By Felicia Nwosu

To express its grievances to the new advertising laws recently promulgated by the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON), the Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN) has said that the provisions of the concerned laws do not conform with the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The advertisers’ body alleged that the advertising laws in question violate the rights of advertisers and also stand as a restriction to freedom of contracts. They, therefore, called for further interpretation of the laws.

Osamede Uwubanmwen, President of the ADVAN, made this known during a media chat with journalists in Lagos. An ADVAN document made available for the press revealed some of the incidents that have shaped the advertising space in the last few years. According to document, the cause of action in the intended suit is the breach of the constitutional and legal rights of ADVAN and her members by the provisions and operations of the enacted Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria Act, No. 23 of 2022, published in the Federal Republic of Nigeria Gazette No 120 of 5th July 2022, Vol. 109, Government Notice No. 87 with the commencement date of 27th day of June, 2022.

In view of the above, ADVAN, therefore, stated its intention to institute a civil action against the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON). The ADVAN President, however, said, “It is not in the entire law. What we did is to pick on the areas that we think are contravening the constitution. The question is whether this is under the law as part of the constitution. We are even questioning where they picked their law from; we compared and asked if they actually looked at the constitution before instituting the law.

“That is how we came about the 50 things we think they need to look at again. This is supposed to be an industry law that supports growth and professionalism. We have sent letters to ARCON, NIMN, Minister of Information and Culture, and copied the ministry of trade which is our regulatory ministry. As I speak today, we have not gotten one single response.”

Uwubanmwen further explained that the laws that stipulate that payment be made in 45 days negate and stand as restriction of freedom of contract and are also against the tenets of a free-market economy as well as violate the law of contract, and are therefore illegal. He emphasised ADVAN’s commitment to ensure debt-free transactions in all its dealings.

“In ADVAN, we have always pushed for an industry debt reconciliation committee, made up of ADVAN members, media buyers, as well as every stakeholder. If your members submit our invoices and say, you are being owed, the onus lies on ADVAN and whoever gave you the PO, the media buyer to say, ‘where is this debt?’ By that we would have been able to recognize who is owing who, and then give the person a mandate to pay.

“For payment days, there is what we call the cycle of converting raw materials to products to cash in every organization. There is a time limit to all that; it is what I sell from the product that will be used to sort out payment. If it takes me 90 days to convert the cycle to get the cash to pay, I will have to wait because that is where the money is coming from,” he explained.

Also, the Chief Executive Officer of ADVAN, Mrs. Ediri Ose-Ediale, pointed out that ADVAN has its stipulated procedures of settling its contract with vendors.

“The essence of instituting debt reconciliation  committees means all contracts must be adhered to because the contract determines the contract cycle. Some companies have specific days they pay contractors; if they do not pay those contractors after those days, then there is a problem. The Advertising Industry Standards of Practice (AISOP) laws say 45 days, but ADVAN members are saying they cannot adhere to a certain number of days. What we can adhere to is the contract between us and our vendors and we agreed that we must pay them as the contract stipulates. But you are now insisting that you want to determine the number of days for a legal private entity,” she said.

Ose-Ediale also noted that ARCON, in its laws, has also moved beyond the purview of its role by extending its function to the roles of the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria (NIMN), and, therefore, stressed the need for further explanation.

“There is a part of the law that stipulates that this law makes any other law, and so we ask, ‘NIMN has been given the mandate to regulate marketing in Nigeria, are you not encroaching on the powers of NIMN?’ Can we look at where your law starts and NIMN’s stops because you said your law supersedes any other laws?”, she queried