By Balarabe Oshiafi
The pall was here. The atmosphere was serene. The pall was also there. This is in much the same way as the mood of the ‘meet the president’ hob nob was convivial. At the end of the relaxation, the president of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Dr Ike Neliaku did not only espouse his dominant thoughts in a succinct presentation, he shared his template for rescuing Nigeria from the grip of corruption and steering her towards sustainable growth and development.
The informal occasion was an initiative of the new Director of Public Relations of the Institute, Stanley Ogadigo and it was labelled “meet the president dinner”. But this Writer has chosen to call it a hob nob due to the interactive familiarity of the galaxy of positive story tellers who graced the occasion. Food, drinks banters were not in short supply even as itinerant Journalists were purposive in prying about the image and corruption maladies plaguing the nation. The message of positive image moulding and encompassing development which NIPR has undertaken to champion was not lost on Balarabe Oshiafi.
Public Relations as Fulcrum for National Rebirth
We are professionalising the practice. We discovered that graduates of other fields who want to pursue Public Relations as a career just come in. So we are establishing that school under the education advisory board chaired by the vice president of the institute. This profession is very important to every economy. Personal economy, family economy and national economy. So the scheme will bring in practitioners in the field who will be the faculty to teach these other people based on the practical knowledge they have recorded.
Public Relations Forum for Young People
We are establishing this. There are several of them. We want to fully integrate them into our programs. We are putting together a college of fellows that will become a mentorship platform for these young people.
Public Relations and Development
You would recall that my administration promised to build public relations for development. Public Relations has an essential role to play in the development of any nation. So we are approaching things from that perspective in order to ensure that that role is effectively played.
National Spokesperson’s Summit
We are organizing a national spokesperson’s summit from 25th to 28tg March this year at the international conference centre, Abuja. The spokesman , or spokeswoman or spokesperson as the case may be in very important in the development of any nation. If you don’t change your narrative, you cannot change society. Societies are built on narratives. That is why those that have bad mouth , violent communication culture will create problems from what they say. Hence, we bringing together spokesperson’ in government, bring those who have been successful across the world to come and share their thoughts with us on how to reinvent our spokespersons and give them the best tools that they will use to serve the government, serve their communities, serve the nation and serve the profession.
April PR Week
For one week we are going to converge on Abeokuta, Ogun State. We call it public relations week and we are using it to look at the economy of nationhood. We are bringing together all the practitioners and those from outside the country to come and look at ways to build our economy. Apart from corruption, you cannot take away the economy of the nation from relationship. Relationship in politics; relationship in socio-cultural affairs.That is where we have missed it. How do we drive in public relations into the economic growth and development of the nation?
Our Annual Lecture Series
Then we keep moving. Around the month of October, we are going be having our annual lecture series. Last year we inaugurated the Obi of Onitsha lecture series. The King is a fellow of the institute. You may recall that he retired as corporate affairs director of Shell. Last year we instituted the annual lecture in his honour. Closely following that is the Sam Epelle lecture. Sam Epelle is the first president of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations. So we regard him as our founder, our father. Also in October, we will be hosting the National reputation summit. That is being coordinated by the current Comptroller General of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Adebayo Bashir Adeniyi . We shall fourthly be having the Ado Bayero lecture on national integration. That one has just been constituted There are several other programs that we have conceptualized and shall be activating to drive development.
Public Relations University
Yes. You don’t have it any where in Africa nor the whole world. A team is already working on it. We are building the Nigerian reputation house where you can get all the.information you need. We thank the last FCT Minister for giving us a plot of land for this. I have travelled to many countries in this world. There is no place like Nigeria.
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