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| Some of the rocks | credits: File copy |
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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