The media space in Nigeria has been awash recently with news of the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) proffering criminal charges against Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited, Nigeria Bottling Company and their managing directors for alleged poor manufacturing standards and violation of the regulator’s orders by opting for judicial review of the orders by a court of competent jurisdiction as provided for by law.
The media show is rather curious, given that the three parties, including the litigant, are reputed for low profile in the media. All the parties have to a great extent been conservative in terms of media presence.
Government agencies in Nigeria are normally low profiled media-wise, because one thing can easily lead to another, with the demand for loyalty as well as bureaucratic bottlenecks all joining to reinforce the need to be extra-cautious on divulging information to the media. Even the passage of the public information act has not in any way changed this media aversion.
Some of the few instances that ran contrary to this may be the late Dora Akunyili’s tenure at the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), and Charles Soludo and Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’s tenures as governors of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). A clearly-defining character of these three, which nobody can take away, is that they were industry reformers. They are largely perceived to have acted in the best interest of consumers and the national economy.
The pharmaceutical industry and the financial services industry in Nigeria, respectively, owe their current shapes and reputations to the reformatory works of these three for which history remembers them. Many opinion leaders attribute the healthy state of the pharmaceutical industry in Nigeria to the sound foundation laid by the late Akunyili, which she did at personal risk. Her work at NAFDAC endeared her to Nigerians.
In the case of Soludo, popular thinking remains that he saved Nigeria from the embarrassment of bank failures which would have crippled the economy. Sanusi strengthened Soludo’s foundation by introducing stronger regulatory controls that made the gains of the Soludo-led consolidation more fruitful. All these were industry-based actions by regulators.
READ ALSO: Factors that pushed Nigeria into recession
It would be wrong for anyone to attempt to make a defence for Coca-Cola and NBC because there can be no justification for defective products. However, it is equally wrong to deny that manufacturing error is a fact of life in every industry and every country, including the most advanced ones. What is important in such situation is to ensure that industry is not deliberately endangering consumers and society by condoning such errors. What is curious in the CPC vs Coca-Cola and NBC case is the whopping fine of N100 million for an offence that was described as ‘two half-filled cans of Sprite’ and also the regulator’s seeming preference to fight the court case in the media. Is the CPC setting a new record on orchestrating legal battles in the media? Because it is hard to recall a court case so orchestrated by an interested party in Nigeria’s media space. Or could this be a demonstration of faith in the court of public opinion rather than the conventional courts? I say this because the case sounds rather curious and judiciary watchers expect the court to throw it out as the companies in question had filed, and the law allows for a judicial review of the decisions of the CPC on the consumer complaints in question.
Could CPC have been advised by its legal counsel that its case was weak and chose the court of public opinion to win by deliberately tarnishing the brands in question? This would be a very sad situation because international investors are watching.
This is very curious and one wonders whether the companies in question are being arm-twisted. The matter between CPC, Coca-Cola and NBC would have been an interesting case to watch but sadly, there is only one side to the story at the moment because having filed for judicial review, the companies are bound by law not to comment on a matter pending before the courts. Credit to the accused, they have shown respect to the court by not joining issues in the media with CPC. Another question begging for answer is: does filing for judicial review amount to disobedience or non-compliance?
It is important, in the national interest, that the CPC safeguards both consumer and industry interests through balanced regulation. After all, regulators exist because there is an industry to regulate and these industries are critical drivers of the economy that Nigerians are duty-bound to contribute to building, not pulling down.
Sopuru Uwadiegwu