Registrar/Chief Executive of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), Dr Olalekan Fadolapo has expressed fresh optimism that the Federal government will soon reconstitute APCON’s governing council and thereby appoint a Chairman to stir its affairs.
Fadolapo, who spoke recently in a media interview noted that absence of a governing council for the advertising industry regulatory body was not enough a reason to justify failure of the Council’s operations. He however expressed the optimism that reconstituting the governing council of APCON and appointing a chairman to man its affairs remained a top priority for the federal government.
The Registrar reasoned further that APCON’s establishing laws places it under a supervising ministry of government and to that extent, decisions made by the council were subject to ratification by the supervising minister.
He noted that in the absence of a council, as it is the case presently, it was expedient on the council’s management to forward necessary proposals to the supervising minister who will act on behalf of the council pointing out that, there is no vacuum in the governance process.
He added that, for government to have magnanimously addressed the challenge of appointing a leadership for the council’s management, appointing a Chairman to stir its affairs is a matter of top priority for the government.“First, you know, it’s a step at a time. Before now, we didn’t have a registrar and also, we didn’t have a council.
The government had magnanimously appointed a registrar for APCON. We believe that the next step would be to appoint a chairman. The second is that there is no vacuum in government, and the fact that we did not have a council, is not an excuse for us not to succeed” If you check the same APCON law, we have a supervising minister, and the same law states that even when the council makes a decision, they still need to get back to the supervising minister and in the absence of a council, the minister shall act.
So, it is a function of us putting our proposal together and presenting to the minister. Instead of the council doing this, the management will present our proposal to the minister and get necessary approval. That is what is in the law” he said.
He added it a was top priority for the government to appoint a chairman, insisting that the absence of a governing council was not enough to justify failure of APCON operations.
He further disclosed that the new administration under his leadership will work towards achieving standard operating framework that would henceforth guide business relationships amongst stakeholders in the advertising industry.
