Recently, there was a court ruling that quashed the power of the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission. The court ruled that the commission, not being a court, did not have the right to impose fines on broadcast stations. Are industry stakeholders thinking of taking to court if dialogue fails?
With the ARCON pronouncement, we are going to court for interpretation. We want to know if they can do this, because the Nigerian constitution we know is telling us so many things. For example, setting up a panel and giving us a retired judge as head, cannot work because the person cannot do pronouncement again. The constitution allows me to do legal contract. For ARCON to say it wants to be involved and do my contract for me doesn’t make a sense. Let me tell you why this is happening.
In those days, when you go to parties, you will hear Michael Jackson and all those foreign music, but now when you go to parties you don’t hear that anymore. So, as a brand, you can’t go and bring a foreign model, you are just going to kill your brand. This is what we are saying, the research doesn’t support what they are saying. If people are not using foreign models, it is not because they are saving any money. Let them show us the research that they have. Let’s look at it this way.
There have also been claims by some stakeholders in the advertising industry that ARCON did not embark on widespread stakeholders’ consultation before drafting the new law. Is this true? Let me tell you why it has to be done like that. We are all interwoven. Let me tell you, a certain sectoral body pulled out all their members from APCON Council when a decision did not favour them. That will tell you that this matter is not a joke. It is only in our industry that only one regulator regulates the business and the practitioners. APCON had power over the practitioners.