Thus, the past decade had seen an increasing number of industry leaders and Advertising related scholars make incessant calls for the establishment of such a professional body, empowered by appropriate statutory instruments.
However, these individuals and collective efforts did not have much effect until the coming to power of the Babangida administration which coincided with a phase in the nation's development process where a far-reaching restructuring of the national economy had become the only viable option. With the spirited pursuit of this restructuring exercise, emerged a new-found respect for the crucial role of Mass Communication as a powerful tool for the mobilization of the populace for meaningful national development.
Aside from this role, Mass Communication was also increasingly identified as an indispensable vehicle for the inter-change of vital information among the various sub-systems of the national economy.
Thus, this new found government enthusiasm made the authorities amenable to an equally enthusiastic effort on the part of the AAPN (AAAN) leadership to elevate advertising to a more professional status, duly accorded statutory recognition.
With the adoption, in January 1988, by the National Council of Ministers, of a broad National Mass Communication Policy, it was only a matter of time before the Advertising Practitioners Decree was born.
Various meetings were convened for frank, intense discourses on the subject. These provided the opportunity for the industry leadership and state technocrats to engage in healthy cross fertilization of ideas.
Thus, when the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) was established, it was as much a logical outcome of industry initiative, as it was a federal legislative act. |
