Lawyers under the aegis of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) have, unanimously, threw their weight behind the consolidated bills giving more power to the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to prosecute offenders of counterfeit products and services.
According to the lawyers, who spoke, exclusively, to Daily Times, such bills, they argued, was long overdue to protect consumers from the unnecessary hazards and, sometimes, death, considering the high rate at which substandard products are allowed into the country.
The consolidated bills, which have passed a second reading at the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly, are being sponsored by Victor Ndoma-Egba and Nenadi Usman, both Senators.
The bills passed include: A Bill for an act to repeal and re-enact the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) Act Cap 59 LFN 2004 for the purpose of providing additional functions for the organisation, increase penalty for violation; and for other related matters incidental thereto (H.B.153), sponsored by the Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba and a bill for an act to repeal and re-enact the Standard Organisation of Nigeria Act CAP S9 LFN 2004 for the purpose of providing additional functions for the organisation, increase penalty for violation and for other related matters incidental thereto (S.B. 394) sponsored by Senator Nenadi Usman.
Usman, who led the debate on the general principles of the bill, said the legislation is intended to ensure the standardisation of products and services, undertake investigation on complaints lodged by consumers on poor standard of products, regulate the inflow of substandard goods into the country, enhance the ability of SON in the discharge of its mandate, ensure compulsory assessment scheme of all products produced in the country or imported into the country to ensure conformity with international practice before such goods get to the consumers and prescribe severe punishment for violators as well as recall products that could be harmful to human health.
While referring the bills to the Senate Committee on Investment, which was to report back to the Upper Chamber at a later date, Senate President, David Mark, noted that SON is truly a very important institution vested with very significant functions that need to be reviewed regularly to check the distribution of substandard products in the country. He added that for Nigeria to be part of the international community, it is imperative for the SON to step up on efforts in combating fake and substandard products from reaching the general public and ensure that only products that conform to international pracfor Nigeria to be part of the tice are allowed to get to the consumers.
Commenting on the bills, Chief Felix Fagbohungbe SAN, said if the bills are finally passed into law, it will not only save the lives of the populace in the health sector, but, will also protect our local industry which had gone into extinction. He said: “ I think so, because the hazards our society is facing as a result of substandard products being imported to the country, is so much that apart from the fact that it kills the local industry, almost completely, the substandard products can injure our health and endanger our security, so the SON really needs to be empowered statutorily to deal with the issue and that will help Nigeria, no doubt, to protect our local industry and it will remove the danger in our health sector because when they import drugs that are fake into the country, it kills people. My Pikin issue is still fresh in our memory and it is a notorious issue as an example. It is a very good move, it is supported.”
Also supporting the bills, a Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Robert Emukpoeruo said on Monday that: “Well, I think the question of standard is really important because I do not think we can over-emphasise the danger of substandard goods and products flooding the market and the agency that is meant to regulate standards generally must be seen more than a toothless bulldog, it must not just be a dog that can only bark but also bite effectively, because some of all the collapsed buildings and many other things are all products of substandard items, flooding our markets, flooding our lives everywhere and then you will wonder that we have SON but, the truth of the matter is that, what can they do without legal backing?
“I suppose that the proposed bills are meant to strengthen the powers of SON more effectively to carry out their functions, particularly in the areas of sanctions. You will recall that when the late Professor Dora Akunyili was heading NAFDAC, it was very effective because she had the legal backing to go after owners of substandard drugs because of the great danger same posed to the health of the public, the same thing with substandard goods and services. Substandard goods pose serious danger and I think it is something that should be welcomed. I am in support of it”, Emukpoeruo said.
However, at the annual memorial lecture organised by a Professor of Law, Bankole Sodipo in honor of the late Chief G. O. Sodipo, at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Vicfessor of Law, Bankole Sodipo, toria Island, Lagos in December, last year, a lawyer, Dr. Nnamdi Dimgba, who spoke on the theme Is there a need for a competition law to protect consumers in Nigeria?, expressed disappointment that the country is yet to enact a competition law regime, decades after it started the journey. He stated that more than a hundred countries around the globe have adopted competition laws, of which, approximately, two-thirds are less-developed while many other countries are in the process of adopting the same.
He noted that competition law and consumer protection law are quite related in that they both seek to ensure that markets can function for the maximum benefit of consumers, however, “competition law is not, directly, about consumer protection, or trading standards, though both may benefit from the application of competition law.” According to him, “the common goal of both competition law and consumer protection is to provide consumers with access to an array of competitively priced goods and services in the market place.
“However, the proper view is that on proper balance, both on the short, medium and longer terms, the Nigerian environment is very ripe for a competition legal regime for a number of reasons which are in the overall interest of Nigerian consumers.
“The argument is that if governments, like Nigeria’s, which over the decades have committed themselves to market liberalisation, through privitisations and deregulations of various sectors of the economy, do not have a competition law, they, unwittingly, create new dangers. When vital sectors of the economy are liberalised and deregulated as such had been done in Nigeria, ushering in, in place of government monopolies, private players who are not constrained by social interests and whose overriding drive is profit, in the absence of a competition law, there is nothing to prevent the new undertakings from engaging in cartel and abusive behaviour such as price fixing, market division, and excessive pricing no matter the intensity with which they hurt the consumers. The moral to be drawn from this is that half liberalisation could, in some cases, be worse than no liberalisation at all, since it ends up creating, hitherto, unknown dangers.
Source - dailytimes
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