June 4, 2013
Smart advertisers turn rocks to billboards
Some of the rocks
On March 7, 2013, the Federal Capital
Territory Administration inaugurated a new outdoor advertising and
signage system for the territory. This came as a result of the creation
of a new ‘Department of Outdoor Advertising and Signage’.
The aims of the new advert policy are to
standardise all matters concerning outdoor advertising and signage,
improve the aesthetic beauty of the Federal Capital Territory and
sanitise the territory’s environment. The policy is also intended to
improve the internally generated revenue of the FCTA. Indeed, the FCTA’s
IGR annual target from outdoors advertisements, according to the
minister, Senator Bala Muhammed, is N3bn.
But our correspondent reports that there
is a trend in outdoor advertisement in the nation’s capital that, if
not checked, is capable of dashing the minister’s dream. It is the
manner in which residents are dumping the conventional outdoor
advertisements such as billboards for unconventional ones, especially
the use of rocks and hills that are not in short supply in Abuja.
Anywhere you see rocks in Abuja, you are
likely to see inscriptions written on them as a form of advertisement.
The inscriptions include the ones written by artisans like painters,
carpenters, electricians and bricklayers to advertise their trades. Some
service providers such as those who engage in fumigation and home
teaching among others also write on these rocks and hills. They include
their contact details like telephone numbers and addresses for their
prospective customers.
Religious organisations are not taking
the back seat on the matter. Various spiritual write-ups appear on the
rocks and hills, with some inviting residents to attend one spiritual
programme or the other. Inscriptions such as “Repent, the kingdom of God
is at hand,” “Jesus is coming back soon,” “Smile, Jesus loves you,”
“Declare for Jesus today, tomorrow may be too late” and “If your Lord is
crucified, why don’t you try Allah?” are familiar religious messages on
the platforms.
No rock is spared in this trade. Even
the Aso Rock from where the Presidential Villa derives its name is not
spared. On top of the tall rock is a small concrete wall painted in the
country’s national colours: green-white-green.
Investigation by our correspondent shows
that its relatively cheap nature could have been attracting people to
this unique way of advertising. In most cases, one may not need more
than a small quantity of paint to advertise in this regard.
On Sunday, our correspondent caught one
Benjamin in the act in Kugbo, off the Nyaya-Mararaba Expressway. He was
met inscribing details of his fumigation business on a small rock in the
area.
Benjamin said his plan initially was to
get a printer to produce posters that he can paste at strategic
locations in the neighbourhood to advertise the business but he dropped
the idea when it became clear that he could not afford the huge cost
being demanded by the printer.
“My brother, instead of spending N25,000
on printing of posters and then paying boys that will paste them
around, I spent about N500 to buy paint and at the end of the day, all
of you passing through this road will be forced to read my message,” he
said.
He, however, said he was taking a risk
because he was aware that some officials of the Environmental Protection
Agency always crack down on those engaging in the act for defacing the
rocks, which the government see as one of the ways of improving the
city’s architecture.
A traffic warden, Angela, who is always
stationed at the Deeper Life Bus Stop, near Area 11 Junction, Garki
confirmed to our correspondent that most of those who write on rocks in
the area do so either in the midnight or very early in the morning
because she always resumes to meet the inscriptions already made on the
rocks.
Efforts to speak with FCTA authorities on the new trend did not yield any positive result as at press time.
But during an interactive session with
Outdoor advertisement stakeholders recently, the FCT minister had
reiterated that his ministry was working towards avoiding visual assault
and pollution caused by random advertisements and signage on the
streets and neighbourhood of the entire 8,000 square kilometers of the
city.
He expressed the hope that the improved
IGR that would come in through the new system would also go a long way
in assisting the FCTA to provide more infrastructure and social services
to the residents of the city.
Muhammed said his administration would
go into partnership with Afromedia Plc and he solicited for the
cooperation of all as the proceeds would be shared among the FCT
Administration, the FCT Area Councils who are constitutionally empowered
to collect such revenue and the advertising firm in the partnership.
To fast track the process, the minister
set up a committee to be headed by the FCT Minister of State, Chief
Olajumoke Akinjide, with membership including the FCT Association of
Local Government of Nigeria, Development Control Department and FCDA.
The Coordinator of the Abuja
Infrastructure and Investment Centre, Mr. Faruk Sani, was also quoted as
saying that after all grey areas have been sorted out, the FCTA would
sign a Memorandum of Understanding to usher in a new outdoor
advertisement regime in Abuja.
For an administration that is daily
seeking more funds through taxation, including its park-and-pay policy
for motorists, observers are still waiting to see if it will allow
operators of these non conventional mode of outdoor advertisement to
continue business unhindered or will devise a way to put them in check.
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