Exactly
386 days, or approximately 9,264 hours ago, President Goodluck Jonathan
approved the appointment of then Nigeria’s representative to the African Human
Rights Commission Mrs. Dupe Catherine Atoki to head the Nigeria’s Consumer
Protection Council.
Mrs.
Dupe Catherine Atoki has had over two decades of law practice in the area of
human rights advocacy and protection. When therefore her appointment was made
public, critical stakeholders took considerable notice and also wished that the
consumer rights of Nigerians would be much more vigourously protected.
Officially,
this upwardly mobile legal practitioner born of Kogi state origin of Yoruba
parentage assumed duty at the Abuja headquarters of the agency
and declared her commitment towards ensuring adequate protection of the
rights of Nigerian consumers.
In
mid May of last year when she took over the helm of affairs, she met
the management team and told them pointblank that the organization must
properly project itself as a relevant tool for the economic development of the
nation, through the execution of its mandate.
As
someone from the private sector, she must have been well aware of the enormous
credibility deficit staring the Nigerian Consumer Protection Council in the
face given that Nigerians are about the most widely abused consumers globally
because of weak regulatory and policy frameworks.
The
kernel of her inaugural message could be reduced into the following charge;
"potentials of the Council should be brought out to further justify its
relevance as an organization focusing on the disadvantaged".
She
asserted that “my focal point is to ensure Nigerian consumers are protected, to
ensure that the ordinary person on the street knows his/her rights, knows when
those rights are being abused and where to report to when abused".
“We
have a lot to do in defining our priorities. We can identify areas that affect
the generality of the common man. We don’t have the luxury of time. I have four
years to spend and by the end, I want to show that the Council is able to
deliver appropriately through its mandate,” Mrs. Atoki declared.
As
someone who has travelled around the major nations of the World, she
charged her management and staff to strive to maintain excellence and
thoroughness in the discharge of the statutory roles of the agency with a view
to ensuring that Nigerians get only the best in terms of products and services.
Her
words; “potentials of becoming an industrialized economy, but we cannot if
indigenous manufacturers are competing with cheap but sub-standard and fake
products”.
She
charged the Council’s management and its entire workforce to join hands with
her in fast-tracking the pace of the organization so that “the mandate given to
us becomes more effective.”
Atoki's
inaugural pledges reminds me of what the erstwhile Director General of National
Agency for Food and Drug administration and control [NAFDAC] wrote in her
memoirs on how she achieved the legendary success ascribed to her when she
headed that body.
Writing
in the book titled "The War against Counterfeit medicine: My
story" Dr. [Mrs. ] Dora Akunyili noted that she assumed duty to notice
that the weakest links in NAFDAC's regulatory activities were poor
monitoring and enforcement. She then proceeded to roll out more effective
strategies to change the tide positively.
As
someone with intense interest with the goings on in the Consumer Protection
Council over the years, I agree that the new team at that agency has indeed
commenced vigourou consumer rights campaign but will surely do excellently well
if the enabling Act is quickly amended to make it more effective and to reduce
the number of council members which I believe is on the high side.
I
am told that the Executive Council of the Federation has begun a move to
submit a proposed legislation to strengthen the mandate and power of the
Nigerian Consumer Protection Council and I only wish that the current
National Assembly can pass this bill as quickly as possible. The Council
must be clearly supported by all and sundry t ensure that the serial abuses of
the rights of Nigerians including the serious breaches of the rights of air
travelers both locally and internationally are well protected.
The
Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority has really failed to protect the consumer
rights of passengers and it is fitting and appropriate that the Nigerian
Consumer Protection Council is allowed to carry out the mandate for which it
was set up without let or bureaucratic hindrances.
+Emmanuel Onwubiko is Head, Human
Rights Writers Association of Nigeria and blogs@www.huriwa.blogspot.com;
www.huriwa.org.
2/6/2014
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