Williams Shakespeare the English poet and playwright was the
one that stated thus; “Things done well and with a care, exempt
themselves from fear”. This wise saying came home to our consciousness
only this week when the new management team at the Nigerian Consumer
Protection Council (CPC), in Lagos, reportedly slammed Coca-Cola Nigeria
Limited and franchisee of its various beverage products— Nigerian
Bottling Company for allegedly offering defective products for sale at
the detriment of consumers across the country.
The uncommon courage displayed by the director general of this agency will properly be understood when we cast our minds back to only a couple of months ago when the same Consumer Protection Agency under the immediate past hierarchy was busy hobnobbing with manufacturers and other service providers to such a ridiculous extent that at a time when most Nigerian users of the telecom services were embittered by the crass incompetence and insensitivity shown by some of the telecom services providers, the Consumer Protection Agency funded with tax payers money was busy dishing out some crooked awards to some of these defaulting companies most of which are run by foreign owners who also engage in notorious capital flight and treat their Nigerian staff as slaves.
Less than six months into her high profile appointment apparently to revive the near moribund government agency, Ms. Dupe Catherine Atoki, the Kogi State born human rights lawyer has remarkably told Nigerians through her activism on the job that it will not be business as usual for criminally-minded manufacturers and service providers in Nigeria. This new approach in the once moribund government agency has proved beyond the shadow of doubt that ‘‘all that it will take for evil to triumph is for good men/women to do nothing”, as stated by one of the European writers.
First, she went into battle with some foreign airlines doing business in Nigeria for their age -long neglect of the consumer rights of the Nigerian international flyers and other passengers who have continued to be treated shabbily without the slightest modicum of respect like their counterparts from Europe and America. She took her activism to these foreign airlines who in turn wrote to the council to pledge their determination to respect the consumer rights of Nigerian passengers. But these foreign airlines have neither kept to their words nor have they been sanctioned by the relevant aviation officials and since the Nigeria’s Consumer Protection Council is hamstrung by paucity of operational fund and some hiccups in its enabling Act, it is almost unable to bark and bite effectively to such an extent that these defaulting airlines would be compelled by law to adhere strictly to their ethical code of conduct.
But with the on-going but slow process at the National Assembly of the proposed amendment to the enabling Act, it is the aspiration of millions of disadvantaged and oppressed Nigerian consumers that the law makers will have the courage to amend the relevant sections in the Nigerian Consumer Protection Council’s Act to make it much more powerful and equipped with the needed tools to bark and bite for the benefit of Nigerians.
Well, as a lawyer with appreciable number of years of post call practice, Mrs. Atoki has galvanised the resources and officials available to her in the new office to begin a vigorous campaign to name and shame some of these bad manufacturers and service providers to compel them to improve on the quality of products and services that they take to the Nigerian markets. In the last couple of decades, many Nigerians have lost their lives due mainly to substandard and poorly manufactured products that they have consumed in the past and because there was no proactive Nigerian Consumer Protection Council, it was cumbersome for most Nigerians to obtain redress. The Standard Organisation of Nigeria has also failed to stop Nigeria from the notorious position as the dumping ground for substandard products from foreign jurisdiction such as China and India.
This lethargy and inertia on the part of the Consumer Protection Council may have changed going by the new war against poisonous drinks that are packaged under very inhabitable and unhygienic environment by manufacturers and supplied to Nigerians for their consumption and due to poor consumer rights education, majority of Nigerians are still unaware of their rights and duties as consumers. The Nigerian Consumer Protection Council on Tuesday February 18, 2014 took the war to the doorsteps of one of the World’s most popular soft drinks brand- Coca Cola whereby she directed that steps be taken to improve the hygiene status of their products.
Leadership
The uncommon courage displayed by the director general of this agency will properly be understood when we cast our minds back to only a couple of months ago when the same Consumer Protection Agency under the immediate past hierarchy was busy hobnobbing with manufacturers and other service providers to such a ridiculous extent that at a time when most Nigerian users of the telecom services were embittered by the crass incompetence and insensitivity shown by some of the telecom services providers, the Consumer Protection Agency funded with tax payers money was busy dishing out some crooked awards to some of these defaulting companies most of which are run by foreign owners who also engage in notorious capital flight and treat their Nigerian staff as slaves.
Less than six months into her high profile appointment apparently to revive the near moribund government agency, Ms. Dupe Catherine Atoki, the Kogi State born human rights lawyer has remarkably told Nigerians through her activism on the job that it will not be business as usual for criminally-minded manufacturers and service providers in Nigeria. This new approach in the once moribund government agency has proved beyond the shadow of doubt that ‘‘all that it will take for evil to triumph is for good men/women to do nothing”, as stated by one of the European writers.
First, she went into battle with some foreign airlines doing business in Nigeria for their age -long neglect of the consumer rights of the Nigerian international flyers and other passengers who have continued to be treated shabbily without the slightest modicum of respect like their counterparts from Europe and America. She took her activism to these foreign airlines who in turn wrote to the council to pledge their determination to respect the consumer rights of Nigerian passengers. But these foreign airlines have neither kept to their words nor have they been sanctioned by the relevant aviation officials and since the Nigeria’s Consumer Protection Council is hamstrung by paucity of operational fund and some hiccups in its enabling Act, it is almost unable to bark and bite effectively to such an extent that these defaulting airlines would be compelled by law to adhere strictly to their ethical code of conduct.
But with the on-going but slow process at the National Assembly of the proposed amendment to the enabling Act, it is the aspiration of millions of disadvantaged and oppressed Nigerian consumers that the law makers will have the courage to amend the relevant sections in the Nigerian Consumer Protection Council’s Act to make it much more powerful and equipped with the needed tools to bark and bite for the benefit of Nigerians.
Well, as a lawyer with appreciable number of years of post call practice, Mrs. Atoki has galvanised the resources and officials available to her in the new office to begin a vigorous campaign to name and shame some of these bad manufacturers and service providers to compel them to improve on the quality of products and services that they take to the Nigerian markets. In the last couple of decades, many Nigerians have lost their lives due mainly to substandard and poorly manufactured products that they have consumed in the past and because there was no proactive Nigerian Consumer Protection Council, it was cumbersome for most Nigerians to obtain redress. The Standard Organisation of Nigeria has also failed to stop Nigeria from the notorious position as the dumping ground for substandard products from foreign jurisdiction such as China and India.
This lethargy and inertia on the part of the Consumer Protection Council may have changed going by the new war against poisonous drinks that are packaged under very inhabitable and unhygienic environment by manufacturers and supplied to Nigerians for their consumption and due to poor consumer rights education, majority of Nigerians are still unaware of their rights and duties as consumers. The Nigerian Consumer Protection Council on Tuesday February 18, 2014 took the war to the doorsteps of one of the World’s most popular soft drinks brand- Coca Cola whereby she directed that steps be taken to improve the hygiene status of their products.
Leadership
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