The State of Consumerism in Nigeria

Consumerism in Nigeria is in the early stages of development. Consumers rely more on the government to protect them (Al-Ghamdik et al., 2007). Despite some of these agencies’ existence and efforts, Nigerian consumers are still not adequately protected against producers and marketers. In other words, they are complacent about consumers’’ predicaments, leading to a lack of awareness of the laws meant to protect the customers and consequently resulting in the absence of consumerism and litigations against manufacturers and sellers even in the cases of apparent infringement of their rights (Nkamnebe, Idoko & Kalu, 2009). These situations placed the consumers in the dangerous position of being easily exploited by producers of goods and providers of services with impunity. Ndubisi, Anyanwu, and Nwankwo (2016) opined that the successive government in Nigeria had set up agencies like the National Agency for Food, and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON), and most recently, the Consumer Protection Council of Nigeria (CPC) now Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) and charged them with the responsibility to promote, and protect the rights of the consumers against the unfavourable market practices of producers and suppliers of goods and services in the country.

Still, Halliru (2012) found out that the agencies in charge of consumer protection in Nigeria are below par in their performance coupled with a very poor awareness level among Nigerian consumers who are reluctant to enforce their rights. Halliru (2012) study highlighted that the reluctance is largely due to poor education, and unnecessarily rigid judicial system that protects the manufacturers and marketers, coupled with the government’s non-committed attitude towards protecting consumer rights. Uche in Kamarudeen, Suleiman, and Danjuma (2012) further stated that lack of adequate resources and policies for checkmating manufacturers or advertisers’’ claims on goods and services, as well as accepting to pay for goods and services by Nigerian consumer without the assurance of quality and quantity pose a great challenge to consumer protection activities of the Consumer Protection Council (CPC).

Dibie, Unanam, Uwasomba, and Onyemali (2018), while investigating the place of consumerism in Nigerian through interview using an interview schedule titled Consumer Rights and Protection (CRP), found out that there was a high level of illiteracy in the country coupled with the fact that consumers were not willing to fight for their right. This made Dibie et al. (2018) recommend that government should pass a bill that would establish minimum product warranties and also the media should focus more on consumerism because, for the most part, Nigerian consumers do not seem to know what is troubling them until the extent of the problem is publicized. They realize that several other consumers share similar worries. They believed if these are done, it will encourage consumers to be more assertive about their rights and conscious of their responsibilities.

Monye (2006), Mogaba (2008), Eze, Eluwa and Nwobodo (2010), Ketefe (2010), Ijewerre and Obeki (2011) cited in Ndubisi, Anyanwu, and Nwankwo (2016) believed that low level of literacy, ignorance, and the absence of customer awareness and education of the ethical market exchange, high poverty rate constitutes a challenge of Consumer Protection Council in protecting consumers. They also observed that consumerism issues were the least of the consumer problems coupled with the judicial stress resulting from the judiciary’s rigid adherence to strict legal rules, even when dealing with customers’ discontent or losses suffered in trade relations or transactions with producers and providers of goods and services. All the above contributed to why consumers were continuously supplied substandard products. They still kept quiet without doing anything about that. Nkamnebe, Idoko & Kalu (2009) believed that the average consumer in Nigeria had never been exposed to the type of product sophistication and proliferation he is now experiencing since the consumer doesn’t care to study the labels attached to products they buy, which is not unconnected with the low level of their awareness of consumer protection laws and consumerists activities meant to protect them.

Conclusion and Recommendation

Consumerism in Nigeria can be made to deliver the desired dividends to society by addressing all the factors militating against its growth and effectiveness, as outlined above. Consumers’ organisations in Nigeria can step up their activities by imitating the USA and Britain, where consumer organisations conduct independent product tests, carry out independent consumer surveys, issue out product alerts, inform and educate consumers and draw the attention of the government to the need for the full implementation of consumer protection Jaws and prompt prosecution of offenders to serve as a deterrent to others. To achieve this milestone, the government, the marketers, and the civil society must become better disposed to consumerism’s objectives by providing the necessary education, infrastructure, funding, enlightenment, and legislation to make consumerism in Nigeria what it is in the developed countries of the USA and Britain.

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