2023 general elections: OAAN to embark on sensitisation exercise

AS part of its contributions towards addressing the issue of voters’ apathy in Nigeria, the umbrella body of the nation’s outdoor advertisers, the Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN) has revealed it might soon commence a voters’ sensitisation exercise, aimed at encouraging more participation at the coming general elections slated for next year.

Disclosing this in an exclusive interview with Brands & Marketing, recently, the association’s president, Chief Emma Ajufo, stated that as a responsible professional body, it had become imperative for the association to contribute its own quota towards checking the sliding interests of Nigerians in the nation’s political process.

One of the ways the association intends to achieve this, he stated, would be by carrying some messages,  aimed at sensitising Nigerians on the need to be fully involved in the electoral process, on some member companies’ signages and billboards.

“We see it as part of our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives, as a professional body. There is a need to sensitise Nigerians on the need to be fully involved. It can no longer be business as usual as far as our electoral process is concerned,” he added.

The OAAN’s boss also expressed the association’s readiness to efficiently provide platforms for hate-free, truthful and honest campaign communications towards the general elections.

According to him, the leadership of the association had appealed to government signage agencies on the need to use the existing billboards and signages to expose campaign communications, and not create new ones to avoid cluttering and clustering of the environment.

“This is important because we believe we have more than enough billboards and signages to carry whatever political communications that may spring towards the election. Creating new billboards for that purpose should not be encouraged at this time, because there is no need for such, and doing that may lead to clustering the environment,” he stated.

Ajufo also called for deeper collaboration between the government’s signage agencies, and the association, noting that such bonding would go a long way in enhancing outdoor practice in Nigeria.

He argued that with an improved partnership between the two parties, practitioners would be able to improve on the gains recorded, in the sector, in the last two quarters of the year.

“Though our relationship with most of the government’s signage agencies in the country is cordial, we believe it can be better.  We believe with a deeper understanding and collaboration between the two, we can always improve on the positive performance, recorded in the sector in the last two quarters of the year,” the OAAN boss stated.