Yesterday was World Consumer Rights day and I was saddened because we do not have consumer rights protection in Nigeria. The world consumer rights day coincided with a landmark judgment by a federal high court against Nafdac and The Nigerian Bottling Company(makers of popular soft drinks Coke, Fanta and Sprite) on a case which was in determination for eight years
when it was discovered that a combination of Fanta or Sprite with Vitamin C is poisonous.
But what this is really about is the lack of Consumer Rights Protection laws in Nigeria. Foreigners who come to do business in Nigeria are aware of these and use our countrymen/women as specimen on whom they can test anything on with nobody protecting them.
A Dana Aircraft crashed in 2012 and after the crash, a source told the press that the aircraft was not fit to fly in the first place and was undergoing engine repairs but the management of Dana airlines(who are Indians by the way) asked that the aircraft be flown after it was just returning from a trip so they could make money. All for the Accident Investigation Bureau of Nigeria to come out to say that the crash was the pilot's fault since one of the engines of the plane failed 17mins into the journey. Did the pilot not know that his bosses knew about the engine fault and still asked him to fly because they had been managing the plane like that for weeks? The painful part of this story is that months after the crash happened even before investigations into the crash were concluded, Dana airlines had been re-licensed to continue flying. That same year in the Philippines, a boat sunk before it reached the dock in manilla and the captain was charged with manslaughter. Why can't our leaders protect their citizens? Now the pilot is dead and cannot clear his name and for Dana airlines, business continues. Govenor Rochas Okorocha of Imo state has even partnered with them to operate Imo Air. For how long will things like this continue in this country? How long are we going to be at the mercy of our government and the foreigners who come here to exploit us and make money? A business in which safety is the keyword is what you are managing an aircraft with faulty engines and the pilot is to blame. That is ridiculous. The innocent citizens who died in the crash have paid with their lives a price for a country where everything is inefficient including the government.
The case has been laid to rest and Dana airlines exonerated. May their souls rest in peace.
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