Inductees displaying their certificates and plaques at the occasion.
Story by Dili Utomi.
The Advertising Regulatory Council Of Nigeria (ARCON) a body saddled by law to regulate and control the practice of advertising in Nigeria as empowered by the Advertising Practitioners Registration Act in 1998 and now replaced with the ARCON Act of 2022 on Friday organised an induction into the Fellowship cadre.
The event which took place at the main hall of the Sheraton hotel featured a lot of industry heavyweights such as Josef Bel Molokwu, Bello Kankarfi, Bunmi Oke, Jenkins Alomona who represented Steve Babaeko of the AAAN, Emeka Okeke, Charles Chijide, Sola Akinsiku (OAAN president), ID Enang, Modupe Tokunbo of the NIPR and Chief Emmanuel Ajufo who was the chairman of the fellowship selection committee.
from the left are Ibiam, Adesanya, Anasiudu, Akugha
The Fellowship of the Advertising profession according to the chairman of the fellowship selection committee “is the highest status of membership of the profession. It is conferred on practitioners who have been registered as (full) members of the profession and have, in addition, met other criteria as well as impacted significantly the development of the profession. The criteria include good academic qualification, consistent engagement in the practice of marketing communications for a minimum of fifteen years, involvement in the management of outstanding marketing communications campaigns, service to the profession at the level of the ARCON governing Council or Industry Sectoral Associations, intellectual or professional expressions, mentorship or endowments, among others”.
There are three different stages one should pass through before reaching the fellowship cadre and these are the Student Membership, Associate Membership and Full Membership and there are also specified academic and professional qualifications needed for one to move through these cadres.
The chairman in his speech detailed that 45 members applied for the Fellowship cadre, 7 were disqualified and 38 were eventually granted their wishes. He also noted that “To date, there has been one hundred and sixty-two number of practitioners who have been conferred with the fellowship. A number of these distinguished Fellows are already in retirement while a few has passed on to eternal glory. At this ceremony today thirty seven practitioners are being conferred and added to the number of active Fellows Like the ones before them, they are expected to conduct themselves and their marketing communications practice with appropriate dignity and distinction as well as serve as pillars of support and leading lights for the profession”.
A lot of the personalities present made remarks about the occassion, Jenkins Alumona says that he felt “honoured to be at the occasion” considering the calibre of persons there. Sola Akinsiku, the OAAN president says that “this is a call to duty to all the individuals being confered with the Fellowship”, he noted that they are all persons of high integrity. Modupe Tokunbo of the NIPR quipped “I hope that like the SANs, you will earn more money now”. ID Enang also added that the industry seems to be in dire straits right now and hopes that these fine people will help to rescue it. The man usually called the doyen of advertising in Nigeria Josef Bel Molokwu in his remark says that “the advertising profession has fairly evolved a lot as tonight, PhD holders as well as people with decades of experiences are being made fellows of the profession”.
Those being inducted into the Fellowship cadre include the Director-General of ARCON, Dr. Olalekan Fadolapo, Chidindu “Chiddy” Charity Ibiam, the OAAN General Manager, Dembos Abdulhamid, Adeyemi Phil Adesanya, Evelyn Nwosu, Onifade Adisa, Joseph Nwanne Anasiudu, Dr. Sule Ya’u Sule, Akharume Dave, Aniekan Umannah, Margaret Nimyel, Solomon Akugha and Oba Adeoriyomi Oyebo amongst the 37 inducteews.
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