Rethinking appointment of APCON chairmanship

Can the government shield the next chairman of Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) from the kind of ‘toxic and virulent’ ordeal Lolu Akinwunmi, the present chairman whose tenure expires this month, went through recently?

The protection, according to analysts, is possible and could be achieved if government departs from the unilateral norm of appointing non operator as advertising regulator.

Lolu Akinwunmi was recently under attack for various reasons. One of the reasons was his status as a regulator and operator in the advertising industry.

Although, he is not the first to play that role in the same capacity, as his predecessors as APCON chairmen were also regulators and at the same time operators. But the attack on Akinwunmi, the group managing director of Prima Garnet Africa, a foremost ad communication agency in Nigeria, became more fastidious following his advertising reforms that did not go down well with some stakeholders.

Akinwunmi troubles began immediately after his firm’s foreign affiliate, Ogilvy Africa, made demands to take-over Prima Garnet Africa. The ambition of Ogilvy led to the Scangroup wanting to operate in the Nigerian market. Scangroup is a Kenyan-based marketing communication group and also Ogilvy Africa’s major partner in Africa.

Reports have it that Airtel’s advertising business came to Prima Garnet Africa as a result of affiliation with Ogilvy Africa. The reports further note that when Akinwunmi’s agency and Ogilvy Africa’s relationship in Nigeria was threatened, the Airtel account was also threatened and that became the second part of Akinwunmi’s headache.

“Akinwunmi sensed that his cash cow was on his way out and ran to court to seek justice. As that was going on, Scanad, a member of Scangroup owned by Bharat Thakrar, surfaced. However, the long awaited advertising reform had kicked off on January 1, this year, and that threw a spanner in the works of Scanad registration process as an agency seeking to operate in Nigeria. Scanad’s inability to secure smooth registration to operate in Nigeria was therefore traced to the crisis between Prima Garnet and Ogilvy Africa,” according to the media reports.

Some analysts therefore alleged that Akinwunmi’s position as managing director of Prima Garnet and regulator (chairman APCON) did not help matters.

Various reports in the media brought to the fore the aberration of regulator-operator in any sector, as it is believed that the role is capable of creating self-seeking influence. This was also the same issue during the alleged high handedness of Lagos State Signage and Advertisement Agency (LASAA) under Makanjuola Alabi, when the agency was accused of being an operator and regulator. Alabi was said to be associated with AltiMedia, an outdoor agency.

Assessing regulator-operator status, stakeholders argue that when an operator functions as a regulator in any sector it is likely to breed conflict of interest, and there is no other implication more grievous. As they say in the legal realm, you cannot be the judge and the jury at the same time.

Disturbed by these criticisms, the tall, quiet and unassuming Akinwunmi mounted a defence against reports, which suggested that he was using his position as the current APCON chairman to stop “some people and organisations from operating in Nigeria and from vetting their advertising campaigns.

“This is very unfortunate, as in truth I don’t have the power, the interest or even the will to do the things they insinuated. In addition, APCON is run with utmost integrity and transparency under a council made up of distinguished Nigerian professionals and senior representatives of the minister of information.”

The incident is capable repeating itself in the future, even more grievous if government continues to allow anomalous operator-regulator at the helm of APCON.

As Akinwunmi rounds off his tenure as APCON boss, the Federal Government should spare the next chairman the kind of troubles the industry, and particularly Akinwunmi, went through by looking elsewhere, possibly at the media or academia for next APCON chairman.

By: Daniel Obi