Senate advocates increased budgetary allocation for APCON
The Senate Committee on Information and National Orientation led by its chairman Senator Suleiman Adokwe has advocated for an increased budgetary allocation for the Advertising Practitioner Council of Nigeria (APCON) to enable it meet and deliver on its mandate as an industry watchdog, and also carry out more research into the sector.
The committee on an oversight visit to APCON in Lagos said, looking at the whole adverting spectrum in Nigeria, it is important for the government through the Ministry of Information to allocate more fund to the council especially in a digital age where almost anything is being advertised on mobile devices.
Adokwe, representing Nasarawa South Senatorial District in the Senate said agencies and parastatals of government should lobby the National Assembly committees to present their challenges.
According to the committee chairman, most agencies of government are underfunded today, and are not speaking out because of the directive of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) baring all government officials from lobbying the National Assembly instead they should go through the budget office.
Dino Melaye, Senator representing Kogi West and member of the committee however said “Unfortunately it is not practicable in a democracy” for the people not to lobby their Assembly.
According to Senator Dino, the National Assembly is the people’s house and should therefore be open to the people it is meant to serve.
Dino opined that there is no crime in exploring personal relationship for the betterment of service, saying “anyone who asks you not to see your doctor automatically wants to kill you”.
Garba Bello Kankarofi, Registrar and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of APCON appealed to the Federal Government to review the council’s law to restrict violators. He said that the council’s law was not strong enough on violators; therefore, there was the need to review the law to make it more stringent for offenders.
“Due to the council’s weak law enforcement, the regulation of the activities of the practitioners has been difficult.The practitioners and advertising companies do not respect the council’s law and regulations. They just do what they like and get away with it, therefore, there is the need to review the law to make it more stringent,” he said.
According to Kankarofi, the council will present a new draft of its law before the National Assembly within the next two weeks.
The council among others is praying the Assembly through the new bill that about 000.1 percent of all adverting budget in Nigeria be paid to APCON to enable it carry out its supervisory role effectively since about 90 percent of the players in the sector being regulated by APCON are in the private sector.
Speaking further on the challenges faced by APCON, Kankarofi said as at October the council has only received N7.8 million of the 18 million allocated to it in the 2016 budget saying more still need to be done in terms of funding for APCON.
However, the Senate Committee on Information and National Orientation in response to APCON demands said, the National Assembly cannot solve all the problems presented to it, but can prioritize them within the next two more budgets left for the 8 assembly.
According to the committee chairman, Senator Adokwe, most bills presented to the National Assembly in the first two years have better chance of getting accent compared to bills presented in the third or fourth year because of politicking and re-election.
The committee was also of the view that members of staff of APCON should be better motivated to make them commit more to the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the council. According to the Senators, if morale of staff is boosted they will commit more to service.
Seyi John Salau