Edem Duke asks APCON to lift advertising standards
Edem Duke, the supervising minister of information, on Thursday in Lagos inaugurated the 6th governorship council of Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), which has been in limbo for 18 months, with strong mandate on the members to discharge their responsibilities with the resolve to lift the standards of advertising practice in Nigeria.The minister, who noted the unethical behaviours, sharp practices and unbridled pursuit of money which have all added up to depreciate the nation’s values, warned that on no account should the interest of consumers and wider Nigerian society be compromised in the preparation of advertisements.
Worried that the previous efforts to evolve and nurture worthwhile respect for the advertising profession have been diluted by infractions in the way the practitioners have carried on, Duke, therefore, mandated all sectoral groups being regulated by APCON to play by the rules and work within the confines of the code of advertising. The minister, who is also overseeing culture and tourism ministry, particularly, examined the media debt, an issue that is capable of creating a weak media. According to him, “Ten years after media summit to address nagging issues of industry debt and adoption of global practices, can we lay strong claim to helping sustain a virile media”. He, therefore, tasked APCON to encourage a much more serious adherence to responsibilities inherent in contracts with media houses and other groups.
“We can start today to do things differently. We can resolve to build and sustain a profession where our attachment to integrity and credibility should improve the public perception of the profession and the industry. That will be the way to glorious and respectable future for the country”.
He told the 20-member council and advertising practitioners that government expects to see their greater involvement in its social re-engineering and economic developmental programmes. He particularly charged them as image management experts to strive to re-brand Nigeria appropriately.
“This is a public service that should concern all of us because the consequences of Nigeria’s negative image arising from the actions of a few bad eggs at home and abroad affect all of us”, he said.
In his acceptance speech, the chairman of the council, Udeme Ufot, who is the CEO of SO&U, urged government to continue to see APCON more as a regulator that it is, and therefore empower and adequately fund the body to perform its statutory duties effectively.
Udeme, who emerged from over 84 fellows in the advertising profession, said there is need to strengthen capacity of APCON through adequate legal backing for the Advertising Practitioners Investigation Panel (APIP) and the Advertising Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (APDC).
He said APCON will maintain its mandate of sanitising the industry, working closely with sectoral groups, and the council will also commit to the growth and prosperity of the industry. “The council under my tenure will continue in the tradition of past councils to engage constructively with the universities and polytechnics offering advertising related courses towards growing manpower for the industry.” Earlier, the immediate past chairman of the council, Lolu Akinwunmi, listed the achievements of the 5th council to include review of the 4th advertising code, various seminars and workshops, membership drive, collaboration with NAFDAC and other achievements which assisted to lift the standard of the profession.
He said with the gazetting of the 5th code and setting up of the main machineries for the implementation of the licensing regime, APCON has a major role to play in ensuring that there is a faithful adherence to what the law says. Akinwunmi believes that the new regime is not in place to stop foreign players or discourage them, saying “on the other hand, the purpose is to ensure that adequate and proper regulations are in place to ensure that this sector operates professionally”.