APCON’s new board: Outrage, disappointment as government, again, flouts own rules

FOR those, especially stakeholders who had waited very patiently for what seemed an eternity for the board of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) to be constituted, it was a wait not worth the while, after all!

Reasons? The names reeled out by the Federal Government at the twilight of the outgone year as the newly-appointed council members of the apex regulatory body in the nation’s advertising industry simply failed to live up to the expectations of practitioners.

Nothing in the antecedents of the newly-appointed council members: Hon. Jacob Sunday (Chairman), Chief Dayo Abatan, Aloysius Okafor, Sani Tulu, Akor Sunday, Ismaila Umar Sifawa and Murtala Adamu Atiku, gave an inkling that their ways once crossed with advertising.

For many, by this action, the government had,  for the umpteenth time, broken its own rules by appointing outsiders to the council of the regulatory agency.

Industry analysts believe such positions are not far from the truth. For instance, the Nigerian Advertising Laws, Rules and Regulations setting up APCON insists on a council which shall ‘consist of a chairman, who shall be a distinguished fellow of the profession.’ But checks have revealed that the new man, Hon. Jacob Sunday, one of the 209 chairpersons recently appointed into the  Federal Government’s boards and parastatals, is neither a practitioner nor a fellow of the profession.

But the industry is not taking it lying low. While some are actually ready to give the government another chance, by allowing it to recall the list and play by the rules, others have vowed to resist the list, should the Federal Government fail to hearken to their ‘prayers’ of making amends.

The President of the Advertising Agencies Association of Nigeria (AAAN), Mr Kayode Oluwasona, would rather see the act as illegal, which practitioners in the industry would resist.

The AAAN boss wondered why the Federal Government had continued to commit such blunders regarding appointments into the council, noting that the appointment of Hon Jacobs would not be the first of such appointment errors in the industry’s history.

Few years ago, it took the resistance of Heads of Sectoral Group, consisting of  ADVAN, AAAN, MIPAN, OAAN and BON, for the Federal Government to rescind the appointment on  April 23, 2014,  of  Ngozi Emioma,  as the chairman of the council, almost three years after the then chairman, Lolu Akinwunmi left.

“Let me tell you, the government has erred with the recent appointment. It has flouted its own rules. There are rules governing the practice in the country and there are rules governing appointments to the agency’s board. But what the government has just done amounts to impunity, which we would resist, by not allowing the inauguration of the board,” the AAAN boss stated.

He, however, stated that the association had written a letter to the presidency to express its displeasure at the composition of the board while expressing the hope that the presidency would correct the anomalies.

“Definitely, we practitioners in the industry will not allow this to stand. We will resist this impunity. There is no way we will allow such board to be constituted; since the composition is against the rules governing advertising in the country. We believe there are rules which must be followed,” he stated.

While responding to the suggestion on the need to put some measures in place to prevent a re-occurrence, the AAAN boss stated that measures are already in place, especially since the rules guiding the composition of such board are clearly spelt out.

Reacting to the issue, a senior practitioner and former President of the Advertising Agencies Association of Nigeria (AAAN), Mrs Bunmi Oni, would rather describe the list as very disappointing while pleading that the government should be allowed to make the necessary amends.

“Definitely this is not what we wanted. Perhaps we are having all these because there were no hand-over notes from the past administration, this one being a new government. I think what we should be pushing now is that the government should appoint competent professionals that would be able to steer the ship of the agency, especially with political campaigns around the corners,” she stated.

Renowned advertising practitioner and Chairman, Troyka Group, Mr Biodun Shobanjo, has also expressed his dismay about the development.

Shobanjo, in an interview, granted Marketing Edge, a marketing communications journal, described as unwarranted, the incessant flouting of APCON rules by the Federal Government, noting that such exercise is an affront on the constitution of the country.

He, however, observed that the only way to curb this is to free APCON from the financial apron strings of the Federal Government.

Interestingly, not a few stakeholders are looking forward to the day the regulatory agency would break loose from the apron string of the government.

“The error could be a blessing in disguise, if well managed. It could give the industry that opportunity for fresh-thinking. For instance, how, as practitioners, do we make the agency financially independent?

How do we also ensure the interests of everybody are taken care of on the board? For instance, membership of the board, in the past few years, has not reflected the growing number of fellows, among the ranks of the feminine gender in the practice,” argued another practitioner, who would not want her name in print.