A legal luminary, Mr CIC Chikwendu, has said the introduction of the structures for Signage and Advertisement Agency Law by the Lagos State government in 2006 successfully ended the era of local government’s’ regulation and control of outdoor advertising in Nigeria.
Chikwendu, who stated this at the 37th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN) over the weekend in Lagos, stated that with the Lagos State government successfully surmounting the legal battle against the law, other states were encouraged in promulgating similar laws, wresting the control of outdoor advertisements from the LGs in their domains.
According to him, while outdoor advertising regulation comes under residual matters, which state legislatures may legislate on, the constitution however places out door advertising and hoarding under the control and regulation of the local government council.
“Local government councils in all the states carried out this function of control and regulation of out door advertising and hoarding, albeit haphazardly, until 2006 when Lagos State introduced the structures for Signage and Advertisement Agency Law.
“But Lagos State, having seemingly succeeded in surmounting a legal challenge to this law, many other states have copied and enacted similar laws. The implication of this is that control and regulation of outdoor advertising in states have, at least for the present, been effectively removed from local government councils and vested in state agencies in these states,” he noted.
He however, recognised the powers of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON Act) which came into force on December 27, 1988, as a principal legislation that regulates the practice of advertising and practitioners of advertising including out-of-home advertising practitioners.
The APCON Act, the legal luminary stated, established the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (the Council), and charged it with the general duty of determining the requirements an individual has to meet to be an advertising practitioner; regulating and controlling the practice of advertising subject to the approval of the minister of health, where advertising relates to matters of foods, cosmetics, beverages and drugs. (Section 1 (a) and (d)), among other functions.
According to him, while the apex regulatory body in the advertising industry has enormous regulatory powers, the council’s attempt, he added, at extending such powers to advertisements placed by non-advertising practitioners was however rejected by the Court of Appeal in 2018.
“The Court of Appeal, in APCON versus. The Registered Trustees of International Covenant Ministerial Council &Ors. (2010) LPELR (CA) 3630 and MIC Royal LtdversusAPCON (Appeal No. CA/L/1140/2016 – judgment delivered on 5th July, 2018), held that the regulatory powers of APCON under the Act did not extend to persons that are not advertising practitioners and that such persons cannot be compelled to seek APCON’s approval before placing an advertisement,” he added.
The president of the Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN), Emmanuel Ajufo, in his welcome address, expressed delight that the association’s engagement with major stakeholders had begun to yield positive results.
“A lot of progress seems to have been made by our signage partners. However, we still have a long way to go as we will continue to engage them until both of us see each other as partners in progress,” he noted.
While pledging the readiness of the association to work with signage agencies, the OAAN’s boss, however, appealed to those agencies not to see outdoor advertising as the states’ major source of IGR after oil.
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The PDP spokesman recalled how the opposition party had on various occasions alerted that the APC government had ceded sovereignty over a large portion of our country to terrorists, “many of whom were imported into our country by the APC.”
He further stated: “From the video, in a brazen manner, terrorists as non-state actors boldly showed their faces, boasting, admitting and confirming their participation in the Kuje Prison break, some of whom were former prison inmates who were either jailed or awaiting trial for their previous terrorism act against our country.
“Nigerians can equally recall the confession by the Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai that the APC government knows the plans and whereabouts of the terrorists but failed to act.
According to Ologunagba, about 18,000 Nigerians have been killed by terrorists between 2020 and 2022 “as the criminals continue to be emboldened by the failures and obvious complicity of the APC and to which the PDP had always drawn attention.”
“This is not politics; this is about humanity and leadership, which leadership sadly and unfortunately is missing in our country at this time,” he said.
The PDP added that it is appalled by “the lame response by the apparently helpless, clueless and deflated Buhari Presidency, wherein it told an agonizing nation that President Buhari “has done all and even more than what was expected of him as Commander in Chief by way of morale, material and equipment support to the military…”
“This is a direct admission of incapacity and failure by the Buhari Presidency and the APC. At such a time, in other climes, the President directly leads the charge and takes drastic measures to rescue and protect his citizens.
“In time of adversity, the President transmutes into Consoler-in-Chief to give hope and succour to the citizens. Painfully, Nigeria does not have a President who cares and can stand as Consoler-in-Chief to the citizens.
“It has now become very imperative for Nigerians to take note and realize that the only solution to this unfortunate situation is to hold the APC government accountable. We must come together as a people, irrespective of our political, ethnic and religious affiliations to resist the fascist-leaning tendencies of the APC administration.
Ologunagba called for an urgent meeting of the National Council of State to advise on the way to go over the nation’s worsening insecurity.
“Our nation must not fall. The resilient Nigerian spirit and ‘can-do- attitude’ must be rekindled by all to prevail on the President to immediately and without further delay, accede to the demand by the PDP and other well-meaning Nigerians to convene a special session of the National Council of State to find a lasting solution since the President has, in his own admission, come to his wit’s end,” the PDP spokesman declared.
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