Consumers and capitalism

Consumers are people for whom all manufacturing processes and creative services are undertaken. They are the ones that are expected to use whatever goods and services companies and individuals come up with. They are also called end users of goods and services.

Capitalism is an economic and political system in which production and trade are largely or wholly in the hands of individuals and corporate bodies rather than the government. Capitalism implies that the individual’s survival depends entirely on his own efforts. This means that there is a lot of desperation in the business environment in nations that practice capitalism.

Survival in this system depends on how much money one has. This is unlike the past era in our society when people could stay for weeks without money and yet live well on their farm produce and other resources from nature. Today, money answereth all things and anyone who does not have it in abundance is merely existing and can sometimes be said to be as good as dead. This reality has made extreme capitalism the prevailing economic system in our country.

In a desperate bid to make this money, people resort to many pranks, fraud, lies, theft and all kinds of evil all aimed at increasing profit. We have heard of people who make it their business to capture and slaughter vultures, prepare them like chicken and sell them to the unsuspecting public as such. People buy good palm oil and add all kinds of reddish substances to make it double or triple the original size for greater gain. Others use the waste water from the process of sieving fermented cassava, add saccharine and other substances and use these to simulate palm wine which is sold to trusting buyers. Condiments for cooking are adulterated shamelessly for profit, not caring how the health of consumers is affected.

A man once barged into his friend’s inner chamber and saw this friend pouring powdered milk into capsules that should house potent antibiotic substances. Some use garri to fill the capsules and sell them to sick people. Hard drugs are banned but they still find their way into the nooks and crannies of every town and village in this nation.

Of recent, there has been an upsurge in the importation of exotic fruits into the country. It has been shown that these fruits are harmful to the human body because of the unnatural process that gave rise to them. Yet the borders are thrown open for them to be brought in because the only consideration worth bothering about is monetary gains.

Virtually every product that is imported into the country is substandard by deliberate design. Businessmen travel to the countries where these products are made to instruct the manufacturers to tamper with the quality of their products so as to raise the profit margin.

One common factor is responsible for the sustenance and growth of this evil. It is the failure of regulatory agencies to do their jobs.

Adulteration, imitation and other such negative practices are not peculiar to Nigeria. However, these evils thrive more and make life more miserable in countries like ours where regulatory and standardization functions of government are at an infantile level. This is one area of our lives as Nigerians where the virus of corruption has done the greatest damage to the populace.

A government is set up to save humanity from the jungle kind of existence where survival is only for the strongest and the fittest. The primary goal of government all over the world is to establish some kind of order in the society so that there will be peaceful co-existence.

Regulatory agencies have been set up to be in charge of various consumer products and services primarily to protect consumers from the criminal tendencies of some entrepreneurs and middlemen whose desire for quick riches has beclouded their senses of decency. In every sane society, regulatory agencies are well-equipped with everything they need to check sharp practices as it concerns their own areas of interest. It is a very serious job that requires all seriousness considering how these products affect the health and behaviour of consumers. It is actually these considerations that informed the setting up of these regulatory bodies in the first place.

Unfortunately, in this society, regulatory bodies seem to exist for the sake of existence. Essentially, they have no life in them. At best, they adopt the ‘fire-brigade’ approach to their operations. They use a lot of media hype to fill the huge gaps created by their deficiencies. For them, it is all about politics and remaining relevant in the scheme of things, at least to protect their budget.

But can we really blame these agencies when the government that set them up has not shown any seriousness in ensuring that they work effectively? Most of them are understaffed so they can only have offices at the nation’s capital and manage to maintain skeletal services in other parts of the country. They do not have enough gadgets for communication. Even vehicles and other necessities are grossly inadequate. Training and retraining of officers should be a routine in such establishments so that they can learn the latest global trends in regulatory functions. If these things are provided for in their annual budgets, it is the government’s responsibility to supervise and ensure that they are put in place and distributed judiciously for optimal efficiency nationwide.

Public health challenges and crime will reduce drastically anytime we up our game in the regulatory sector. The Federal Government should look into the agencies that are set up to regulate what we eat and drink, our drugs, our electronics and general goods. They should beam their searchlights on the agencies that check for hard drugs and narcotics.

Local products are not exempted. In fact, more vigilance should be applied in considering such local products as palm wine, palm oil, ground achi, pepper, egwusi, spices and other local products that are often taken for granted.

All regulatory agencies should open up offices in all local governments in this country and strive to make impact there. Right now, most people cannot identify who they are or what they do. It should be noted that capitalism will be the doom of any nation that trifles with regulatory functions.

Nnenna Ihebom