‘Public Relations management is not an all-comer’s affairs’_NIPR President

Nigerian Institute of Public Relations [NIPR] has called for adoption of strategic communication in the management of the nation’s communication sector, in view of the ravaging Covid-19 pandemic and economic recession.

The National President/Chairman in Council of the Institute, Mallam Mukhtar Surajo made the call at the 4th Director’s Conference going on at Ibom Hotels and Golf Resorts Uyo, in Akwa Ibom state on Wednesday.

Justifying the conference with the theme: “Changing the Dynamics of Governance through Strategic Communication [a new normal for Directors]”, he posits that the institute took such deliberate steps to strategically position practitioners for better information management, underscoring that such position was not for all comers.

He added that good communication or lack of it have impacted on the way the nation is managed.

He called on Chief Executives of states and national to go for highly knowledgeable and professionally competent communication and Public Relations experts as Chief Press Secretaries and Media Advisers.

“We deliberately decided to institute this annual event for people to come together with a view to come up with better strategies of communication in their various offices. Many have expressed how strategic communication or lack of it have impacted in the way things were handled. I must stress that communication management is not an all-comers affair; it is a function, not a task.

“So, leaders must ensure that those they appoint as Chief Press Secretary, Media Advisers and other media managers are not just those who speak good English, but highly knowledgeable communicators and Public Relations experts”, he said

Declaring the conference open, the Akwa Ibom State Deputy Governor, Mr. Moses Ekpo identified the leadership of NIPR as stakeholders in governance who must join hands to deliver good governance to Nigerians.

Such need, he said, has become more urgent and desperate than ever before given the recent EndSARS protest and looting of public property.

“A properly diagnosed ailment, it is said, is problem half-solved from your choice of a theme for this conference; it is evident that the institute is well aware of its role in the new governance dynamics and paradigm so critical for the present time”.

According to the Akwa Ibom state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Comrade Ini Ememobong the theme of the conference which harps on strategic communication management was apt, especially coming at the time when the world was hit by the twin forces of COVID-19 pandemic and economic recession.

He therefore emphasised the need for governments and leaders to subject themselves to all-round management by professionals.

Earlier, the Chairman of the Director’s conference, 2020 planning committee, Nkechi Ali-Balogun drew a link between communication, governance and development, noting that the institute aims at growing a new class of Information and Communications Directors who specialize in understanding and influencing the human and social dynamics of conflict and cooperation to achieve positive outcomes on behalf of employers.