The LASAA/FG poster war by Wale Sokunbi

 When, about a fortnight ago, a national newspaper reported the arrest of the head of an environmental protection  agency somewhere in the South-Eastern part of the country by men of the Nigeria Police over the defacement of campaign posters of President Goodluck Jonathan, the embarrassing development appeared more like a fluke; a mistake by some overzealous policemen who were anxious to protect the interest of their “principal”, and ensure that his posters and other campaign materials are not tampered with in that part of the country.

However, subsequent developments in other parts of the country have since shown that the arrest of the environmental agency boss was not a one-off affair. Neither was it just a bid to ensure that the president’s campaign materials were not defaced or removed by opposition elements anywhere in the country.

Instead, what is becoming apparent is the attempt by some leading politicians and political parties to keep the outdoor, broadcast and social media campaign materials of candidates of their own parties very much in the public eye, while stifling the access of candidates of other parties to the same platforms.

It is in this regard that one must situate the ongoing war between the Lagos State Signage and Advertisement Agency (LASAA) and the Federal Government on the matter of placement of posters in public places in Lagos. Also, the recent stoppage of the campaign texts of the leading opposition party by the communications regulatory agency, for which the party has said it would go to court.

Considering the desperation in political circles in the build up to the 2015 polls that are just about ten days away, it is understandable that politicians and political parties would want to pull out every trick in the box to gain advantage over their competitors. However, the ongoing altercation between LASAA   and the Federal Government on the pasting of campaign posters, which is now widely known as “the poster war”, calls for the intervention of well meaning Nigerians to ensure that reason prevails. The rift between the two parties over outdoor advertising in Lagos, indeed, leaves a sour taste in the mouth.

First, the facts of the matter. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos alleged that LASAA was instigating the removal of its campaign posters from public places in Lagos State. Its spokesmen threatened to also remove APC posters from public places in an even greater dimension in the state.  The Lagos Police boss followed it up with a threat to clamp down on anyone   found engaging in the illegal pulling down of campaign posters in the state.

The Federal Government later joined the fray when the Federal Ministry of Works communicated to the Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN), its termination of its approvals for outdoor advertising sites for members of the organisation in Lagos, specifically, those on federal roads and their setbacks.

This directive is apparently an attempts b the federal authorities to keep posters of the ruling party in Lagos State, the APC, from important sites such as federal highways, while crying wolf over the removal of the posters of PDP candidates from unauthorised places such as street lamp poles in the tate.

The sanitisation of the Lagos public space by the Lagos Signage Agency is one of the achievements of the present administration in the state. Before the establishment of the agency, Lagos public spaces were a seeming madhouse, with all manner of bills and posters littering bridges, street poles, public and private buildings and, indeed, any surface on which anything could be stuck. This defacement of the city landscape became an eyesore that necessitated the establishment of LASAA. Laws were then made to regulate the pasting of posters in the state. Such laws, I believe, also exist in some other states in the country.

Ordinarily, one would expect the police to be in the vanguard of the enforcement of these environmental laws, and the protection of state officials involved in executing them, instead of the threats to clamp down on them. Instead of threats to arrest state environmental agency officials for carrying out their duties, one would have expected anyone aggrieved by their activities to go to court, instead of the use of the police to issue threats against state officials, or to arrest them.

Meanwhile, the Functions of Local Governments set out in Section (1) (j) (i) of the Fourth Schedule to the Nigerian Constitution includes the regulation of outside advertising. It is, clearly, not a responsibility of the Federal Government. The decision of the Federal authorities to cancel the outdoor sites approved for OAAN members means that the companies that had earlier signed agreements with the outdoor agencies to have their billboards on such sites would have to remove them, thereby terminating their existing contracts with the outdoor agencies, and making the agencies lose millions of naira.

This development, certainly, does not put the Federal Government in good light. This is more so as Section 100 (2) of the 2010 Electoral Act, as amended, states that “state apparatus including the media shall not be employed to the advantage or disadvantage of any political party or candidates at any election.” Certainly, the Federal Ministry of Works, in this instance, is being used to the disadvantage of the Lagos authorities.

The Outdoor Advertising Agency has cried out over a loss of N350 million it has suffered over the decision of the PDP to place adverts illegally on street poles that had previously been paid for by some communication   companies in Lagos.

This, it would seem, is the basis of the decision by LASAA and the Lagos State Government to take the PDP and the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria, which is behind the placing of the president’s posters in unauthorized places in violation of the Lagos State Outdoor Advertising law, to court.

The LASAA Managing Director, Mr. George Noah, has strongly decried what he described as the impunity of those pasting posters in the state to the detriment of those involved in the erection, operation and maintenance of billboards in the state, with two major advertisers cancelling multi-million naira contracts signed with outdoor agencies registered by LASAA to operate in the state. Noah argued that the action of PDP is capable of destroying outdoor agencies in the state.

All in all, the war over campaign posters in the country is distasteful. It is in bad taste and is yet another instance of the desperation of our politicians. No matter what, all parties should be able to abide by the rules on pasting of posters and other electoral materials. Since local governments are constitutionally empowered to regulate advertising, this should be allowed to be the case, while local, federal and state governments should be able to negotiate on the placing of posters without this needless rancour.

Campaigns should be free and fair, while access to adverting sites in all media should be within the bounds of the law. There should be no room for any arm of the government to lord it over others.

Under the present circumstance, the courts are the best place to resolve this dispute and it is good that the Lagos State Government has headed that way . Let the judiciary, whenever it fully comes back on stream, come to the rescue of the state and local governments on the resolution of this matter.

Sokunbi writes CURRENTS as a column in the Sun

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