CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Man is always struggling to survive in his given environment. He is always conscious of making his life worth living on this planet earth. At every point in time, he is trying to produce those things that would make his life better. Not only is he producing to make his life better but also to better the lives of his co-habitators here on earth.
Elementary economics teaches us that human wants are insatiable. In effect, human nature is highly demanding of the good things of life. Unfortunately the means to satisfy these wants are very limited, limited in the area of money, manpower and materials to produce and buy these need satisfying wants. The quest to take part in the satisfaction of these wants and take part in reaping the gains thereof, has resulted into mass production of goods and services.
This mass production of goods and services in most cases has tended to neglect certain attributes or qualities of the products as desired by the consumer. The scarcity of most of these goods especially in the third world countries of which Nigeria is one, has therefore left the consumer at the mercy of the producers. He is left with no other option than in many cases to patronize the sellers of these unwholesome and sub-standard products. The use and consumption of such sub–standard products have led to so many negative consequences on the part of the consumers including collapse of building, house burning owning to the use of defective electrical devices and in some extreme cases death.
In the face of increasing awareness and technological breakthroughs, the world has become a global village, and the consumer can no longer afford to be toyed with. His rights have got to be protected both by self and the government of the day. Nigeria, quite aware of these development rose to “take the bull by the horn” by establishing many agencies whose aims are the protection of the consumers’ rights in the market place. One of these agencies is the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) which came into existence via decree N0. 56 of 1971 and amended decree N0. 18 of 1990. The Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) is charged with the responsibility of developing standards for commodities and products (goods and services for industries) and to monitor the enforcement of such standards.
It also implements the Federal Government’s Policies on standardization and quality assurance for all manufactured goods, local and/or imported as well as semi-processed goods throughout the country.
These tasks are what the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) which has its zonal office at the Independence Layout, Enugu, was set up to achieve. The extent to which it has gone into achieving these onerous tasks/goals or otherwise is the concern of this researcher.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM