APCON board re-constitution litmus test for Ikechi Odigbo-led AAAN
Nigeria’s Integrated Marketing Communication industry is relying on Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria, AAAN to lead the pack in negotiating and convincing Buhari administration to re-constitute the board of Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria, APCON.
The absence of the APCON board in the last three years has not allowed the advertising apex body to function at full capacity and this has cold implications for the advertising industry valued at about N150 billion.
Statutorily, AAAN has the largest number of 10 members in the 21 board membership of APCON. Though, out of the 10, it has ceded one each to OAAN and MIPAN respectively.
Recently, the new president of AAAN, Ikechi Odigbo promised that there are plans to push for the proper constitution of APCON council. He did not elaborate.
When he took office at the association’s general meeting in Abeokuta last month, Ikechi said “there are plans to push for the proper constitution of the Advertising Practitioners’ Council of Nigeria (APCON) Council”. The statement is however not certain whether he is leveraging the previous president, Kayode Oluwasona’s plans or he wants to construct another strategy for this purpose under his administration.
According to sources, the statement will amount to rhetoric if there are not enough influence and sway on the presidency in Abuja since government sees the constitution of APCON council as a political decision.
Another possible move could be to wrest APCON from the tight fist of government, move for the amendment of the law and allow it to operate independently with industry funds, the source said. The industry is therefore watching on which way Ikechi goes to realize industry expectation.
For over three year, APCON, Nigeria’s advertising apex regulatory body is yet to function at full capacity due to absence of a board. During his tenure, Kayode pushed the agenda for APCON council re-constitution vigorously. In July last year, Kayode led a delegation to the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo to plead with him for the board to save advertising practitioners from undue exposure and protect the country’s image by re-constituting APCON council.
Oluwasona recognized that the absence of APCON made it difficult for the country to achieve descent and progressive advertising. He recognised that the non-constitution of the council has had grave implications for the industry.
“So you can imagine in the last three years APCON had barely had a council for longer than four months. And when the council is not there, our trade, our business, our industry actually suffers over exposure. The kind of campaigns, communication that is responsible, decent, progressive advertising cannot be achieved because it is the council that is set up to drive it.’’
Kayode attributed the unwholesome campaigns seen in the last national elections happened because there was no regulatory body to control political advertising.
Kayode has however handed over the baton to Ikechi to continue where he stopped. Advertisers are waiting for the next move on this objective.
Daniel Obi