By Agwu Sunday B. C.–Owerri
Nigeria printers will eternally remain grateful to persons and agencies that contributed to the establishment of Act No 24, 2007, enacted by the National Assembly, Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Act gave birth to Chartered Institute of Professional Printers of Nigeria, thus recognizing printing as one of the professional disciplines in Nigeria. The joy of the printing community was unlimited at the career prospect of the charter statues, but 12 years after, we have compelling reasons to ask where are the facts or evidences of our professional statues and what have we gained?
At this point one would rightly ask, what is a profession? Understanding of this key word will help make our discussion delightful. A profession according to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary is “A type of job that needs special training or skill, especially one that needs a high level of education.” “Profession is occupation, practice or vocation requiring mastery of a complex set of knowledge and skills through formal education and or practical experience. Every organized profession (accounting, law, medicine, etc) is governed by its respective professional body.” (Online business dictionary)
Prof. Jerry Okogbuo in an interview said that a profession must have defining characteristics i.e. what you will see before you say that this is a profession. They include among other things:
- You have to learn it.
- There must be a community of practitioners, a group that are known for doing the job.
- There is ethics of the profession. The ethics stipulates the do’s and don’ts of that community. It includes the guidelines on admission; usually admission is not open to everybody.
Okogbuo’s view is in agreement with that suggested by Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. It says that major milestones which may mark an occupation being identified as a profession include:
- An occupation becomes a full time occupation.
- The establishment of a training school.
- The establishment of a local association.
- The establishment of a university school.
- The establishment of a national association of professional ethics.
- The establishment of state licensing laws.
From the foregoing, the following question draws our attention: – Does the operation and regulation of printing business in Nigeria a reflection of the above defining features of a profession? Let us scan through some of them and see how we have achieved their likeness or otherwise in the printing occupation in Nigeria.
Printing Association: There are many printing associations in Nigeria, notably: Association of Professional Printers of Nigeria (ASSPPON); Society of Printing Practitioners of Nigeria (SPPN); Association of Nigerian Printers (ANP); Kaduna Master Printers Association of Nigeria; National Union of Printing, Publishing and Paper Product Workers (NUPPPPROW); among others. The duplication of Printing Associations which serve the same or similar functions is opposed to the operation of other Nigerian professional associations like Nigeria Bar Association; Nigeria Medical Association (NMA); Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ); etc. These professions have one national association with branches in all the states and local governments, ours signpost division, poor organization and lack of strong voice. Some of the associations lack national spread; they only exist in some states and cities. Worst still, the national structure of some of them are weak and mere window display of a national body of an association.
Training School: Beside the absence of a national association, printers are yet to have a training school and there is no concrete plan to have it in the near future. If there is any professional body that can do without a training school, it is not printing. There is a compelling need for a training school for printers when we realize the fact that the management of many schools in the country that offer printing courses hardly can afford enough money to buy printing machines or maintain the ones they have. The general manager of Heidelberg Nigeria in a lecture at NIPEX 2014 told a story of a school in Nigeria which could not use a machine worth more than N16,000,000.00 donated to it by Heidelberg because they claimed that the school has no money to buy damping cloth. The story is laughable but it is a true picture of the condition of most schools in Nigeria where some of our employees obtain their training. The need for training is aptly captured by Joseph Pulitzer when he observed, “The only position that occurs to me that a man in our republic can successfully fill by simple fact of birth is that of an idiot.” We cannot therefore, over emphasize the importance of a school for training and retraining of our members.
A Full Time Occupation: Printing business is a full time occupation to many Nigeria printers. This grade of printers has no other business except printing. To them, printing is their calling and they cannot live peacefully without being engaged in printing work. Obviously it is this group that worked hard to secure professional charter statues for printing in Nigeria. However, majority of Nigeria printers are not full time, they are only into it to make extra money while they have other businesses. Example, some pastors, lecturers, students, photographers among others, they do not have the training but use their positions and connections to get printing works and sublet them to printers.
Professional Ethics: Good ethics is a fundamental requirement of any profession. Ethics refer to moral rules or principles for deciding what is right and wrong. It consists of moral principles or values that govern the conduct of a person or a group. Ethics is important not only in business but in life as well because it is an essential part of the foundation on which a civilized society is built.
Perhaps, this is why the former EFCC chairman, Ibrahim Lamido urged CIPPON to develop “A printers’ code of ethics and circulate it among all members. At the Nigeria 52nd independence anniversary lecture organized by CIPPON and the Federal Ministry of Information in Lagos Mr. Lamido in an address delivered on his behalf by Mr. Osita Nwajah made the above disclosure and lamented that fraudsters destroy the image of Nigeria abroad and the EFCC is ready to work with CIPPON in ensuring that the problem of fake documents’ printing is brought to an end.
We had expected that his advice would be a wakeup call on CIPPON to formulate a code of conduct for printers, but that was not to be. Since 2015 when the seminar took place till date, there is nothing like code of conduct for printers in Nigeria and if there is any, it may be within the four walls of CIPPON office, printers are yet to see it. Without a code of ethics, how do we hope to regulate printing in Nigeria? It is a code of ethics that will give biting teeth to CIPPON to sanction people who fail to keep to the rule.
We all agree to the fact that it is an offence in Nigeria for one to engage in printing business without CIPPON registration or license, but in Nigerian context where there are hardships and lack of jobs, the society does not see anything evil in someone doing printing business without registration or what they stand to gain with the registration. The public would rather criticize any agency that attempts to seal such establishment.
However, if you seal a printer’s office because he is caught pirating a person’s book or faked a company’s document, the public will be impressed that their interests are being protected, they would prefer doing business with persons who belong to the professional body that is driven by moral values. The need for printers’ code of ethics has been brought to the front burner with the resignation of the immediate finance minister, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun. She was accused of escaping the compulsory NYSC service and forgery of the exemption certificate. Mrs. Adeosun resigned, claiming that she never knows that the certificate was a fake one. Since her resignation, mouths have been wagging but nobody has said something about the person who produced the fake certificate. The career of a promising lady was suddenly halted because of one dishonest printer. Kemi obviously was an unfortunate victim of Nigerian penchant for doctoring and falsifying documents: Age certificate, driver’s license, and academic records among others. Cloning of such documents cannot be carried out successfully without the expert skill of a printer or printing assistant provider.
The establishment of state licensing laws: A license is a credential that a local, state or federal government requires a worker to hold to practice in a given profession. An occupational license protects some workers from competition by raising a barrier to entry into the profession (Ryan Nunn, 2016). Continuing Ryan said that for some occupations and professions, licensing is often granted through a professional body or a licensing board composed of practitioners who oversee the applications for licenses. This often involves accredited training and examinations, but varies a great deal for different activities and in different countries.
In Nigeria the Chartered Institute of Professional Printers of Nigeria (CIPPON), is the professional body in charge of licensing printers. Depending on the type of law, practicing without a license or registration (the term registration is sometimes used) may carry civil or criminal penalties. In Nigeria for example, it is an offence for one to do printing business without CIPPON license. Licensing is often granted firstly in order to ensure that the public will not be harmed by the incompetent execution of work or service by practitioners and secondly to create a barrier to entry preventing some people from practicing the profession, benefiting existing license holders by reducing competition. In other words, every professional occupation enjoys a certain degree of monopoly, it is not an open market, entry is restricted. It is only open to those who have gone through the rudimentary training and fulfill other entry requirements.
Though, printing has professional statues in Nigeria, yet it is an open market, every Dick and Harry who can afford to buy a computer opens printing office without challenge. Apart from registration, I am yet to know other entry requirements for anybody who wants to do printing in Nigeria. Usually when an occupational group wants to transform to a professional one, a window is created through which those in practice are absorbed. After that, a minimum academic qualification or cognate experience is required for admission into such a professional group.
Summary: it is clear from the above that the existence of a state licensing body, CIPPON is where we have scored a credit mark on our road to professionalism. This fit was achieved in 2007, but 12 years after, the joy and glittering faces that heralded the inauguration of the institute is now ash like and gloomy. This is because the state of printing in Nigeria is not a mirror reflection of professionalism. The ingredients of professionalism like a training school; Code of conducts; national association; restricted entry and so on are lacking or do not align with global standard best practices. The point we emphasize is that having a legal status alone does not make an occupation a profession and any inward change that does not show outward positive impact is undeserving, after all the hood does not make a monk.
It appears like we were not prepared for the charter status only to wake up one morning and saw it on our tables otherwise, what was the manifesto upon which the council leaders won our votes. Our regulatory body should have been guided by policies that aim to strengthen printing as a profession. I will argue, and anyone is free to disagree, but one cannot deny the truth revealed by this study that in the past 12 years since the establishment of the Chartered Institute of Professional Printers of Nigeria (CIPPON), the governing board has provided little or no reason for the public to perceive printing in Nigeria as a profession. Printers too, are yet to see the benefits of the professionalism as they continue to experience job loss to quacks and contractors. May be it was this frustration among others that lead some people under the aegis of “Change @ CIPPON” to take legal battle against the leadership of CIPPON. Print & Publishing Express on its page 12, August 16, 2018 said, “Because of the continuous downward spiral of the state of the industry and daily unabated losses of jobs, concerned professional in the industry under the aegis of Change @ CIPPON constituted themselves into a pressure group sometimes around October, 2017 to bring change into the leadership of CIPPON.”
After about one year of the legal struggle, Hon. Justice Buba, of the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos in his judgement in December 18, 2018 dissolved the Governing Board of Chartered Institute of Professional Printers of Nigeria and granted the constitution of an electoral committee to conduct election for a new Governing Board of the Institute. The judgement was in favour of Change @ CIPPON group. Since then, the joy that pervades in the group and many other printers was unprecedented. Profound appreciation goes to the group and its leaders for the bold step they took to challenge sit tight leaders of the CIPPON former lords. While congratulating our members for this landmark achievements, we want to point out that the struggle for better things in the Nigerian printing sector continues.
Printing in our country judged by all relevant indices has failed the professionalism test under the watch of the former Governing Council of CIPPON. As we begin the campaign to produce a new architecture of governance in CIPPON, let this article though not an exhaustion on the issue be a beacon to all of us as aspirants ask us to favour them with our votes. Our aspirants in addition to whatever programme or agenda they have can borrow from the rich ideas exposed in this document. We need leaders who have clear picture of a profession and the pedigree for passion, rich in ideas, commitment and devotion to bring turnaround in the profession. Until printing in Nigeria becomes true reflections of a professional discipline, it will remain a glorified artisan. In the above regard, our existence as a professional occupation will be of little or no value if it does not improve our standard of living; the quality of our goods and services as well as significantly contribute to the solving of the problems in the society.
Agwu Sunday B. C. is a public affairs analyst and writes from ASSPPON, Owerri Chapter. 08036773286 (SMS only)
