Registered APCON members can practice in Abuja without APAAC membership, says Aliyu
With over 300 registered practitioners as members, Advertising Practitioners Association Abuja Chapter (APAAC) commands a considerable sectoral presence in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
Advertising practice should be pan Nigeria as long as a practitioner is qualified, and as a practicing professional, registered with Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), the apex body.
There has been, however, a growing concern among practitioners, particularly those in Lagos, that APAAC as a body, has, in recent times, put some measures in place which make it difficult for advertising practitioners who live in other parts of Nigeria to smoothly carry out a legitimate project without necessarily being members of APAAC. The said practitioners alleged that prospective clients whose businesses were based in Abuja hardly gave briefs to marketing communications experts who live outside the FCT for fear that such project, if won by any agency other than APAAC member, may suffer a setback in the area of implementation.
Speaking exclusively to MARKETING EDGE on the sideline of the National Advertising Conference, the largest gathering of advertising practitioners in Nigeria, held recently in Abuja, Ibrahim Aliyu, Chairman of APAAC, said advertising practitioners who were registered with APCON could practice in Abuja without necessarily being members of APAAC.
“A good number of our members are APCON registered practitioners so you don’t need to register again with APAAC. We have come together for unity, to support the profession and to enhance its welfare, which includes investing, promoting and projecting APCON code of practice and conduct. That’s why we came together.
“Ours is just to see how we can enhance the creativity and innovation aspect of advertising. In fact, we encourage all practitioners in Nigeria to collaborate. I can get a brief here in Abuja, but for me to make it creative I might need to tell somebody in Port Harcourt or Lagos to share ideas. With the help of digital we can do a lot,” he said.
The APAAC boss, meanwhile, recommended that APCON registered members could also register with APAAC for seamless collaboration to enhance creativity, innovation and excellence in the industry.
“Before now, we were just like sheep without shepherd. We would therefore encourage members who are registered under APCON to also register with APAAC so that we can be under one umbrella and do what we are doing right now in Abuja. What is happening in Abuja is also being duplicated in Port Harcourt, Minna, Kano and Jos. So, members are saying that just like Lagos, we also have to come together as professionals. It’s a matter of choice.
“In the past, we could not have a sectoral body as we do in Lagos because our members included those from the creative, marketing and media agencies; those from online and social media, those from the print and broadcast media and those from outdoor advertising and so on; but there was no sectoral body here. So, we decided to come together, and by the way, that was how advertising started in Nigeria before it began to spread and fraternise into different segments of the profession,” Aliyu explained.
On why APAAC with its vibrant presence, and as a sectoral body in Abuja could not help in facilitating the constitution of APCON Council for such a long time, Aliyu cited apathy as reason on the part of APAAC members who were not APCON registered, hoping that the recent national advertising confab would positively turn things around for the industry.
“We should have gotten the Council a long time ago. In Abuja alone, we are over 300 registered practitioners but those who work with us as members of APCON are less than 100, the remaining 200 didn’t find it attractive because we have not given ourselves hope.
“But with this historic event, we will begin to have a voice; every person in the society would begin to feel advertising because we would regulate ourselves and conduct ourselves responsibly. More people are going to realise and recognise that advertising is a noble profession and would likely want to come in. By the time they are coming in it would be properly regulated and controlled,” Aliyu said.
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