EUROPEAN UNION ELECTION OBSERVATION MISSION NIGERIA 2019 VISITS APCON HOUSE

The representatives of the European Union Election Observation Mission Nigeria 2019 visited APCON House recently in Abuja, the  team was headed by Inta LASE, media Analyst. The team analyses political, electoral, legal regulatory and other issues related to the electoral process.

The members of the team, who are currently in Nigeria,  has the mandate  to assess election based on International standards. They  were received by the Ag. Registrar of the Advertising Practitioner’s Council of Nigeria, APCON, Mrs.Ijedi Iyoha, rpa.

Responding to the questions on compliance/ regulatory issues on  Campaign activities of the political parties, Mrs. Iyoha informed the team that APCON   recorded about  65% compliance from the political parties who submitted their advertising campaigns  for vetting and approval which is an improvement from the 2015 general election. However, the support groups for the political parties have not complied with the extant laws. On violations, APCON has captured and recorded several  violations.

On the issues of sensitization of our mandate, she continued that APCON had several Public fora and collaborations with the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) on political communication, press mentions/ releases, radio  and television appearances, meetings with political parties at INEC office, to educate the political parties, party agents, media practitioners, support groups etc, on the need for the advertising campaigns to be issue based and free from hate speech.

The European Union Election Observation Mission is here in Nigeria, through the invitation of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) to observe  the general Election, and had been doing this since 1999.

Concerning the challenges faced by APCON in discharging its regulatory  mandate, Mrs Iyoha mentioned :

1.     The resentment of the code by some political parties

2.     The propagation of hate speech through the social media

3.     Non compliance by the media organisations

4.     Inadequate funding

5.     Inability of APCON  to cover the country effectively. 

We Are Neutral In Our Enforcement – APCON Registrar

Mrs. Ijedi Iyoha. rpa

The Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria, APCON has reacted to an allegation that its clamp down on some campaign billboards and posters of some political parties were targeted at opposition parties to favour the ruling party.

Reacting to a recent report aired on the African Independent Television (AIT) network, the Acting Registrar of the Council, Mrs Ijedi Iyoha, vehemently denied the insinuation of partisanship in the conduct of its enforcements.

She stated that all the billboards and posters blanked out did not meet the pre-exposure vetting requirements of the Council, and not because they belonged to the opposition parties. She stressed that the boards on which enforcements were carried out cut across parties.

For the avoidance of doubt, she added that APCON requires political parties and their candidates to forward their advertisements for pre-exposure vetting. Mrs Iyoha emphasised that political advertisements were being vetted to promote sanity and peace of the democratic process.

She added further that ahead of the campaigns, the Council had held series of stakeholder enlightenment on political advertising and sent out notices to parties believing that they would comply with the law.

Re: APCON has taken up the Responsibility of LASAA

As we inch close to the 2019 general election, our attention has been drawn to the controversies on new media platform as regards our operations.

Individuals are expressing opinions about the state of enforcement on political advertisements, some state that APCON, the regulatory body of advertising are not balanced in their enforcement exercises.

They accuse APCON of being partisan and sparing advertisements belonging to the APC (the ruling party) while at the same time blanking out those of the opposition.

This is not true, as it is misleading to the general public. APCON vets all advertisements before their exposure in the media.

As a public institution, APCON has no sectional interest. That is why it marks for removal, any advertisement that has no pre-exposure approval irrespective of the party involved.

The exercise so far has cut across parties (those in power and the opposition) you may find attached some of the advertisements.