How An Iconic American Brand's Local Franchise-Holders Are Exploiting Ghana's Byzantine System

For the past three years, I have followed a court case,  in which a woman who nearly died after ingesting a world-famous soft drink, is suing the local franchise-holders of an iconic American corporate brand, in an Accra High Court.

Until the Centre for Public Interest Law (CPIL) took up her case, after the lady in question had dismissed the original lawyer who had been handling her case, the case was going absolutely  nowhere - a practical demonstration of the perfidy and obfuscating-power of the said bottling company.

 I took an interest in the case, because I happen to know the lady in question,  and can vouch for her character. An upright and law-abiding ctitizen, I have known her for over twenty years.  She is an honest,  hard-working and responsible lady running a small business, who would never make false allegations against anyone.

 The idea that a company that bottles the products of a global soft-drinks giant, which is a quintessential American corporate brand, can fall into the hands of ruthless and  wealthy individuals, prepared to use their  wealth and the influence it brings them, to exploit our byzantine system to get away with a plethora of egregious examples of sharp practice, such as the importation of raw materials that are near their sell-by date, to manufacture products that make consumers ill when ingested,  and also  exploit their workers on top of that, is intolerable.

 My hope is that the judge who is hearing the case will deliver a judgement that imposes punitive sanctions, including monetary compensation of the Ghana cedi equivalent of at least US$1millions,  for the plaintiff, plus costs, on the defendants - so that they will come to understand that our nation is not some  Banana Republic,  in which wealthy and  ruthless foreigners are above the law.

No groups of individuals must think that they can come into our country to run businesses  that manufacture products that make consumers ill, disable some and  kill others,  and escape punishment - with the covering-up help of a small army of professionals,  including lawyers and healthcare professionals, providing them with a cloak of  invincible-impunity.

Above all, my prayer - on what is World Consumer Rights Day -  is that the global headquarters of the said iconic American corporate brand, will conduct a forensic audit into the entire operations  of their local franchise-holders' Ghanaian bottling plant - and ensure that going forward, corporate good governance principles will underpin the entire value-chain of  an entity whose owners are abusing the power a world-famous American brand enables them to wield. A word to the wise...