journalism become pivotal.
“The second pillar of our discussion today is front of pack warning labelling. FOPWL is transformative intervention that puts power in the hands of consumers. The principle is straightforward.
“No one should need a PhD in nutrition to understand what they are eating. A clear and visible warning on a food product, whether it is high in salt, sugar, or saturated fat, empowers people to make better choices and pressures companies to reformulate their products.
“Countries that have embraced front of pack warning labelling such as Chile, Mexico, and Brazil are already reaping the benefits. In Chile, for example, warning labels led to a drop in purchases of sugary drinks and prompted companies to reformulate their recipes to avoid using warning labels.
“This is regulation doing exactly what it should by influencing behaviour, fostering accountability in the food industry, and rebalancing power in favour of the public2”.
Speaking further, he stressed that Nigeria has the opportunity to be part of this global shift by adopting a mandatory, interpretive front-of-pack warning labelling system that clearly alerts consumers when a product is high in salt, sugar, or saturated fat.
“We are already seeing familiar patterns of industry interference, including lobbying behind closed doors, public relations campaigns masquerading as science, and the funding of research designed to obscure the link between processed foods and disease”, he added.
Also speaking, Joseph Ekiyor, a health advocate and medical practitioner, said Nigeria’s health system is overwhelmed by preventable diseases. The doctor stated that many of the diseases and illness was caused by the food consumed by Nigerians and ingredients used in preparing them.
Ekiyor said preventing non-communicable diseases is necessary with policy changes, holding industries accountable and through awareness and education, while urging the integration of non-communicable diseases into primary healthcare.
“Cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and chronic respiratory diseases are killing people more. Front-of-pack labelling will help consumers to easily and quickly understand food content and what they are consuming”, the medical practitioner said.
Ekiyor further revealed that 1.6 million lives could be saved annually by reducing sodium intake by 30%, stressing that reducing salt intake and dietary change will help to reduce health complications such as heart attack, and reduce the overall burden of NCDs.
Ekiyor called for strict adherence to WHO guidelines on salt reduction, which include front-of-pack labelling of nutrients of concern sugar, salt, and fat, as well as reformulation targets or maximum limits for sodium in food.
He noted that adhering to the guidelines is imperative because by 2030, NCDs global cause of death and disability is projected as 52 million, and it must be curtailed.
He also charged the media to intensify efforts on behavioural communication because repetition is necessary to inform change”.
According to him,” Excessive salt intake raises blood pressure, which is the leading cause of strokes, heart attacks, and kidney failure.
“Most people don’t know they’re hypertensive until their organs start failing.
” In Nigeria, only 3% of the population has access to universal health coverage. For most, a diagnosis of kidney failure due to salt-induced hypertension spells financial ruin
“Dialysis costs about ₦500,000 a month. But many patients earn less than ₦100,000. This is how families are pushed into poverty by food they thought was safe.
“We are seeing teenagers with dangerously high blood pressure. This is no longer a future problem, it’s a present-day disaster.”
In her presentation, Bukola Odele, Project Officer, Cardiovascular Health at CAPPA, lamented that ultra-processed foods that are high in salt/sodium have replaced traditional home-made meals thereby limiting healthy options for Nigerians.
She called for attitudinal change among Nigerians on the intake of chemically processed food and high salty food.
Speaking further, she pointed out that aggressive marketing by the food producer and companies is influencing Nigerians to make unhealthy choices.
Odele noted that food producers and marketers where deceiving Nigerians that the use of high preservatives are positioned as healthier options.
Odele reemphasised the need for a front of pack warning labelling policy in Nigeria, so that Nigerians can make informed decisions about the products they consume, and also safeguard their health.
In his presentation, on the topic, ‘Flipping industry strategies for news articles and features to promote healthy food policies’, Robert Egbe, CAPPA’s Communication Officer, encouraged media professionals to write stories that will expose industry lobbying and policy manipulation, flip industry funded research into stories on scientific bias and use FOI requests to seek information that the industry wants to hide.
Egbe pointed out that there were adequate health concerns that media practitioners and journalists could write about, with adequate research, that would expose the ills many Nigerians go through, which can help to create public awareness.
