BREAKING: ‘Create Competition, Not Control’: Oshoma Backs Court Ruling, Slams FCCPC Over Price-Fixing

Legal practitioner Liborous Oshoma has backed the recent court ruling that stripped the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) of the power to fix prices in the pay-per-view TV market, arguing that the agency overstepped its legal boundaries.

Speaking during an interview on ARISE NEWS on Monday, Oshoma emphasised that the FCCPC should focus on fostering a competitive business environment rather than attempting to control prices in sectors where market forces should prevail.

“There’s no market that isn’t regulated,” Oshoma acknowledged, “but you can’t target specific companies and leave others. That’s not how consumer protection works.”

He referenced the court’s view that although Section 88 of the FCCPC Act gives the President authority to fix prices in regulated sectors, no such official gazette had been presented to justify the FCCPC’s actions in this case.

According to Oshoma, regulating prices in non-essential services like pay-per-view television creates more harm than good. “It’s not an essential service,” he said. “People can do without it—many now stream on YouTube.”

He stressed that the real solution lies in enabling competition, not imposing blanket controls.

“Government should provide an enabling environment where competition will thrive,” he said. “You can’t attract investors while raising the cost of doing business and simultaneously dictating prices. It’s like giving with one hand and taking with the other.”

Oshoma warned that price-fixing without understanding a business’s model or cost structure amounts to unfair interference.

“You can’t ask a private operator not to raise prices without addressing what’s driving up their operational costs,” he argued, comparing it to telling a landlord how much to charge for rent in a deregulated housing market.

He added that justice must be balanced between consumers and business owners.

“The essence of investment is to make profit, not charity,” Oshoma said. “If a consumer cannot afford a service, the choice is simple—opt out.”

Oshoma concluded by attributing the decline of former price control frameworks, like the 1977 Price Control Act and Marketing Boards, to the disappearance of the economic structures that once supported them. He believes Nigeria’s current economic priorities should focus on enabling market-driven growth, not reviving outdated models of control.