Yemi Osinbajo Shares Wife's Headache Story After Switching to Fresh Orange Juice

Former Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has shared how his wife, Dolapo, started having frequent headaches after she began drinking freshly squeezed orange juice every day.

He talked about this while discussing food safety and the chemicals some farmers and sellers use to preserve or ripen fruits and vegetables. He spoke at the Open Day for Gardeners’ Seminar in Lagos on 28 August. The seminar was themed "Leaving the Earth Better Than We Found It" and was part of the fifth edition of the event held at the Ecobank Pan African Centre in Victoria Island, Lagos.

A video of his comments was later shared on his YouTube channel on Wednesday.

Osinbajo explained that his wife had stopped drinking Coke, Fanta, and other carbonated drinks years ago. Instead, she developed a daily habit of drinking a glass of fresh orange juice. 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. And, you know, especially because she stopped drinking Coke, Fanta, or any of those carbonated drinks. She just stopped completely many years ago. And she would look at my own Coke-drinking habits, you know, with a lot of disapproval."

He continued, "I mean, look, you should be doing something healthy. But then, after a while, she started having some strange headaches, drinking her fresh juice every day. Very strange headaches," he said.

The former vice-president mentioned that they did not suspect the orange juice at first because they thought it was healthy. He said, "Then she checked everything she was eating or drinking. We were wondering what could be the cause of this. Of course, it couldn’t possibly be the healthy orange juice."

Osinbajo explained that after they checked everything, his wife sent a batch of her fresh orange juice to a lab for testing. "The results came back. It showed that the orange juice, freshly squeezed, was not fit for human consumption. This is freshly squeezed orange juice. Not fit for human consumption," he said.

He did not disclose what the lab found in the orange juice. Osinbajo also expressed concerns about the chemicals that some farmers and traders use on fruits and vegetables.

He said, "Apparently, farmers use dangerous pesticides for fruit and vegetables, you know, and sellers, fruit sellers, vegetable sellers, use very dangerous chemicals, sometimes to ripen or preserve fruits and vegetables."

Osinbajo specifically mentioned calcium carbide, which is often used to make fruits look ripe quickly. "Calcium carbide is used very frequently to force fruits, such as bananas, mangoes, pawpaws and tomatoes, to change colour very quickly, to look ripe very quickly," he said.

He also referenced studies on the use of chemicals by fruit and vegetable sellers in Nigeria. "There was a study in 2024 in Ado-Ekiti. They found that half of the 20 fruit sellers interviewed, small study, admitted using calcium carbide," he said.

He added, "Another study in Uyo found that 25 per cent of fruit sellers used calcium carbide. These were the ones, of course, who said, who agreed that, yes, we do, 25 per cent."

Osinbajo mentioned a 2023 survey in Lagos involving 50 fruit and vegetable retailers. "In Lagos here, there was a survey done in 2023. Fifty fruit and vegetable retailers in Lagos were surveyed. They just picked 50 of, you know, those who were selling fruit and vegetables. Twenty-two of them admitted to using chemicals to preserve the produce," he said.

He listed some substances used to preserve or ripen produce, including calcium carbide, Sniper, DDT, and brodifacoum. Osinbajo warned people not to assume that fresh-looking produce is safe.

He said, "The fact that fruit looks fresh doesn’t mean that it is safe, and the fact that a drink is natural doesn’t mean that something dangerous has not been added to it along the way, especially along the journey from the farm to the table."

The former vice-president called for better regulations and public awareness about food safety. He said farmers and traders should learn about safer options, while consumers should pay closer attention to what they buy.

"Consumers must learn to ask questions, wash produce properly, and report suspicious practices," he said. "One of the things I think we have to bear in mind all the time is that it is you and I, people like you and I, who take on these causes and campaign in our local communities and ensure that things change."

Osinbajo added that government regulation needs to be enforced but emphasized that individuals have a role too. "Government regulation needs to be enforced, but in a country this size, we have to be active ourselves. Individuals have to be active in our own communities to ensure that these things are reported, suspicious things like this are reported, and that change is made," he said.