AGAINST the backdrop of the flurry of unhealthy and mudslinging political communication that has become prevalent in the Nigerian public space, the President of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN), Mr Kelechi Nwosu, has implored politicians and their media advisers to show restraint and consideration for national unity.
In a statement released by Nwosu on behalf of AAAN, he noted that the trend of unhealthy smear campaigns by the political parties and shadow interest groups across the various media channels were unacceptable.
He lamented what he called the obvious ‘‘disregard of the advertising code and ethics of APCON (Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria).”
Nwosu added: “Most of these political advertisements have been exposed without going through the vetting procedures and consequent approvals from the Advertising Standards Panel (ASP) of APCON. Our concerns are that the professional values of the advertising practice and indeed public sensibilities, as well as the very stability of the polity have been severely undermined by the continued character assassinations, wanton abuses, unrestrained attacks, threats and counter threats that have become the bane of the political communication building up to the elections.”
Nwosu maintained that as a non-partisan but patriotic association that is committed to the promotion and consolidation of democratic ideals, the AAAN implores the various stakeholders to temper their campaign messages and public utterances with decorum.
“We would all become losers, if the continued improper politicking, unbridled bloodlust for power overheats the system and tilts the polity into chaos and anarchy. Then there would be no political prize to be won; only reversals and crises that would seek to prize us apart as a nation and plunge our generation, and possibly those to come, into a dark age. These are trying times for our dear nation which demand a high level of maturity, tact and discipline from everyone,” he warned.
