People should stop seeing consumer rights conversation as elitist —Ekine

Consumer Rights Advocate and CEO, Absolute PR, Akonte Ekine, in this interview with Akin Adewakun, touches on issues relating to consumerism in Nigeria while giving reasons every Nigerian consumer, irrespective of their social status, should be involved in consumer rights conversation. Excerpts:

Another World Consumer Rights Day holds on March 15, this year, globally, with Nigeria also participating. As a consumer advocate, how would you describe the level of consumerism in Nigeria?

It is gradually gaining ground. There is a consciousness among stakeholders here that there is need for improvement. Even regulators in that sector, and those of us that are in advocacy, are clamouring for better services. But, there is a subtle understanding that we have a challenge in our environment. I believe while regulators play their role, and we play our role as advocates, and consumers also play their role, we will get that level of service that we can consider to be of quality to all of us. So, I believe, consumerism is gradually gaining ground in our society.

How would you then assess the impact of all these advocacy groups in the space?

The fact that there are groups springing up means there is a deliberate consciousness, regarding consumerism, growing among us as consumers. There was a time people were not even interested in hearing about consumer rights, but now we are getting to a stage where people are saying ‘no we can have these rights’, that is the right to be heard, to contribute to product development, to make amends, the right to take people to court and all those things. The consciousness is coming and the good impact is that we have consumers that are waking up. We did a vox pop recently and it’s amazing how many people are aware of their consumer rights. So, the impact is gradually growing and will continue to grow.

But, in a situation where the brand owner finds it difficult to meet his brand promise due to circumstances beyond his control, whose blame should that be?

Nobody forces any brand owner to make a promise. As a brand owner, you are the one that came to the market to say you would deliver values, and before you made such promises, you must have checked and ensured your parameters to survive is right. My take is that any brand owner that has made a commitment should live up to it. And in a case where such brand owner finds it difficult to live up to their commitment, that would have gone against the promise. When a consumer comes near that product and discovers it does not meet the promise, he has a right to challenge it. And,  one of the ways to do that is by running away from that product or service. Unfortunately, in some instances, we don’t even have alternatives in the market.

When you look at telecoms, or even those DisCos, alternative options are even expensive or not available. So, those are the challenges. However, it is the responsibility of the owners of the brand to keep their promise.

How would you assess the impact of the regulators here?

The essence of continuous engagement is to encourage regulators to do better. What we are also hoping for is that regulators must do regulatory work in tandem with the rights of consumers. And when I look at the regulators, I’m not looking at FCCPC, because its primary responsibility is to the consumers; I’m looking at other industry regulators like NAFDAC, NNPCs of this world and others, all those people must take that decision to improve on their standards. Unfortunately, you write letter to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), you won’t get any response from them. I’ve written letters to them before, but they never responded, and I’m surprised. The other part of the consumer rights conversation is that people should stop seeing this as an elitist thing.

But, is it not? The language that you people speak, is it not above most of these consumers, especially the barely literate ones?

Every man on the street has the same right, as a consumer, as every man that is on the top floor. It is not elitist, it is for all of us to stand up for our rights. People would be selling bad pepper and people will be quiet. They should be able to tell the seller at that level that the product he or she is offering is unwholesome.

Interestingly, a lot of consumers don’t even know that there are regulators in that space they can run to?

That is why I propose that every local government in this country should have a consumer office. There should be FCCPC or state FCCPC office in every local government,  so that the woman on the street selling groundnut can also go there, or the man that is disadvantaged when he buys bathroom slippers. That way we can get things going, and then we speak the language of the people.

The World Consumer Rights Day holds on March 15, with the theme: ‘Safe Product, Confident Consumer’. How relevant is the theme to our situation here?

Everything is in perspective. The first thing is, what is our definition of a safe product when even some of us are buying fruits that people have injected drug inside? So, who takes care of a safe product?. I’ve been trying to talk to SON ( Standards Organisation of Nigeria) in the last two weeks, they have not responded. In our clime, safe product means that if I buy a product, you can attest to the fact that the product is of quality. But, in a situation where there is fake, how do you manage that? It depends on what the government or regulator says is a safe product. But it is the responsibility of every consumer to always look at the label before making a purchase. Then the other question is: is the consumer confident? To be a confident consumer, you must have power in your pocket, and then you must be sure of your market. So, what safe product and confident consumer is about is that we need to be enlightened as consumers in this environment. We should show more interest the things we buy, and we must be confident that if we are going into the market to buy anything, that product must be right, and you must have that trust in the market to deliver that value.

The consumer rights conversation is gaining momentum in this part of the globe, and consumers are getting increasingly sophisticated and aware of their rights. What do you think brand owners should be doing at this time, especially when it is obvious that it is difficult to take consumers for a ride?

I think brands should be more transparent, and they should keep promises as much as possible. They should also have better feedback mechanisms and be nimble to be able to respond fast.

The Consumer Value Award, which you organise annually, will be five this year. How would you assess its impacts, five years down the line?

Every year we have a reason to say, ‘This is not bad; we are making the right move’. At the last edition, we involved the public sector in the conversation. In the last five years, we have seen different brands, different comments, and people are getting used to the recognitions. We are making the necessary impact in the society. We are making progress. To mark the fifth-year anniversary this year, we intend to do consumer conference, and key stakeholders, including regulators and consumer rights advocacy groups will be coming. We’ve written to FCCPC to come and grace the event with a keynote address. We’ve also invited Sola Salako for a keynote address. We are waiting for responses from those people.

You involved the public sector in the last edition of the award, how would you describe the experience?

Firstly, people nominated the National Orientation Agency (NOA), they nominated FCCPC, NAFDAC, about nine agencies of government were listed and voted for. And one of the things that came to my mind is that if we are rating brands, and we don’t even rate public sector brands; we are not doing ourselves any good, because public sector brands are the defining brands of the Nigerian Brand. So, it gives us the opportunity to say we are rating the Nigerian Brand as citizens.

What are those other things we should be looking forward to in this year’s Consumer Value award?

First is about the conference; another is that there are more brands that are going to be listed for nominations. Very soon, nomination portal will come alive and more brands will be listed for nomination, and we hope that more government agencies will also respond, because it’s all about us ensuring that we are improving and ensuring that we have a better living standard.