Nigerian businessmen do not cease to amaze me. Each time I see a typical Nigerian businessman, I see contempt for fair play and good business practice. Every one of them hates competition. They believe in zero-sum game, winner-takes-all. The fact that many of these businessmen are now part of government economic management team has made those of them at the top to take undue advantage of the economy and corner the juicy business opportunities in the country for themselves and their surrogates. They are the ones who rose to the current position they occupy now because they had access to political power and secure waivers for themselves and concessions for their pockets and stomach. It was not for the sector they claim to represent.
These men represent no sector. If in fact this administration means well for the economy, the government should have called for membership of the economic management team from the organised private sector where members discuss and debate issues affecting the entire economy not just company-specific issues. In the last few months, the issue of the right standards for cement has been in the news. While not holding brief for any of the parties in the dispute, any discerning mind in the Nigerian business arena would see that there is a hand pushing for the strangulation of some cement manufacturers. In the days of sugar and rice importation, it was the exclusive preserve of some few Nigerian businessmen who have access to political power.
Those who were not privileged to be in the exclusive club of rice and sugar importation were quietly run out of business. The story of how Peak Merchant Bank management imported a ship load of rice into the country and how the ship and its contents under mysterious circumstance sank at the Apapa quay is fresh in the minds of those familiar with the hatred the average Nigerian businessmen has for competition.
The Federal Government of Nigeria seems not to be concerned about this. In an attempt to put the private sector on the driver’s seat of the economy as the engine of growth, the government must provide a level playing field for all who want to participate in the economy. Privatisation of government enterprises presupposes that the government is set to take the back seat in business and economic matters and restrict itself to regulation.
If that is the case, Nigeria needs urgently an Anti-trust law that will regulate business practices in the country.
If there is Consumer Protection Agency, there must be an Anti-trust body that will from time to time hear cases of unfair business practices in the country. Competition law is law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conducts by companies.Competition law is known as Antitrust law in the United States and Anti-monopoly law in China and Russia. In previous years, it has been known as Trade practices law in the United Kingdom and Australia. At the moment, Nigeria does not have such law in place and if any of such exists, it is just in the statute for its own sake.
The history of competition law reaches back to the Roman Empire. The business practices of market traders’ guilds and governments have always been subject to scrutiny, and sometimes severe sanctions. Since the 20th Century, competition law has become global. The two largest and most influential systems of competition regulation are United States Antitrust law and European Union Competition law. National and regional competition authorities across the world have formed international support and enforcement networks.
Modern Competition law has historically evolved on a country level to promote and maintain fair competition in markets principally within the territorial boundaries of nation-states. National competition law usually does not cover activity beyond territorial borders unless it has significant effects at nation-state level.
Nigeria needs Competition or Antitrust law for three main reasons. Such a law will prohibit agreements or practices that restrict free trading and competition between businesses. This includes in particular the repression of free trade caused by cartels as is happening now in the cement industry. The law should ban abusive behaviour by a firm dominating a market, or anti-competitive practices that tend to lead to such a dominant position. Practices controlled in this way may include predatory pricing, tying, price gauging, refusal to deal, and many others. Competition law will spell out terms of supervising the mergers and acquisitions of large corporations, including some joint ventures. Transactions that are considered to threaten the competitive process can be prohibited altogether, or approved subject to “remedies” such as an obligation to divest part of the merged business or to offer licenses or access to facilities to enable other businesses to continue competing.
Protecting the interests of consumers, consumer welfare, and ensuring that entrepreneurs have an opportunity to compete in the market economy are often treated as important objectives. Competition law is closely connected with law on deregulation of access to markets, state aids and subsidies, the privatization of state-owned assets and the establishment of independent sector regulators, among other market-oriented supply-side policies. In recent decades, competition law has been viewed as a way to provide better public services.
Every day in America and Europe, companies are fined heavily for anti competition. If it is happening in Europe and other developed countries, why is it not happening here? Government agencies generate extra revenue from these fines which run in billions of dollars. Nigeria needs the law and the money.
