Consumer Protection In Nigeria And The Principle Of Neighborliness

While growing up, I had weird thoughts on financial literacy which was sharpened by the realities I had to contend with as a young Nigerian. I had seen patent drug sellers hawk drugs at night without the requisite licence and  I had grown to conceptualize my entrepreneurial ability of selling pastries by forging the necessary details in giving my purchasers confidence in terms of nutritional value and registration number from the National Food and Drugs Administration Control (NAFDAC), perhaps I could make some quick cash since Nigerians paid little or no attention to details. All along, I never knew my thoughts had been hatched long ago by some shenanigans at the detriment of the health of millions of Nigerians.

The life expectancy in Nigeria is pegged at 55 according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) as at 2019, which is ranked as the third lowest in the world. This is inclusive of the adverse and infiltrated atmosphere of generator fumes, discharge from the exhaust pipes of most vehicles, long hours in traffic, bad roads, and yet another issue of feeding owing to the missing jigsaw of good governance in the puzzle of our national life. The simple fact remains that a perfect definition of a person is hinged on his diet. Hence, Nigerians do not deserve to have toiled with the absence of good governance and yet still fall victims of unhealthy edibles. Each time I examined the influx of certain confectionaries in the market in the guise of entrepreneurship without any recourse to due process of law in the registration and scrutiny of the product, I am always scared for Nigeria. After all, the perception of the average Nigerian is that he has to simply eat to live. Whether or not such product has undergone the scrutiny of food agencies of government is not his concern, all that counts to him is that he gets something to sustain him for as long as it is affordable. Where on earth do edibles infiltrate the market without the knowledge of registered agenciesof government reflecting and duly registered in their data base? It is in Nigeria, I have once assumed that it could be an African syndrome.

Consumer Protection is an encompassing term which has the consumer’s interests at the epicenter of its objectives, part of which is to eliminate hazardous and substandard products from the market and to provide speedy redress to the grievances of consumers. In Nigeria, several agencies are key players in ensuring that consumers derive satisfaction in the purchase of goods and usage of services particularly the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection (            FCCPC), Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON), and National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).Consumer protection is still a work in progress in Nigeriadue to so many factors militating against its growth part of which is Illiteracy, poverty, and absence of an effective implementation mechanism to the already existing legal framework.Research has it that so many loaves of bread being hawked around or some packaged in Nigeria still contains bromate not minding the label ‘bromate free’ on the loaf. This misrepresentation defies one of the cardinal objectives of consumer protection which is tailored towards ensuring that consumers have access to accurate information about products and services available for sale.  In the landmark case of Donoghue v Stevenson(1932) UKHL 100which laid the foundational basis for the duty of care in modern law of negligence, imposed on manufacturers the duty of ensuring that products churned out to the public are worthy of certain reasonable expectations. In this case, Mrs Donoghue drank a bottle of ginger beer purchased for her at a café after which she discovered decomposed snail particles and fell ill. Lord Atkin in delivering his judgment enunciated the neighbourliness principle which states that a person must take reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions which are reasonably foreseeable.  He went further in defining a neigbour as persons who are so closely and directly and affected by one’s acts.

In Nigeria, the government takes no responsibility for the health or safety of its citizens. It baffles me how Nigerians consume edibles with no registration number from relevant agencies or consume products bereft of necessary information as regards the product. Nigerians are now comfortable with the abnormal that they now view the normal as rather preposterous or as an act of highhandedness.  Plastic waste that should ordinarily be recycled in Nigeria as part of the green energy of the United Nations is left to block drainages and used by some in the sale of their products without proper and thorough treatment. Slaughter houses are not undergoing the staked monitoring needed for public safety as some infected animals are slaughtered for commercial purposes at the expense of public health and inspection of animals by veterinarians in the ascertainment of their safety for consumption is rarely conducted. Section 1 paragraphs (e) and (k) of the fourth Schedule of the 1999 Constitution spells out the functions of the local government to regulate and control slaughter houses and bakeries respectively. Today, little or nothing is being done in this regard. In other jurisdictions particularly Canada, which is recognized as having one of the safest food system in the world especially with the coming into force of the Safety Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR) on the 15th of January 2019 which enhanced the distribution chain of food and further strengthened the recent licensing, preventive control, and traceability requirement attached to food vendors for exportation and importation purposes. At the local level, municipal councils in Canada are actively involved in the implementation of legislations relating to public health by simply regulating food processing within their jurisdiction, hence making them a key player in public health. However, in Nigeria, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration Control (NAFDAC) is the only agency actively involved in food safety due to its federal nature while at the expense of other state and local agencies. The reality of the present day Nigeria calls for a change in the habitual art of governance. A centralized NAFDAC cannot uncover several manufacturers of food products operating below hygiene standards. At best all they can do is to uncover illegal manufacturers of consumable products in the state capitals of their offices due to the absence of database of all citizens, accurate population figure, and handicapped local government councils. Nigeria, is a big territory with rural areas existing without the touch of government. When this becomes the case, the impossibility of illegal activities is best unrealistic.

The principle of neighborliness enunciated in the celebrated case of Donohougue v Stevenson (supra) will for the purpose of this article extend to seek government’s involvement in taking safety precautions in order to guarantee the life and well-being of its citizens. Nigerians have gone through tough times in their existence and it is only fair that the government guarantees their health in terms of food circulation. There is no better time to revisit our constitution than now when we can be certain that Nigeria can get working from its moribund state. Hustling has remained a continuous narrative for Nigerians and food that should sustain them should not be abandoned in the hands of economic profiteers and saboteurs. Nigerians deserve more from the government in terms of accountability. A practicable federalism must prevail so as to make every government institution a feasible key player in consumer protection. The Nigerian Customs Service must be stricter in screening goods imported into the country while also being dynamic technologically in order to avoid ports congestion and enhancing the ease of doing business. It was gladdening when the federal government ordered the return of the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control to the port for proper screening of food and drugs imported to the country. However, Nigeria still has humongous task in restructuring governmental powers in order to make the local government more effective in the discharge of its duties.

SimiloluwaDaramola wrote from Lagos

Similoluwadarams48@gmail.com

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