APCON has been immersed in a crisis of leadership since September
2013 when Mr. Lolu Akinwunmi’s two years of term as Chairman of APCON
officially expired.
Usually towards the end of a tunure, APCON forwards four names of qualified APCON fellows to the presidency via the Minister of Information as the supervising minister for the selection of the next APCON chairman. This was done but none of the forwarded names was selected or announced.
“The names were jettisoned for no just reason and in its place Prince Ngozi Emioma was rumoured to have been appointed Chairman of the professional body” said a source.
The grouse of the entire industry was that apart from the fact the Prince Enioma is not known in the industry he wants to govern as the chief regulator, he also did not satisfy the legal and industry prerequisite of being a fellow of council according to the law establishing APCON.
Despite several protests letters and representations to government, Prince Enioma continued to parade himself as APCON chairman, issuing letter of threats to some APCON senior staff and some companies and their heads of marketing. He also set up a parallel office in Lagos and several others illegalities were said to have been committed by the self-styled APCON Chairman. According to our sources, “Prince Enioma defiled the warnings and because he had the backing of some the very powerful personalities in government”.
The appointment of Mr. Ufot who was one of the three industry key figure recently honoured with the title of Member of the order of Niger (MON) by the President Goodluck Jonathan, brings to an end the crisis that had engulfed the council.
It is reliably gathered that the council have not had a proper sitting since Mr. Akinwunmi’s tenure lapsed. He however, tactically stayed around to repel the Enioma who was seen as an intruder. It was gathered that during the interregnum, Mr. Akinwunmi refrained from conducting the council’s official business”. Mr. Udeme’s appointment will therefore effectively bring the hiatus to an end.
Mr. Udeme Ufot, MON, a fellow of over a decade standing in the industry and set up SO&U about 15 years ago along with Julia Oku and Gbemi Sagay. He had previously worked with leading agency, Insight Communications where he resigned in 1990. He served as the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAPN) now AAAN at the highest level as President among several other positions. He was also honoured with the Fate Model Entrepreneur Award 2012.(Brand Crunch)
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