IMC industry re-strategises to sway Buhari on APCON council
After 16 months of failed lobbying and pleading to get Buhari-led government to re-constitute the board of Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria, APCON, the players in the Integrated Marketing Communication industry appears to be re-strategising to achieve their goal.
Prior this period, the stakeholders in the industry have made separate moves on sectoral levels to pressure government to reverse its decision of July 2015 dissolution of APCON council.
This time, according to industry source, the players are planning ways to get government to listen to its demand. “We have done it before when we forced government to reverse itself on the appointment of Ngozi Enioma, a non-APCON fellow, as chairman of the council on the expiration of Lolu Akinwunmi’s tenure”, said the source who prefers anonymity.
According to him, the ultimate goal of the industry is get APCON out of government control as parastatal. But according to an analyst, this would equally pose its challenges on funding the apex advertising body.
Various previous meetings between advertisers and government officials including Minister of Information and Culture and Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo have only produced promises of reconstituting the APCON council and while players wait, the industry lacks proper leadership direction. “The situation is like a company without a board”, the source further said.
It also believed that either Lai is not pressing Buhari enough on the re-constitution of the council or the relationship between Lai and IMC industry is not deep. It is also believed that government may not be much conversant with the working of APCON which operates through a governing council composed of the Chairman who is appointed by the President from among the Fellows of the profession as well as 19 other members who represent key sectoral groups in the advertising industry.
Last month, the leadership of Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria, AAAN led by Kayode Oluwasona visited the Vice President to further press for the constitution of the APCON council.
“The Governing Council of APCON is one of those dissolved by the Federal Government over a year ago. Your Excellency, when APCON doesn’t have a council, our industry gets over exposed, and the achievement of decent, responsible and progressive advertising, which the council is set up to enforce, suffers. The Council that was dissolved was in existence for only four months, as against a standard tenure of three years stipulated in the APCON Laws. Prior to the constitution of this same council, APCON had been without a council for almost two years, and that was the period during which the regrettably unwholesome political campaigns of last year fettered.
“Your Excellency, we humbly request for the immediate re-constitution of the APCON Council, so that even the recently gazetted reform of our industry can effectively be implemented, and we can have a hope of our industry operating normally again”, Oluwasona pleads.
The former president of AAAN, Kelechi Nwosu had also pushed hard on the re-constitution of the council as he noted that the non council is having negative consequences on the industry. He noted in a report that “Despite the best efforts of the APCON Registrar/CEO, the regulation of the large and growing advertising industry will again remain prostrate without the direction of the Council, which is the policy-making body and the arm that provides direction for the industry”.
As it is, “in the absence of the council, APCON has become like a toothless bulldog that barks, but lacks bite. And some practitioners are already exploiting this lacuna for their own selfish gains knowing that the industry lacks any disciplinary structure” says MarketingEdge report.
It is believed that new moves by the IMC would convince Buhari to reconstitute the council in the interest of the advertising industry.
Daniel Obi