Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential candidate in the recently concluded 2023 elections, has criticised President Bola Tinubu for tearing down billboards in key areas of the Federal Capital Territory that attracted public attention to the judiciary as Nigerians awaited the decision of the Presidential Election Petition Court.
Due to its endorsement of billboards accused of seeking to sway the decision of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal with the slogan “All Eyes on the Judiciary,” the Federal Government had abolished the Secretariat of the Advertising Standard Panel.
The Nigerian Advertising Regulatory Council had earlier announced the Tuesday dissolution of the panel in a statement.
Ads must abide by the federation’s current statutes and the code of conduct for advertising professionals, according to the ASP, a statutory panel inside the council.
The statement outlined the reasons the advertisement should not have been permitted, claiming that the concepts exposed had not been approved by the Advertising Standards Panel. As a result, the council had ordered that all of the exposed materials be removed right away and that those who violated them be punished.
“The Advertising Standards Panel of the Council also erred in approving one of the concepts, since the commercial failed to meet requirements on the following grounds,” the statement added.
“A Presidential Election Petition Tribunal case pertains to the issue that serves as the campaign’s main focus in the advertisement. It is therefore jus pendis.
According to the Nigerian legal system, a case that is jus pendis and pending judicial declaration cannot be the topic of a public speech, debate, discussion, or advertisement. The commercial is divisive and has the potential to stir up public turmoil and disrupt public peace.
The advertisement is viewed as blackmail against the Nigerian judicial system, the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, and in particular the honourable Justices of the tribunal who are supposed to carry out their judicial duties impartially and without fear or favour regarding a case that is currently jus pendis.
The message went on to say that the council had, pending an investigation into the situation, temporarily suspended its director and deputy director who were in charge of regulations.
The panel’s inability to reject an advertisement that did not adhere to the commission’s vetting requirements, according to Olalekan Fadolapo, Director-General of the ARCON, made it essential to fire the panel.
“Before the material goes to the panel, they are the first to assess the material, to ensure its alignment with vetting criteria and processes,” he continued. They failed to recognise that as their own fault. Their dismissal was due to this.
However, in response, Mr. Phrank Shaibu, Atiku’s Special Assistant on Public Communications, said that the removal of the billboards that said “All eyes on the judiciary” was a blatant example of “President Bola Tinubu’s authoritarianism and assault on the freedom of speech.”
In a statement, Shaibu stated that “the fundamental tenet of social justice is about the people. The billboard advertising only followed the accepted standard in civilised environments. It was the agents trying to pique curiosity that gave that innocent advertisement hidden connotations.
Otherwise, it is a fundamental rule that justice must be the focus of attention. Justice must be delivered, and when it is, it must be perceived to have been just, therefore eyes must always be on the wheel of justice! Whatever the situation, Tinubu and the APC are in front of the same court. It’s interesting how distressing they find this specific message to be. In any case, they won’t be able to stop all eyes from being on the courts at this historic time even if they take down the billboards.
By doing that, Tinubu “has, yet again, placed his authoritarian propensity on public display,” according to Atiku.
This is a blatant instance of abuse of power, which supports the claim that legal proceedings should be finished prior to the inauguration in order to prevent those who benefited from rigged elections from taking advantage of the system.
