NIPR worried over Nigeria’s dwindling global reputation

The Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) has blamed the multiple challenges facing Nigeria on the mismanagement of the country’s reputation.

President of the institute, Mukhtar Sirajo, noted that information managers across the various entities in the country have failed to deploy “the time-tested” public relations strategies to launder the image of Nigeria.

He spoke in Lagos during the 2019 Presidential awards and dinner of the institute where individuals and corporate entities were honoured.

The President however disclosed that the institute would soon organize a reputation summit to explore issues mitigating against national unity and cohesion.

He said, “We are relationship builders and we help in drafting messages and programmes that will bring people together to ensure that the fabrics that hold us together are further strengthened.

“Right now as I am talking to you, we are on course trying to come up with a reputation summit that is going to take a look at all of the problems that are bedeviling the cohesion of the Nigerian family to ensure that we return to those good old days when we didn’t have the problems that we have today and see how we can retrace our steps so that we can return to those good old days.”

He stressed the need for the Federal Government to respect the law establishing the NIPR by ensuring that information managers in all its agencies were people licensed by the institute.

According to him, having professionals as information managers would go a long way in burnishing the reputation of the country in the global community.

He said, “The information managers in various entities have failed to utilize time-tested public relations strategies to burnish the country’s image and this is partly because those in authorities have not come clean as far as the law establishing the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) is concerned.

“The law says you cannot practise public relations by whatever means if you are not licensed by this institute and this institute does not just license people as they come, there are certain criteria, there are certain qualifications, there are certain requirements that you have to actually qualify for before that is done.

“But so many of the people that are asked to manage some of these agencies are not well groomed in the Art of Public Relations. So we want to appeal to the government to please respect the law. The law that established the NIPR is a law of the country. But if you don’t like a law, don’t bend it, change it. But as long as there is this law, let us come clean with it. Let us do things as par the statute and we begin to do that, the government and the people will begin to see positive difference in the way the country’s image is managed.”