LAST month, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, FCCPC, behaved crudely when it stormed and shut down a Chinese supermarket in Abuja over allegations that it discriminated against Nigerians. When I saw the picture of FCCPC operatives dutifully sealing up the supermarket, my reaction was: Typical! Of course, it is typical. Nigerian law and regulatory enforcement agents are always in their element when exercising raw power.
Yet, serious as the allegations are, they do not require shutting down the businesses. Rather, they require investigations and, if proved true, a warning, a demand for apology or even a modest fine. That is how regulators should behave to enable economic activity. But Nigerian regulators are always trigger-happy. According to the BBC, the FCCPC had vowed that the Chinese supermarket would “remain closed during its investigations.
Of course, regulators must enforce regulations to protect society from harm and to ensure that bad businesses do not repeatedly get away with bad behaviour.