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Nwakanma - FG Erred in Engaging Foreign PR Firm(AllAfrica Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) The decision of federal government to hire a foreign public relations firm, Levick Communication, is already generating furore among local practitioners. In this interview with Raheem Akingbolu, President, Public Relations Consultant of Nigeria (PRCAN), Mr. Chido Nwakanma, described the act as unpatriotic What is your take on the dearth of talents in the Public Relations profession in Nigeria, especially when the few good hands seem to appreciate working on the client side? From the way I see it, this is not only related to PR. There is no dearth of talent in PR exclusive of other disciplines in Nigeria. There is a dearth of talent everywhere. It is the fault of our educational system. You are aware that Nigeria Breweries set up corporate university where graduates with first class or second class degrees are trained for one year in what they are supposed to have learnt in the university. On our part, PRCAN has been organising trainings for students, graduates, professionals where we trained them on various elements of PR. This is the 11th edition of the Master Class series. It is a capacity development programme that we instituted since 2011. Manpower development is a challenge that affects all the sectoral groups in the marketing communication mix and we are among the first to recognize it and embrace it with the determination to finding lasting solution. Local practitioners kicked against the engagement of a foreign firm - Levick Communication - by federal government and a similar step taken by the opposition party, All Progressive Congress. What is your take? I think that government is not following the right processes and procedures in managing Nigeria's reputational challenges. It is our view as professionals that the challenge we are facing as a country is not external but internal. Even for the external, there is a need to obey Nigerian law which says that for anyone to practice public relations in Nigeria and on behalf of Nigeria, it has to be registered. (It must also be registered) with the Nigeria Institute of Public Relations (NIPR). We are not aware that this firm is registered with NIPR and we have certainly confirmed that they are not registered with PRCAN, neither do they have a person who is registered with PRCAN. Now, you ask why this is important. Countries all over the world use their economic resources to promote their economy. And they do so by giving preference to individuals and companies within their locals to manage issues for them whether it is external communication or internal communication. When the Federal Government hires a Nigerian firm to manage external communication, that company, whoever it is, acquires competence in international communication through which it increases the talent pool of Nigerians and capacity of Nigeria companies. And for the same reason in the oil and gas sector, the clamour has been local content. Let us develop the capacity of indigenous players to handle these matters. We have argued it before because you learn to do by doing. You grow muscle by exercising them. I am sure that someone will argue that Nigerian firms don't have the experience. But you must realize that you don't acquire experience from nothing. You acquire experience from doing something. And who else will give you the opportunity to do that but your own government that have sworn to represent you. Those are the issues. Our government, by coming to power, has undertaken to represent the best interest of Nigerians and Nigeria and should be ready to do that to the best of their abilities. It is not in the best interest of Nigerians or Nigeria for us to be paying money to external bodies for jobs that can be executed by Nigerian firms. Have you given up on the issue or still considering a legal action against the erring parties? We are still talking and we hope to win at the end. Don't forget there is an extant law. What we will also be doing is to educate stakeholders that there is a law enacted by government itself regulating this practice which is targeted at promoting the best interest of Nigeria. We will continue to advocate, speak because we are communicators. When this effort fails, we will seek legal redress. As you know, in any dispute, legal redress is the last resort. So we will hope that the issues would have been tackled without having to take that option. There are beliefs in some quarters that Nigeria PR professionals are not competent, is there proof that member firms and individuals are competent to handle such brief? We have no doubt that our members are competent to handle any of those briefs. We conducted a survey under my leadership and found that our members are offering services in 21 subsets of public relations. From advocacy, through brand building to trade promotion, political communication, we do it all. Secondly, the company we keep will tell you who we are. Our member firms are managing all of the key brands from corporate and products brands of major brands in Nigeria economy. If we didn't have the competence, they will not be inviting our members for briefs. Increasingly, in this information age of multiple channels and enlightened stakeholders, Public relation is becoming the lodestar of the communication discipline. It is cost effective, credible, flexible and objective. A lot of companies are turning to PR to help manage the complexity of speaking to various audiences through multiple channels in this age. They now know that it is PR that does it most effectively. The era of broadcast through Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) alone is gone, because there are too many channels now. So, you need to use strategic communication that effectively identifies audiences and messaging and PR is effective in doing that. We are saying government should avail itself of the competences of each citizen and the advantage of a discipline that is growing in importance worldwide in its ability to handle the complexity of modern day communication Like other professional bodies in the ongoing conference in Abuja, what target is PR industry pursuing? The President of Nigeria Institute of Public Relations, Rotimi Oladele, is fully on ground at the confab and I believe he is qualified and has the necessary experience to know where the shoe pinches. One of the key issues is the local content. If you check the history of government communication in Nigeria, it started with the colonialists. The colonialists used a lot of communication competences within. That is how a firm like Lintas came from abroad to Nigeria. They recognise the importance of communication and local competences. That is why the indigenisation Act now indigenised Lintas, (and) Ogilvy Benson and Mather, by saying that our people have gone to school, understand the discipline, give them the opportunity. Now what we are saying is that, if you check, government communication is not well managed in Nigeria. That is why there is reputation challenge whether it is state or federal. We are not doing enough in Nigeria in using the competencies of our professionals in communication to speak to the challenges that Nigeria faces right now. The key part of the challenge we are having in terms of communication is that we are not talking with each other. We are talking at each other rather than sharing views, opinion. And how is that going to happen. The government will take a lead role by respecting the right of its citizens to hear what it is doing and to use professionals, that is, citizens who are trained in this act to execute government communication. As professional bodies, NIPR and PRCAN, there is growing recognition of public relations by the private sector. We conducted a survey recently and found out that our member firms are handling all the key brands and corporate bodies in Nigeria, From P&G, Airtel, Unilever to Coca Cola. We are keeping good company in the private sector, but it is not happening in the public sector. And the public sector is a sector that has direct bearing on all of us because it is our money and our lives. They are the ones controlling it. It is important therefore to allow for engagement of strategic communication between government and its citizens Don't you think the industry partial disregard to positioning could be the reason why the FG and APC chose to seek foreign help? To some extent, there is a sense in it but not much because Public Relation believes in third party endorsement and independent verification. PR has never been one for chest thumping. We will only allow our work to speak for us. As I said earlier, track the company that we keep. But I agree with you that it is a valid point that we need to promote ourselves. We are beginning to do that. PRCAN under my leadership, two years ago, started formally to create communication messages. We started by speaking through industry journal by speaking to fellow professionals. Now, we are trying to speak to others through tried and tested tools. These include advocacy, visits, events, news releases, news mention and so on. It is a gradual process. That is why we say we are not going to engage anybody in a fight because our interest is about Nigeria. We will engage due process, tools available to our discipline. How do you intend to tackle the menace of quacks in the profession? First of all, we will be starting with advocacy, education and enlightenment. Thereafter, we will be looking at enforcement just as advertising as done. You find out because of the nature of the job, a lot of people mistake what they do with what PR is. A journalist believes PR is about media relation. Although it is part of it, that does not mean that that is what PR is all about. Even clients should know better. Media relation is part of a wider strategy. It involves stakeholder engagement is totally different from media relation. It is not about calling journalists to attend events and write stories alone, it is only a PR person that can give you the output, the outtakes of any event and its outcome. A PR professional is trained and recognized to offer value that is beyond the immediate. We are tackling the issue of quackery in the profession by enlightenment, and enforcement. Before the end of the year, we will be rolling out a law where we will be engaging the Police to assist us with an enforcement team. Copyright This Day. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). |