So dissatisfied are the groups, under the umbrella of Heads of Advertising Sectoral Groups, HASG, that on January 29,2018, they issued an open letter to the President, Muhammadu Buhari expressing their regret over the board appointment and asking for a redress of the situation.
“It is most worrisome that two and a half years since the dissolution of the last governing council alongside others on July 29,2015,barely after four months of its inauguration, the advertising industry ,as sensitive as it is, has been left without a council to regulate its operation, ”HASG said in its letter to the President.
Further HASG stated that :”Just as we were about to heave a sigh of relief on noting that a council has eventually been constituted to govern the affairs of APCON ,we were shocked to note that ,once again ,the Federal government had gone ahead to constitute a council for our professional practice without regards to the laws establishing the council. Non-qualified persons have been erroneously appointed to chair and populate the council.”
Honorable Jacob Sunday was named chairman of the APCON board, while other members are Chief Dayo Abatan, Aloysius Okafor, Sani Tulu, Akor Sunday, Ismaila Sifawa and Murtala Adamu Atiku.
None of these board members is an advertising professional. A situation that has irked HASG and, apparently, the majority of members of the advertising profession in the country. An angry HASG noted that it was not the first time that the Federal government would make such appointments, in outright violation of the provisions of the Act setting up APCON and without consultation with members of the Advertising profession in the country.
As HASG notes, the Federal Government has done this “four times in a row “ in 2005,2009 and 2013. In 2013,the Federal government appointed an engineer, Prince Anoima as Chairman of the APCON board. However after a spirit protest by professional members, that appointment was upturned the following year with the subsequent appointment of Udeme Ufot, a fellow of the Advertising Practitioners Council as Chairman. Howbeit ,this relief was not to last as the board was dissolved along with other government agencies in July,2015, the Buhari administration.
HASG wants the Federal Government to either reinstate the former board led by Mr Ufot or appoint a fresh one made up of fellows of the advertising profession as stipulated in the APCON Act.HASG has also asked government to accord APCON the state of a regulatory body for a professional practice “just like the Council of Legal Education, the Nigerian Medical and Dental Council, etc.”
The Federal government is yet to respond to the HASG letter which was published in The Punch newspaper of January 29,2018.
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