From lived experiences with diabetes to warnings about rising illness among young Nigerians, CAPPA’s new documentary examines how sugary drinks became woven into everyday life — and the growing health cost of that culture.
Living With Diabetes Beyond the Label
For 26 years, diabetes has been part of Osarenkhoe Ethel Chima-Nwogwugwu’s life story. But she wants the public — and especially journalists — to see beyond the illness.
“I’m beautiful. I’m a mother. I’m an advocate. I’m everything you can think of,” she said at the media presentation of Sweet Poison on Wednesday. “Please change your language journalist.”
Chima-Nwogwugwu, one of the people featured in the documentary unveiled by Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), pushed back against labels often attached to people living with chronic illness.
“Don’t call us diabetic,” she said. “We don’t call our food diabetic food, it’s just healthy food.”
Her message captured one of the central themes of Sweet Poison — that behind statistics, taxes and policy debates are real people navigating the daily realities of diet-related diseases.
Ronke Opaleye, another participant featured in the documentary and someone living with diabetes, described the condition as deeply restrictive and emotionally draining.
“Diabetes is a very powerful thing,” she said. “It’s a disease that constrains you from enjoying your life, from feeling yourself.”
She pointed to widespread addiction to sugary drinks and the lack of awareness around their health effects.
“Some people are so addicted that they have to take this drink every time they eat,” Opaleye said. “Now imagine how many times we eat in a day.”
According to her, many consumers simply do not understand the dangers.
“What you do not know… quite several times, people do it out of ignorance.”
How Sugary Drinks Became Everyday Culture
Produced by CAPPA with support from the Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI), Sweet Poison traces Nigeria’s complicated relationship with sugar — from celebration tables and school parties to a growing public health emergency.
READ ALSO:
- Additional Sugar Tax Could Cripple Manufacturing Sector, CPPE Warns
- Agric Ministry Drives Ethical Culture, Skills Upgrade for Staff
- May Day: CAPPA Warns of Deepening Hardship, Demands Urgent Action for Workers
- 2027 Elections at Risk Without Urgent Reforms, CAPPA Warns Gov’t
- Cardoso Defends Economic Policy Reforms, Downplays Reserve Drops
- Banks Must Move Beyond Traditional Lending to Win Africa’s Trade Boom — Bank Executive
The documentary shows how sugary drinks have become deeply embedded in Nigerian culture. Sold as refreshment, confidence and social status, they are cheap, accessible and aggressively marketed to children and adults alike.
At the presentation, CAPPA Executive Director Akinbode Oluwafemi said the documentary seeks to challenge the normalisation of ultra-processed foods and beverages in Nigeria.
“Sugar drinks have become very deeply woven into our everyday life,” he said.
From schools and markets to offices and social gatherings, he noted, sugary beverages have become easier to find than clean drinking water in some places.
“You just pay, and when you don’t see water, you will see sugary drinks. It’s shocking,” he said.
Oluwafemi argued that aggressive advertising, celebrity endorsements and deep market penetration have helped make sugary drinks appear normal and harmless.
“Ultra-processed food and these kinds of beverages are successfully normalised products that are contributing to growing public health issues in our country,” he said.
The documentary links that normalisation to a rise in obesity, hypertension, kidney disease, stroke and Type 2 diabetes — illnesses increasingly affecting younger Nigerians.
“Before, it used to be elderly people you heard of with diabetes and hypertension,” Oluwafemi said. “More and more young people are getting some of these illnesses.”
Why Young Nigerians Are Increasingly at Risk
That concern was echoed by Adeolu Adebiyi, Regional Senior Adviser for the Food Policy Program in Africa at GHAI.
Speaking at the event, Adebiyi warned that diseases once associated with older adults are now becoming more common among adolescents and young people.
“The burden of cancer, cardiovascular disease and many others is increasing,” he said. “What is more challenging is that those diseases that we used to call diseases of old age are now common among adolescents and young people.”
He linked the trend to changing food systems and growing dependence on ultra-processed products high in sugar and salt.
“We need to begin to attack what is driving the nutrition transition,” Adebiyi said. “Our food landscape is shifting from eating real food to processed products.”
He argued that powerful marketing by food and beverage companies shapes consumption patterns from childhood.
“You have kids right from infancy, even as toddlers, conditioned to sugary beverages,” he said. “This is part of the social engineering that these marketers have promoted.”
Unlike infectious diseases whose effects can appear quickly, Adebiyi noted that the damage from unhealthy diets often takes years to emerge.
“The effect of our food consumption may not show until five, six, ten years later,” he said.
Policy, Profits and the Fight Over Public Health
Beyond personal stories, Sweet Poison enters the policy debate over Nigeria’s Sugar-Sweetened Beverage tax, introduced in 2021 at ₦10 per litre.
Health advocates featured in the documentary argue that the levy remains too weak to meaningfully reduce consumption.
They point out that the tax accounts for less than three per cent of retail price, far below the global benchmark of at least 20 per cent.
Oluwafemi said stronger action is needed if Nigeria is serious about tackling diet-related diseases.
“We must move toward a stronger and smarter tax framework,” he said. “It is not just a sensible fiscal policy, it is a necessary public health intervention.”
He stressed that the documentary is not an attack on consumers.
“This documentary is not an attack on personal choice,” Oluwafemi said. “It is an attempt to confront the systems, the policies and the commercial interests shaping choices.”
The film also explores another side of the debate: the environmental cost of the beverage industry, from plastic pollution to blocked drainage and waste linked to single-use packaging.
But ultimately, Sweet Poison asks a broader national question: whether Nigeria will prioritise public health or allow commercial interests to continue shaping food choices.
For people like Chima-Nwogwugwu and Opaleye, that debate is far from abstract. It is personal, lived and ongoing — a reminder that behind every sugary drink statistic is a human story still unfolding.
Alex is a business journalist cum data enthusiast with the Pinnacle Daily. He can be reached via ealex@thepinnacleng.com, @ehime_alex on X