You can’t control commodities prices with force – Rights group tells Nigerian govt

A group, Foundation for Environmental Rights, Advocacy and Development, FENRAD, a pro-democracy and environmental rights advocacy group has slammed the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) for giving a one-month moratorium to sellers who inflate prices of commodities, saying that price reductions can not be achieved through force.

The group, while reacting to the statement credited to Tunji Bello, the Executive Vice Chairman of FCCPC, clarified that it stands against profiteering, racketeering or any other unwholesome dealings perpetrated against indigent Nigerians, but said, however, a situation where government policies drive inflation and yet the same government turns around and initiates a fiat targeting people whose market behaviour is a mere reaction to inefficiencies of the same government was unwholesome.

In a statement issued by Nnanna Nwafor, its Executive Director, the group said the Federal government’s focus should be on the economic policies of the day which birthed price conflict as against competitive pricing.

His words: “It should be recalled that within his first three months in office President Tinubu ‘removed’ subsidy on petrol and floated the naira in an attempt to unify the foreign exchange windows. Before one year in office, the same president removed the subsidy on energy, negatively impacting the energy security in a petrol-dependent economy.

It noted that the naira has been unable to withstand the shocks in the volatile foreign exchange market, losing about 35.53% value to the US dollar in August 2024.

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Nwafor, who declared that palliative handouts alone can not address hardships and price inflation in the country, urged the government to address worsening insecurity to enable displaced communities and farmers access their farms and begin cultivation.

He advised the FCCPC against threatening traders but to implement economy-friendly policies to naturally reduce commodity prices.