The Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN) continued its long and scathing criticisms of the ongoing industry reforms embarked upon by the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) last week, describing the Advertising Industry Standards of Practice (AISOP) as a document seeking to ‘unconstitutionally regulate contractual relations between private entities’.
The association, in a statement, tagged: ‘Travesty of ARCON Regulation’, stated that the launch of the document (AISOP), generally acclaimed by other critical stakeholders as the best thing to have happened to the industry in recent times, was the beginning of ‘a journey of the most turbulent and divisive times in the Nigerian Marketing Communications Industry’.
According to the association, instead of providing minimum standard in terms of commercial activities of agencies, advertisers, media houses, advertising services providers and stakeholders, AISOP actually ‘sought to unconstitutionally regulate contractual relations between private entities’.
It claimed that besides the AISOP document not accommodating ‘a single contribution presented by the association’, the new ARCON Law also has several provisions that are clearly unconstitutional, and which, it argued, is causing great concern for the industry.
“A major item that has stood out for stakeholders is that ARCON is now allowed to set up a tribunal that would hold ‘trials’ for any persons or organization that contravened the provisions of the ARCON Law.
“This is an extremely concerning development, because Nigeria as a democratic entity has clear separation of powers between the different arms of government.
“A regulatory body for advertising cannot set up a tribunal with powers to hear, try, deliver judgment and sentence, as such is clearly a violation of the constitution of the nation.
“ARCON cannot constitutionally act as both the prosecutor and the judge in relation to matters which they have, by themselves, labelled as advertising offences.
“The tribunal constituted by ARCON is merely an appendage of ARCON and is propagating the agenda of ARCON. In January 2024, ARCON issued notices to law-abiding organizations in Nigeria on various unclear charges of infractions, with fines of up to N1 million per infraction.
“ARCON has now issued notices to the CEOs of these organizations to face the ARCON ‘Tribunal’ on various claims of infractions. The Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN) vehemently opposes the harassment of her members (which are corporate entities that utilize advertising and marketing to promote their goods and services). These invitations to CEOs of reputable Nigerian brands, to stand ‘trial’ is a huge embarrassment and humiliation of law-abiding corporate entities, and has caused a total loss of trust for ARCON as an institution,” the Association stated.
Efforts by Brands& Marketing to seek ARCON’s positions on some of these latest claims failed, since the apex regulatory body believes that such a response would be contemptuous of the nation’s judiciary, a source who volunteered information on the issue, however, believes the leadership of ADVAN is only crying wolves where there is none.
The source stated that the association had not seen anything good in the reforms started by ARCON few years ago, especially AISOP, because its members are being asked to do the right thing.
“They are used to having things their way, including contractual agreements with agencies and even the media. One of the areas the apex regulatory agency seems to have drawn their ire is by telling them, through AISOP, that they cannot continue to owe agencies and the media for ever, while they do a pre-payment agreement when foreign agencies and media are involved,” the source stated.
He also described ADVAN’s position on AISOP as inconsistent.
“When they started all these, the initial argument was that they were never consulted before coming up with the document. Now their new position is that none of their inputs were accommodated in the document. So talking of concerns, does such contradiction not bother you, too?, the source asked rhetorically.
On the issue of Advertising Tribunal, the source noted that what the leadership of the association had succeeded in doing was to expose ‘its ignorance’.
“How on earth could anybody refer to a properly-constituted tribunal, in tune with the Act setting up ARCON, as an ‘ARCON Tribunal’? Kindly do your findings as a journalist. ARCON has nothing to do with the tribunal. Besides, this is not the first time such tribunal would be constituted. There is competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal.”
How come players in that sector are not accusing the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), of being its parent body? The fact that the country has its different courts does not mean they are annexes of the federal government. The Advertising Tribunal was set up to expedite actions on issues that have to with advertisement and marketing communications.
“It would interest you to note that, contrary to the position of the leadership of the association here, most of the CEOs being referred to as being ‘harassed’, had appeared before the Tribunal, and cleared themselves. The few left are those that refused to come, despite the several invitations from the Tribunal. What they’ve forgotten is that such refusal simply indicates their contempt for the federal government of Nigeria, not ARCON,” he added.
