2019 Elections: APCON moves to nip hate speeches, Ads in the bud

Soft-spoken but firm Ijedi Iyoha is the acting CEO of Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria, APCON. In this interview with Daniel Obi and Jeremiah Mbata, the regulator of the  multi-million Naira Nigeria’s advertising industry spoke on a number of issues including funding of APCON for effective regulation of the industry, non-existent of APCON council and its impact, preparedness against hate speeches, Ads in 2019 elections and digital advertising regulation. Excerpts

When you took over as CEO few months ago, what are those things you saw that you were not aware of?

I have been in APCON for about 25 years and I have been part of administrative process. There was really nothing too hard for me to handle. The only area I was not directly involved was meetings with National Assembly and Ministry of Information officials but I have bridged the gap now. There were places I joined the former chief executive, Bello Kankaroffi for discussions but not all areas. There is no missing gap as Kankaroffi is always available for me to ask questions.

How would you describe the administration of former CEO, Bello Kankaroffi

It was wonderful and amazing as he brought APCON to limelight with his sales skills. With that, he was able to sell APCON to the world. He did a lot for APCON in terms of structures, facilities and manpower development.

Are there some structures you want to put in place?

The most challenging structure has to do with APCON enforcement; we need equipment for effective enforcement functions. Now APCON is doing manual monitoring and that is why we can’t capture everything. We need monitoring and archiving  equipment that will enable digital capturing of activities pan Nigeria. The cost of the equipment is about N500 million. We are appealing to government to assist us in this regard.

It has often being said that APCON can only bark , what is your comment?

It is not true. The challenge is that we don’t publicise what we do. In the past we have made some arrests of some practitioners but we don’t tell public about it. Sometimes we want to dialogue with them to get it right as our intention is not to be confrontational. The dialogue has been effective in regulating the industry.

For about three years, government has not appointed a council for APCON, what are those functions APCON cannot perform without such a council?

The issue of installing new fellows has not been done and there are so many people on the queue, APCON has not held Advertising Day which is a big forum for all stakeholders in the advertising industry. The day involves lecture by renowned practitioners and awards. Again there are no disciplinary committees to sit on the cases of practitioners. What we do in this instance is to write to the defaulting members.

What is the implication of all these to the industry?

The implication is that the industry is not moving the way it supposed to move. There are some reforms that probably would have come on board by now and there are some that would have been enforced, but all these are not happening.

Why do you think government is delaying in appointing a council?

My thinking is that government appears not to understand what APCON is all about. Apart from that, APCON is a parastatal under government, in that regard; there is no way government will not like to have an input on what is happening in the council. Therefore, government wants to have representative in the council, but this runs against the APCON law. But I think government is looking into it now to appoint professionals to the council. But if the law can be amended, it would help the industry. The industry is pushing for both amending the law and bringing back the council.

But would you suggest an industry-led apex regulatory body?

Not now. Not much is on ground for that structure to take place. Now, our salaries, capital projects and other over- heads come from government. This is what we need to sit down and discuss whether the industry can carry the burden.

What are the results of your effort so far on licensing agencies?

This has been happening but I continued the process. We have a committee that checks those who are qualified for licensing. This year we have registered over 60 agencies.

Why does registration among agencies need APCON enforcement?

In this part of the world, we need enforcement to get things done right. Again some clients are patronising some unregistered agencies, therefore the agencies don’t find need to register. But we have written to advertisers, seeking their collaboration that they should deal with only registered advertising agencies. Ad for vetting is not accepted if the agency is not registered and exposure of un-vetted Ad is an offence.

APCON has time- belt for alcohol advertising but some cable networks advertise alcohol outside the time belt, what is your comment?

During football, what we allow is sponsorship; flash the product packs and the logo. This is not commercial in both local and cable networks.  We are on top of the game to monitor violations especially during football matches.

Even with presence of APCON, elections in 2015 witnessed hate speeches and Ads, what happened?

Most of the Ads did not pass through APCON. Those that passed through APCON were not approved. For electronic media, APCON and Nigerian Broadcasting Commission sanctioned them. For the press, we found it difficult identifying who placed the hate speeches and Ads. But we wrote to political parties and the media and some media stopped exposing the materials. We are always appealing to media houses not to prioritise money above ethics.

Then, 2019 elections is fast approaching, how are you equipped and prepared against such hate speech and Ads?

What we are doing now is collaboration with stakeholders, enlightening them. We have been holding such seminars, talking to political parties, politicians and advertising agencies. We have organised such forum in Katsina, PortHarcourt and we are planning another one in Abuja. We are inviting politicians, National Assembly members and the public on the dangers of hate speeches.

Digital advertising is gaining ground, how are you prepared for the regulation?

When we had a council, there was a committee working on that to develop administrative and legal framework to assist the enforcement on digital Ads. The dissolution of the council stopped the committee’s work. It is a difficult challenge for us now but the only thing we do is look at the social media and those we know we write to them on any infringement. When we have a council, we will push for the review of APCON law, specially the Code to accommodate digital space into it. Internally we are doing something already but not on the larger scale.