Part II: Constitutional Issues Bedeviling the ARCON Act 2022

Building on my previous article, this sequel examines three additional constitutional conflicts within the ARCON Act, highlighting the extent of its legal overreach.

ARCON Act Vs Fourth Schedule of the 1999 Constitution

Part III of the ARCON Act starting from section 8 to section 9 empowers the council to regulate and control advertising, advertisements and marketing communications in all its aspects and ramifications directed at or exposed to the Nigerian market.[2]

However, it is a trite principle of Law that the federal government can only legislate on matters contained in the Exclusive and Concurrent lists only. In those two lists, nowhere was advertising ever mentioned, save in Item 1(K)(I) of the Fourth Schedule which delists the functions of the Local Government.

To understand what this entails, Niki Tobi JSC(as he then was) in the case of A.G Abia V AGF[3] stated that

“Residual matters (or matters in the residual list) are those that are neither in the

exclusive or concurrent legislative list; that is, what remains or is not covered by the

exclusive and concurrent legislative lists. Thus, by residual legislative power it is meant what is left after the matters in the exclusive and concurrent legislative lists and those matters which the Constitution expressly empowers the Federation and the States to

legislate upon have been subtracted from the totality of the inherent and unlimited powers of a sovereign state.”

In other words, any matter which is not contained in both lists is not within the legislative powers of the federal government. And in this case, advertising wasn’t mentioned in any of the lists, however Outdoor advertising is mentioned under the functions of the local government.

But this is not to say the constitutionality of the entire ARCON Act is in doubt because it can be rightly argued—as I hinted at in my first article— that a joint read of Item 49, 66 and 68 of the

exclusive lists confers the federal government with legislative powers over Advertising. The question here however is of the extent of that legislative power.

The provisions of Item 1(K)(I) of the functions of the local government council explicitly

bestows the power to control and regulate Outdoor advertising to the local government council, not the federal government as against the blanket provision of Sections 8 of the ARCON Act.

In the locus classicus case of Attorney-General of Ogun State v Aberuagba.[4] the supreme court held that the matters contained in the residual list are matters which are out of the purview of the legislative power of the federal government, and are strictly within the residual legislative power of the state and local government.

Some may argue that advertising falls under ‘trade and commerce’ (Item 62 of the Exclusive List). But advertising regulation is evidently distinct from trade regulation. The Constitution explicitly assigns ‘outdoor advertising’ to local governments, making it clear that advertising is intended to be a residual matter.”