r Mark Griffiths is a South African legal practitioner, who also practises in England and a Competition and Consumer Protection law expert. In this interview, he spoke on the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Council, FCCPC Act, signed into law and how it will help Nigerian firms as well as Nigerians get quality service from companies operating in the country.You just held a training workshop on the new Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Council, FCCPC.
There is a significant amount for a commission such as we have got in Nigeria, so clearly, sustainable support is the key. There is also need for significant recruitment of the staff and competition role will be economically-based layers, an economist in the commission itself in order to appropriately enforce legislation.
It will not be exploited because competition laws is based on subjective use and in many cases, in terms of what is competitive or not. So certainly, there is room for discretion where you have got provisions. For example, in terms of anti- competitive grooming , there is an exception process which is available and also there are some discretions you can have in the authority and of course, it is whether it is competitive or not.
Talking about what you just mentioned now, that was actually mentioned during the workshop, ridiculous flight delays without apologies. They just assume that it is the norm and they don’t owe you any apology. Even if there was a change in the timing and all of that, there is no compensation whatsoever, because they feel that they are right and there is nothing coming from it and that is so true. Nothing comes out of it and you find very few people challenging them on why the flight was delayed.
Government should be at the table when this is being negotiated. When I say government, I mean the Federal Executive Council, FEC. It is the responsibility of the head of the FEC which is the president to appoint the heads of the commission, the chairman and vice-chairman respectively, who then will be confirmed by the Senate.