Frank Nweke: Sealing Abuja supermarket sent disturbing signals to potential investors

Frank Nweke II, a former minister of information, says sealing up Sahad Stores in Abuja by the Federal Consumer Competition and Protection Commission (FCCPC) sent disturbing signals to potential investors. 

The FCCPC had sealed up the supermarket on February 16 over “misleading pricing and lack of transparency in pricing”.

The store was reopened around 7pm of the same day by the commission.

In a statement on Saturday, Nweke said the FCCPC’s action “is a disturbing signal to local businesses and potential investors. It is inconsistent with free market principles which the government claimed underpinned the policy choices made since May 2023”.

“Pouring any kind of fuel into a fire that you do not want can only expand the size and scope of the fire,” the statement reads.

“It is difficult to accept the justification provided by FCCPC — that prices charged at the checkout counter are higher than the price tags on products on the store shelves.

“Sahad Stores was also alleged to be hoarding goods. Since when did the government start fixing prices?

“I am sure that citizens will be pleased to avail the government of a list of items we would like the government to fix if the government has now resumed this task.

“Breaking into warehouses which have been legitimately used by business owners to store their products through the years is ill-advised and ultimately counterproductive.

“It may become an unwitting signal for miscreants to raid stores and businesses under the pretext that the government claims that items are being hoarded.

“Who will want to continue to invest if the government which should ensure the security of the businesses are the ones endangering them using populist rhetoric?

“So, you destroy people’s investments and empty the warehouses and the stores, the simple question that I have for the government is, after now, then what?”

Nweke added that the Bola Tinubu administration “must however jettison all pretensions to partisanship and reach out to friends and foes alike, who have the capacity, experience and track record to support the administration at this time. Individuals such as Akin Adesina, Benedict Orama, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Oby Ezekwesili, Atedo Peterside, Sanusi Lamido, Bayo Ogunlesi, Ayo Teriba, Biodun Adedipe, Osita Ogbu, Ade Ojowu, Jonathan Aremu should be engaged under the auspices of a reconstituted Presidential Economic Advisory Council”.

“Most importantly, the government must act in good faith to implement the policy options and economic solutions proposed by this council,” he added.