Consumer Protection Council D-G Irukera gives Regulator’s Progress Report
The Consumer Protection Council (CPC) is determined to build a more proactive and result-oriented engagement with relevant stakeholders such as other regulators, civil society groups and the media, among others, as a means of building cohesion and consensus on ways to ensure that Nigerians get top value for their money in terms of products and services. The Director-General of the CPC, Babatunde Irukera, SAN, gave this assurance at a recent media parley organized by Lawyers In the Media (LIM) in Lagos.
To this end, he said, the organization has entered into several ‘ambitious and promising’ Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with a wide range of stakeholders, especially regulators such as the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC); the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC); the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON); and even the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC); advocacy groups such as the Consumer Protection Society, and commerce and industry correspondents for various media outlets.
In line with its quest to develop a more robust and rigorous legal framework to support its mandate, and to build a more systemic, institutionalized and sustainable consumer protection regime, he said, the CPC is pursuing various means of leveraging on the relative strengths and advantages of these other regulators, and to share with them the benefits of its own advantages as well.
Though much still needs to be done in various areas of the CPC’s engagement with the public, Irukera expressed satisfaction with both the infrastructural development within the organization, and the CPC’s increased visibility and positive perception in the eyes of the public in recent years – from the increased volume of complaints directed at it by people from various walks of life whose rights as consumers were perceived to have been infringed upon. This, the D-G said, was a far cry from its near-anonymous status only a few years ago.
On the CPC’s relationship with the press, Irukera insisted that what was needed was not mere coverage of the agency’s operations and activities, but an active partnership based on the understanding that consumer protection was not news per se, but an obligation shared by all relevant stakeholders.
The DG went on to list the CPC’s interventions in various sectors of the economy and public life such as health, telecommunications, banking, aviation (especially in the area of safety) electricity supply, food safety, and even the genuineness (or otherwise) of sales promotions and the integrity of those behind them. These interventions, he hastened to add, were not merely in the form of taking up complaints of aggrieved consumers, but also in the form of dispute resolution through mediation, and sensitization. In line with this multi-pronged approach, he said, the CPC has driven a number of sectoral reforms, among them a Patients’ Bill of Rights – a document that aligns the interests of patients with those of health professionals in various capacities; and a comprehensive automation system whereby consumer complaints can be automated and their scope broadened across multiple platforms to aid quicker responses on the part of stakeholders, including both the CPC and respective providers of products and services. Irukera also called on these providers to develop internal complaint resolution mechanisms as a way of interfacing directly with aggrieved consumers of their products or services.
As part of the CPC’s ongoing national consumer education campaign, Irukera disclosed that the organization has enlisted the active support of state executive governors across the country, traditional rulers in their roles as custodians of culture, heritage and values, as well as educational institutions. He ended by calling on Nigerians to be more aware of their rights as consumers of products and services, to DEMAND those rights, and to INSIST that they be respected at all times.
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