A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE LEGAL REGIME FOR CONSUMER PROTECTION IN NIGERIA

This article examines consumer rights and the legislative efforts towards their incorporation in countries’ Constitutions and legislative documents. The article examined the global trends in the deregulation of public utilities and the documented deregulated markets manipulation by private firms across different jurisdictions. The article found that while Consumer Rights have assumed constitutional significance and are made part of constitutional guarantees in countries such as Kenya, in Nigeria no legislation including the principal consumer protection legislation that is the Consumer Protection Council Act incorporated clearly any of the known consumer rights. The paper concludes that there is no time when an articulated and comprehensive legal framework for Consumer Rights is required in Nigeria than now as several utility services in Nigeria are no longer public services but business products for sale in private hands.