Akinwunmi: APCON Can’t Stop Law-abiding Individuals from Practice
The immediate past Chairman, Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), Mr. ‘Lolu Akinwunmi, in this interview with journalists, spoke about the achievements of the regulatory body during his tenure, the economy, politics and governance as well
How will you describe your tenure as the fifth Chairman of APCON which recently came to an end?
First, when I was appointed by President Goodluck Jonathan in 2010 for single three year tenure, I had been advised by one or two very senior practitioners that I should simply concentrate on the traditional role of vetting adverts, and endeavour to avoid potentially troublesome issues like the constant disagreements between the two major breweries among others. I however disagreed because I felt the economy and the industry were at a stage where we needed to strongly intervene and strengthen the structures of APCON, so that the federal regulator would be further empowered to play its role more effectively, and do more than just vetting and setting syllabuses for higher institutions. This led us to embark on the review of the fourth code, which culminated in the fifth Code. The work on the Code demanded a lot of tact, diplomacy, political adroitness and the need to manage many interests.
Was it smooth sailing?
Far from it. From when we started, foreign interests that did not want it attacked us ferociously. They imagined that if we were able to put the reform in place, it would stop them from taking over the Nigerian advertising business. At some point, I was reported to the National Assembly that I was using my position in APCON to stop certain foreign interests from operating in Nigeria. I had to appear at the Senate to clear this. Then they reported me to the then Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, who investigated the allegation and found it to be untrue. Then they went to the Nigerian Investment Promotions Commission with the untruth that I was stopping foreign investors from coming into Nigeria. We showed the Commission proof that this was also not true. Then they went to the Corporate Affairs Commission with the same lie and we dispelled it. Finally they reached the Villa and the matter was directed to the Hon Minister again. Of course they used the media massively against APCON and I, sadly using Nigerian professionals in the odious campaign. They even recruited their friends in one of the telecoms and one of the breweries, all in an attempt to derail the reform. It was an intense battle. At some point, it took the Hon Minister of Information hosting an all-parties meeting in Abuja, where they were warned to desist from the campaign of calumny against APCON and I.
What was the industry’s response? Did you get your colleagues’ support?
Thankfully so. I received uncommon support from the AAAN, ADVAN, OAAN, MIPAN and the other sectorial groups. It was overwhelming because they all knew that what was at stake was the soul and the future of the Nigerian advertising profession. But for their support, concluding the assignment would have been very challenging indeed.
Many people, including yourself, have advocated that government should not allow foreigners to own majority interests in the communication industry for security reasons and because many take jobs that qualified Nigerians can do. Can you say more on this?
I remain convinced about this, and it is not because I am discouraging foreign investment in this area. Even though Nigeria has signed into international trade protocols, the government’s commitment is first to the interests of its people. Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people and not the government of the people, by the people for foreigners. Secondly, public communication is very sensitive especially in a growing economy and polity like ours. Truth is whoever controls the organs of public communication will control and influence what the people see, read, hear and are exposed to. There is no foreigner who can be more patriotic than Nigerians; they come here to make money, period. There are grave security and socio cultural implications. So how can non-Nigerians, say Indians, South Africans, Dutch, Americans, Arabs etc., have the control of advertising agencies, print, and radio or TV stations? Whose interests will they propagate? I said it once and I am saying it again that the government and the national assembly must as a matter of urgency put laws in place to ensure foreigners cannot own majority interests in these areas by making it part of the First Schedule of the Constitution. And at any rate, all countries protect their people. America protects its farmers. Europe protects its aerospace industry. China does the same. Ditto India and Brazil. And in addition, why should we open our gates to foreigners to come do jobs that we have enough Nigerian professionals to do? Whose interests does the government want to protect?
Would you advocate the setting up of a Fair Trade Council in Nigeria to especially ensure local content protection in advertising and communication?
This issue came up during my last visit to the National Assembly. We should urgently do so. Foreign investments are supposed to bring in capital to expand the market, provide employment, expertise and money. How can a foreign agency do this when the accounts and businesses are already here? What values are they bringing in that they want to take the jobs of our people? Government should also insist on the number of foreigners that can work in each industry and the tenure. They must transfer skills to Nigerians. Chinese, Indian, Brazilian, French, American, British agencies are full of their nationals. Why must the Nigerian case be different? A so-called foreign agency set up here and appointed a Nigerian as the CEO, then a foreigner as the Managing Consultant. The Nigerian was the public face but the foreigner was the real power. Now this is a very senior Nigerian who has even held very senior industry positions. Will this happen in any of the countries I mentioned?
Along with the case of the difficult foreign agency you mentioned, will you tell us any other challenge you managed?
Yes. Traditionally, the Nigerian Breweries and Guinness have always been very fierce competitors, even though at some point in their history in Nigeria, they were related through their overseas and local owners. I should know because in my days in Lintas in the 80s, I worked as an account manager on Star, Maltina, FES (Guinness Stout) and Harp. Over time, their friendly disposition towards each other became more competitive. Apart from the battles in the market, APCON also became a veritable theatre of war.
How?
Over many years, and especially with the introduction of the regime of supervised exposure of alcoholic ads in the media, each brewery was quick to report the other to APCON if it saw or perceived any infraction by its competitor. Indeed when I was appointed Chairman, one of my predecessors in office quietly counseled me to avoid this potential pitfall, and be very careful in managing it. The conflict had gone on for many years, but I was determined to resolve it during my tenure; so I chose not to take the advice. At some point, one of the Breweries’ CEO wrote a very strong memo to APCON strongly hinting at complicity against us. I immediately saw a very serious situation, if it was not well and quickly managed. So, rather than have the APCON secretariat follow the usual procedure to attend to the matter, I took it up, did a reply to the CEO, assuring him, we would promptly look into the matter. I immediately set up an investigative committee to do this, instead of using the APCON committee, and appointed a fellow and council member as the chairman. If I waited for the APCON process, there might have been delays because of the process, and the matter required that we acted with dispatch and wisdom. For good measure I put the Hon Minister of Information in copy. I deliberately did this so he would have fore knowledge in case anyone wanted to go to him for malicious reasons. The committee invited the two breweries and their lawyers, spoke with the APCON ASP etc., and at the end of the day, it turned out the allegation was not only untrue, the brewery that made the complaint repudiated it. For me though, the very sad part was that the accusing brewery went to town in the media, running a vicious campaign against APCON, the ASP and its chairman. One got the distinct impression that the main reason was to make enough noise so that government would move against some key people in APCON. At the end of the day, we sent our report to the Information Minister and he studied it. He later sent a letter commending us on how the matter was handled, and advised that all the materials from our investigation be carefully preserved as historical documents.
Can you tell us some of your achievements?
Quite a few. I will mention some of the key ones: The Council successfully implemented the fifth Code Review following an industry-wide consultation through the APCON Committee on Advertising Practice Reforms (ACAPR) from 2010. The implementation commenced from January 2013. Unfortunately the Chairman of the Committee, a distinguished fellow and practitioner, Willy Nnorom passed away in 2014. We will continue to miss him.
One of the mandates of the Council is to regulate and approve the various syllabuses and standards for the practice within higher institutions, which award diplomas and degrees. During the period, we accredited several institutions of higher learning