How new outdoor ad book indicts LASAA, reveals agency’s consistent violation of own law

The newly-launched ‘Out-of-Home Advertising Practice in Nigeria,’ without doubt provides an insight into the present, past and future of outdoor advertising business in Nigeria. But one of the salient messages, vividly driven home in the book, is the penchant for regulatory bodies in the sector, especially the Lagos  State Signage and Advertising Agency (LASAA),  to always violate their own rules.

The new book,  authored by a consortium of practitioners, and launched  by the Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN), recently, in Lagos,  revealed  that the state’s outdoor ad regulatory agency, put in place in 2006, has continued to  ignore part of the dictates of the Act setting it up, which insists on a board for the agency, and stipulates that two members of the association must be members.

The intention of the legislation, the book argues is to ensure that OAAN, which remains a critical stakeholder in the sector, is involved in the formulation of policies, regarding outdoor ad practice in the state.

Interestingly, the law was strictly adhered to at the initial stages of the agency’s existence, with the association having  two representatives on the agency’s board.

Reviewing the book, shortly after its launch at OAAN’s Book Launch and Award Night, held in Lagos, recently, Mr. Ayo Oluwatusin argued that though the advent of LASAA, in 2006, was seen by many stakeholders as giving a ray of hope for an industry that needed serious reforms, its activities, later, proved otherwise.

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“Before  LASAA, there were a lot of issues. OAAN became uncompetitive  in the media mix. So the advent of the agency actually provided a ray of hope. But the activities of LASAA are however opaque. Practitioners and other stakeholders are not being taken along. OAAN has no input in what LASAA does or does not do, as revealed in this book, a development I believe is unhealthy for the industry,” he stated.

Oluwatosin however charged members of the association on the need to reposition the association and the practice of outdoor in the country to enable them fight the culture of billboard demolition in the country.

He therefore counseled that the association must form a formidable force to enable it challenge some of those government activities that were inimical to business growth.

“OAAN must not be afraid to press for its rights. That is the only way it can survive the onslaughts on billboards and hoardings, by the states, since such culture of billboards demolition is not likely to end soon,” he stated.

Speaking  on the new book, OAAN President, Chief Emma Ajufo,  described the book as part of the association’s contributions to knowledge.

“We hope that apart from being a good companion to present practitioners, it will go a long way in creating the necessary appetite in students of Advertising and Mass Communications,” he added.