Challenge harsh laws through legal action, Shobanjo charges OAAN
By Felicia Nwosu
Doyen of advertising, Dr. Biodun Shobanjo, has condemned the incessant harsh, discriminatory laws and policies imposed on members and practitioners of the Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN) by some government agencies. He, therefore, charged practitioners to take legal action to challenge such unfriendly regulations in order to have a friendlier and conducive business atmosphere for members’ business operations across different states.
Shobanjo made the call at the maiden edition of the OAAN Conference, Exhibition and Awards themed: “OOH at the Edge”, which was held on 23 November, 2022 at Marriott Hotels, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos.
The advertising icon expressed displeasure while underscoring the numerous challenges encountered by practitioners in the outdoor advertising sub-sector.
“This business in which you are in, marketing communications, I spent 51 years of my life in it. Aside from the fact that I am from the outside looking at what you guys are doing, quite frankly, if anybody was to ask if I would like to be in your position today, my answer will be no, because the obstacles are just too many.
Empathising with the practitioners over the numerous environmental hostilities they have to grapple with within their host states, Mr. Shobanjo noted that the ecosystem has evolved negatively unlike during his days where he spent over five decades in the industry without witnessing such obnoxious laws.
“The regulations are just too many – from regulation laws to competition, from the kind of things you hear about politicians who say that for you to advertise in a state, if you belong to a particular party you cannot bring your advertisement from another party except you have to pay some money. I have had the privilege of working for three political parties, not once did I encounter any problem in any state even if we were putting advertisements,” he said.
“I also learnt that some of you will have to put on generators of 1,000KVA to power a site; do you know how much that is going to be at the cost of diesel today? The ADVAN president that I am looking at here will not spare you when it refuses to power on. These are some of the challenges that they are facing and we need to talk about this because, like I said about the marketing communications profession generally, I see it as being endangered and that is not the way it is globally. Apart from social media, outdoor is the fastest growing media in the world today, so why is Nigeria different?” he asked.
“There are some state governments who will say to you, even if your sites are blank, you still have to pay, I don’t understand what that payment is for. Like I have told you in different forums, you should challenge these things in court. But guess what, you guys don’t have the courage, you are so lenient on that,” he said.
He maintained that as long as OAAN continues to swallow the bitter pills without taking a proactive action, it will definitely linger for a very long time in the future. The Czar of advertising also charged them to up their game so as to be at par with their contemporaries across the globe.
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