Thursday, March 28, 2024

I’ve always excelled where people say it’s impossible, says ex-CPC boss, Dupe Atoki

If we were to count women of substance in Nigeria, across all fields, the immediate past Director-General of the Consumer Protection Council, Mrs. Dupe Atoki, would definitely be on the ‘A’ list.

Between 2013 and 2017, when she served as the CPC boss, she kept the media very busy with her giant strides in the pursuit of her mandate by making sure that hitherto untouchable violators of consumer rights were brought to book. The fear of CPC, under Atoki became the beginning of wisdom for smart entrepreneurs and heavyweight multinationals.

Her dedication to duty did not start at the CPC, The Point’s Woman of Substance has always been known for this virtue as well as her doggedness in the defence of human rights, regardless of whose ox is gored. She stands out as an embodiment of global ideas; ideas, which steered the ship of the CPC to an enviable height during her tenure.

 

Her dedication to duty did not start at the CPC, The Point’s Woman of Substance has always been known for this virtue as well as her doggedness in the defence of human rights, regardless of whose ox is gored. She stands out as an embodiment of global ideas; ideas, which steered the ship of the CPC to an enviable height during her tenure

 

Atoki is a versatile lawyer of over 35 years experience in corporate and human rights law. She was a commissioner of the Nigerian National Human Rights Commission and a member of several Presidential committees, including those on the review of laws discriminatory against women and on the reform of investment law.

Besides observing elections in several African countries for the African Union, she has also served as a legal consultant in the drafting of several legal documents for the continental body.

She was singled out for her giant strides in the international community, especially with regard to protecting human rights, and appointed the CPC DG by the President Goodluck Jonathan administration in July 2013.

Before her appointment as the Council’s boss, she was the chairperson of the African Union Commission on Human and People’s Rights, making her the first Nigerian woman to head an AU organ.

Atoki was awarded the Gusi Peace Prize, which is the Asian version of the Nobel Peace Prize, for her significant contributions to peacekeeping in the realm of human rights advocacy in Africa, making her the first Nigerian, and the third African woman to receive the award.

The current DG of CPC, Mr. Babatunde Irukera, confirmed Atoki’s dedication to excellence, when he said, in an interview, that “excellence is a tradition I met at CPC.”

Under Atoki, the CPC waded into critical complaints by consumers against producers or suppliers, and, in the same vein, adopted the strategy of criminal prosecution of recalcitrant businesses or litigation to achieve satisfactory redress.

Where men could have been scared to bark, Atoki had gone ahead to actually bite. In less than two years of being at the helm of affairs at the CPC, she made concerted efforts to ensure that the Council’s impact was felt across critical sectors of the economy, which hitherto were replete with consumer abuses.  Consequently, there was a considerable reduction in consumer abuses by business operators as well as modest improvement in consumer satisfaction with respect to all products and services in Nigeria. Several times, in their excitement, consumers had gone on air to commend the CPC, saying they never thought they could get justice in cases of consumer abuse “without knowing anyone at the top.”

Experts particularly noted the unprecedented bold move of the Council against a multinational in Nigeria on a consumer protection case as one which drew the admiration of Nigerian consumers, whilst also putting other businesses on their toes.

It is a wide knowledge that, pursuant to series of consumers’ complaints, the CPC had carried out investigations and initiated the prosecution of leading food and beverage companies in Nigeria. These were, hitherto, regarded as ‘untouchables.’ The interesting thing at the time was that, unlike in the past, when matters like that were only regarded as lip talk, the CPC pursued the fight to a logical conclusion and set the foundation for sanity in the sector and even among other multinationals.

The objective, according to the former CPC DG, was to ensure that only high quality products that complied with international best practices were allowed in the Nigerian markets.

One cannot also forget in a hurry, the Council’s efforts under Atoki’s watch to sanitise the aviation sector, which increased compliance by both local and international companies to best practices. Although this met with some resistance from competing sister agencies, there was indeed some sanity in the Nigerian aviation industry as regards consumer abuse.

The CPC, under Atoki, had ordered a leading domestic airline to pay a total sum of N41,000 to each of its passengers, following an investigation which revealed that the airline was culpable in violating passengers’ rights, contrary to the CPC’s Act and NCAA’s Passengers’ Bill of Rights Regulation.

In line with one of its mandates to provide redress for consumer abuse, the agency also commenced investigations into the operations of the Digital Satellite Television (DStv), based on a barrage of complaints of alleged consumer rights violations against the company.

And in an effort to checkmate an apparent obstruction of ongoing investigations, officers of the Council stormed the Lagos office of the pay-media outfit to carry out an enforcement exercise, in line with relevant sections of the CPC’s enabling law.

The CPC had said in a statement that the enforcement exercise was carried out to ensure that the investigations reached a desirable conclusion. That exercise, even though reportedly resisted to a large extent by DStv, drew the admiration of consumers, who confirmed that they had never been that protected in the history of the Council. At the end of the day, the pay tv company complied with CPC’s guidelines, improved its services and endeared itself to Nigerian subscribers.

These cases were just a few of the many critical cases, across all sectors, including the banking sector, which the CPC tackled to a desirable end under Atoki.

Atoki had, many times, made history along her career path, clinching awards as she progressed without the fear of stepping on toes.

“If it is in line with my mandate; if it is about making sure Nigerian consumers are protected, I’m not afraid of stepping on toes,” she says.

Having lost her dear husband, when their children were still very young, it would baffle anyone that she was able to groom them into the successful adults they have grown to become. Her 60th birthday ceremony was a day of emotions as the star children told the audience what they never knew about their mother, one after the other.

On how she has made it to the top in spite of the many challenges she had to face, Atoki says, “It has been God all the way. I don’t push things, but when I have a mandate to do a thing, I give it all my best. I taught my children from the beginning that nothing could be compared to hard work. We also built all our efforts on the pillar of prayers. I’m grateful to Almighty God for rewarding our efforts with resounding success.

“I have always excelled where people say there’s
no road.”

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