Author(s): Enyia, J.O., & Akpanke, S.A.
The long battle with the COVID-19 virus has left an indelible mark on consumer attitudes, lifestyles, and habits all around the world. They were and are victims of internet scams, and unfair and misleading advertisements. Inferior goods and fake products, particularly, fake COVID-19 drugs and vaccines are being sold daily to consumers who have little or no knowledge of the negative effects of such products. This becomes worse in Nigeria, where the literacy level is very low. Businesses have continued to experiment with new initiatives and business models to adapt to a new environment and meet fast-changing client expectations. Consumer protection agencies have taken actions in response to the hardship and crises occasioned to consumers as a result of the dismal emergence of the health hazard. The United Nations Guidelines for Consumer Protection, 2015 provides the plank for this institutional response. The Guidelines enjoins and urges member states to create, strengthen, or maintain measures relevant to the control of restrictive and other abusive business practices that may affect consumers and the means and implementation of such measures. Nigeria is not left out in the global quest for consumer protection in the COVID-19 era. The country initiated and implemented a quite number of measures aimed at protecting consumers in the wake of the pandemic, however, with few positive results. Example of these measures includes the partnership between the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) on COVID-19 vaccine information dissemination and education across the country. Consequently, this paper chronicles Nigeria's COVID-19 pandemic and consumer protection issues to find the missing legal link. The paper, which adopts the doctrinal research method, also examines the international response to consumer protection in the COVID-19 period with an emphasis on, China, Qatar, Australia, Brazil, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and South Africa and makes a case for a rethink on Nigeria’s legal and institutional apparatus for consumer protection for sustainability.