The Ekiti market takeover

IN  a somewhat weird response to the escalating prices of food items in Ado-Ekiti, the capital of Ekiti State, the leader (Iyaloja) of the traders in state, Mrs Omowaye Oso, would appear to have assumed responsibility for price control. The Iyaloja, few days ago, reportedly led a task force round some markets in the state capital to order substantial reduction in the prevailing prices of food items on sale. Some of the foodstuff were reportedly sold at forced discounts of between 20 and 60 per cent.

The affected commodities were local items such as gari, local rice, locust bean and palm oil. The excuse that the exchange rate of the dollar played a prominent role in the exorbitant prices of these foodstuff was unappealing to the Iyaloja, and perhaps rightly so. But rather than using moral suasion in dealing with the alleged shylock traders, she practically took over the market. She allegedly fixed the prices and, in many instances, personally executed the sales of wares belonging to other traders!

As would be expected, buyers in the market and residents of the town have lauded the Iyaloja for the market raid which, according to them, would help the poor who are barely struggling to survive.  Thus, on the face of it, Mrs. Oso’s action seems to be driven by good intentions and thus appeals to popular sentiments. But that does not make her action legally correct. Clearly, the raid of the market and forced sales of foodstuff at prices disagreeable to the sellers is anarchy and an obvious abbreviation of the traders’ rights. The buyers who are beneficiaries of the Iyaloja’s seeming generosity and those who hope to benefit in such future illegal actions may be happy and full of gratitude to her while the sellers are counting their losses. That is rather oppressive and detracts markedly from fairness or justice.

The question may be asked as to where Mrs. Oso arrived at the reduced prices she fixed for the items she sold to buyers without the real owners’ consent. What fundamentals gave rise to the discounted prices? What variables were factored into the reduced prices? How did she know that the traders would recoup their costs with reasonable profit to keep them in business at the reduced prices? Or could it be that she did not care a hoot as long as she could play to the gallery and be cheered by less than informed persons?  And more importantly, where did she derive the power for the actions she took?

Even in the socialist economies, prices fixed by official fiat were seldom arbitrary but products of rigorous statistical estimates and mathematical calculations. Even at that, because they deferred to command and control instruments at the expense of the forces of demand and supply, the economies floundered over time until they yielded ground to embrace the principles of the free market. In any case, Nigeria was known to have embraced the price control mechanism at a certain stage in its development, but how did it pan out? If it proved sustainable then, why was it abandoned?

To be sure, we frown at established cases of profiteering by unscrupulous traders at the expense of the masses. But we cannot condone self-help as a panacea to redress the unwholesome situation. The reality  is that while it is morally reprehensible for traders to latch onto the  paucity of dollars in the economy to inflate the prices of local produce whose cost structures are somewhat  insulated from the  exchange rate of the dollar, it is difficult to prove that such action is illegal. This, perhaps, is a typical example of morality breaking ranks with the law.

On the contrary, the Iyaloja’s storming of the sellers’ shops to dispose of their wares without their consent is illegal and criminal, the motive notwithstanding.  This is especially so because there is no instrument of law, say an Act of the state House of Assembly or a local government bye-law, to support the action. Therefore, Mrs. Oso’s promise to continue to raid the markets is a promise to further perpetrate illegality and it is in her interest to have a rethink.

Indeed, we urge her not to get carried away by the applause which her illegal action has received from certain quarters and the tacit support she claims to enjoy from the political and traditional leadership in the state. In a civilized clime,there can be no substitute for doing the right thing within the precincts of the law. To do otherwise is to encourage lawlessness with its attendant risks.