APCON Council: Industry must put a strong case forward- Sen. Odunsi
After 18 months of being without a governing council and series of promise and fail by the current Federal Government, the advertising industry seems to have given up on a quick resolution to the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) crisis. But Senator Akin Odunsi, Co-founder and former CEO of Rosabel Group has called on operators to put on a strong case for the resolution of the lacuna.
The former Senator from Ogun State told MARKETING EDGE that the administration was confronted with a lot of issues that have pushed the resolution of the APCON governor council imbroglio to the background.
“The administration is faced with a lot of issues. The fight against corruption has taken the centrestage, so APCON council is not in the frontburner of this administration,” Senator Odunsi said.
The last APCON council which was chaired by CEO of SO&U Group Udeme Ufot, was dissolved by the Federal Government in July 2015. Three months after it was constituted. That means the industry has gone 18 months without a council.
“We as industry people need to really put a strong case forward to let the administration know why we need our council,” the advertising guru said, adding that on his own, he has been making consultations with a view to resolving the predicament.
Practitioners have said that the industry suffers without a functional governing council because the council sets out broad policies and guidelines for the operation of APCON and the advertising industry and generally supervises the implementation of its mandates. “So an industry without a council is like a society without a police,” Kelechi Nwosu, CEO of TBWA Concept said.
Several attempts in the past, both by the industry and media, to get the Information Minister Alhaji Lai Mohammed, whose ministry has the statutory responsibility to set up the council, to make a definite promise about the reconstitution of the council have yielded no result. The minister always insisted that he was working on it, yet there a no sign of a council coming soon.
When MARKETING EDGE contacted him in June, he gave an impression that the council was going to be announced shortly, still nothing has been heard. This has unfortunately left the industry in limbo.
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