Nigerians Blast Femi Falana Over His Report on Half Filled Sprite Can Drinks : N100million Sprite sanction and Femi Falana’s meddlesomeness By Ikenna Agu

Femi Falana’s purported letter to the CEO of Coca Cola Group worldwide over an ongoing judicial process between the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) and the local affiliate of the beverage brand in a Nigerian court is rather curious. For the renowned lawyer to take to extra-judicial means in order to influence a case that is already being heard by a judge at the Federal High Court in Abuja is an indication of one of two things: Either the CPC has suddenly realised that its regulatory inquisition is
being found out, and is therefore resorting to its friends and allies for support, or that its case at the court is at best watery, and is therefore seeking to influence the case via the court of public opinion.

The motive behind Falana’s letter gets even more opaque when a straightforward correspondence between a supposedly concerned Nigerian is first distilled into a news release and sent to the media long before the letter has been dispatched to the recipient; and worse, Falana is not even the counsel to the CPC in the case between the regulatory agency and the beverage brand. So the question is asked, as Falana would have done several times: What is his locus? Falana’s letter contained quite a few issues, all unrelated to the matter before the court! The issue between CPC and Coca Cola is the propriety of a N100million fine imposed by the regulatory agency on the beverage brand over two half-filled cans of Sprite drinks!

Many commentators have rightly questioned CPC’s motive in imposing such a hefty, incredulous fine over a consumer’s complaint that he was served two half-filled cans of Sprite. If the consumer had bought a crate of 24 bottles and all were half-filled, then CPC would have slammed N1.2billion fine on Coca Cola. But then, the agency explained that out of the N100million it demands from Coca Cola, N60million is for investigating the levels of liquid content in the two cans of Sprite and the balance N40million as civil penalties; N50,000 is to be paid to the consumer.

As several commentators have rightly pointed out, N60million cost of investigation is beyond hefty. The CPC did not travel out of the country to carry out its investigations, did not require the services of international forensic auditors to travel to Nigeria, flying first class and staying in five star hotels, to investigate thecase of two half-filled cans, and did not need to talk to all the consumers of Sprite in Nigeria to ascertain whether they have ever been served half-filled cans.

Beyond the sanctions, CPC’s motives and grandstanding, that this issue has given to a few organisations and people to exhibit their stagecraft is the appropriateness of the sanctions and CPC’s role of protecting the interests of all its stakeholders, be they consumers, businesses or indeed its biggest stakeholder, Nigeria. Now, who would take any country seriously, even if it hires the best public relations firms in the world, if one of its agencies could levy such an incredibly hefty fine over two half-filled cans of drink? Are sanctions meant to be death knells of businesses or corrective? If the latter is the case, then is it appropriate to bill N50million for a can of half-filled Sprite drink?

Nigeria, CPC’s biggest stakeholder, has been consistently ranked poorly in the annual ease of doing business report. What many commentators point to is the acute lack of infrastructure and services that support the growth of business and also the middle class who patronise the goods and services produced by the businesses. However, one of the biggest obstacles shackling businesses is the overzealousness of regulatory agencies, right from the federal level to the local governments. This overzealousness is best expressed in revenue drive, so much so that agencies that were not statutorily established to operate with a positive net income balance every year strive to impress their bosses that they too can earn money. If the availability of infrastructure was the single biggest factor driving the growth of businesses, countries that have even bigger infrastructure deficits would not be able to hold a candle to Nigeria in terms of attracting and retaining business. Many outperform Nigeria in this regard; Nigeria is even ranked lower than many of these countries by the World Bank in its 2014 Ease of doing Business report. It is easier to establish and grow a business in Sudan, Cameroon, Guinea, Niger, among many countries which some Nigerians regard as poor cousins, than doing business here. And as the World Bank stated in its report, the higher ranking means that the regulatory environment in those countries are more conducive for businesses. Note that there is an emphasis on the regulatory environment.

It is easy to dismiss the pushback against the excesses of regulatory agencies by private sector organisations particularly as recently shown by members of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria and the umbrella body for the beverage food drink industry, when they rallied round Coca Cola and its bottler, the Nigerian Bottling Company, over CPC’s onslaught. Nigerians and their businesses deserve to be protected by a government that has as one of its cardinal programmes, strengthening the private sector to grow the economy. Foreign Direct Investments form a crucial element of the programme. If the CPC and other agencies desirous of becoming profit centres end up killing the businesses they were established to regulate, Nigerians will be worse off. Nigerians will be out of jobs that the businesses provide, and the profit ambition of the agencies will also be jeopardised. CPC will do well to carry out its oversight functions with learnings from other countries that have successfully grown their economy via the private sector.

Ikenna Agu is of the Society for Social Development and Good Leadership. He can be reached on sosfsodad@yahoo.co.uk.

Source: www.pyeworld..com

Nigeria is
where someone defend you but get reprimand
someone no defend you, you cursed the government

He's defending his pocket