One
and half years ago, Prof. Ikechukwu Nwosu, became the National President of
Nigeria Institute of Public Relations (NIPR). His ambition is to rescue NIPR
from a faltering profile due to both internal and external crisis. In this
interview with DANIEL IOR in MAKURDI, he reveals the forces behind the troubling
moments and what needs to be done to solve the Niger-Delta crisis. Excerpts
NIPR is a professional organization Nigerians look up to in managing the
nation's image both at the local and international arena. Has it lived up
this expectation?
I can only tell you about the recent years. The former President, Chief Olusaegun
Obasanjo, gave the NIPR a mandate, to work with the Federal Ministry of Information
under Prof. Jerry Gana. To work on the image and reputation of Nigeria inside
and outside the country.
We were going to take up the mandate, when Gana, who was working with us
was changed. The other minister that came did not feel quite comfortable and
to make matters worse, he disagreed with the then President of NIPR.
The problem started when the minister appointed members of the Governing Council
for the organization as required by Decree No 6 of 1995. Out of the five members
he appointed, only one was a Director of Public Relations in the ministry.
But the five are required to be Public Relations members. So he brought non
Public Relations members into the Council. That was the beginning of the problem.
So, NIPR was no longer contributing anything. But before long, the minister,
Chikelo, left. His successor, Nweke Jr. too couldn't work with NIPR for two
reasons:
First, NIPR was internally in shambles. The then President had problems with
stakeholders, internally and otherwise. There were cases in court and a public
hearing in the ministry. The various chapters also formed opposition groups
under committees of chapter chairmen.
The minister cashed in on all these and wanted to appoint a Sole Administrator
for NIPR. That was when I came on board.
By the grace of God, the minister agreed that he would no longer appoint
a Sole Administrator. But said he was not sure yet what he would do with the
organization. But we knew what he wanted to do with us. It wasn't just us
but also ASCON. He didn't want to work with us.
He appointed Public Relations consultants, who we didn't know about. They
were not our members and ought not to have been appointed to perform the jobs
they were incompetent to do. That started during the Heart of Africa project
and the Image and Reputation Management for Nigeria, in and outside the country.
It was clear to us that the project was going to fail. And we were pained that it was going to cost the nation huge sums of money and other resources.
We know that to execute such a project one ought to start first, with a situation
analysis - research. In this age, you don't make management decisions and
actions, public relations and management functions or manage anybody's reputation
or image without research.
Nweke Jr's inability to understand our point of view is understandable: his
first degree is B.Sc Economics. He is not a member of NIPR and didn't like
NIPR. So, he only cashed in on the crisis. He had his own agenda.
Most importantly, he emasculated NIPR and ASCON,financially.
Another phase of the battle was after I successfully defended NIPR's budget at the Upper and Lower houses of the National Assembly. Because of the confidence the National Assembly members had in the integrity and credibility of my leadership, they gave us approval.
The law makers also cancelled the planned public hearing too. They tasked me to bring about sanity in the organization. I took one year to do just that.
But Nweke could not allow me the financial support which the government provides,
through the Federal Ministry of Information.
How did he do it, did he withdraw the subvention?
He got the President of the Federal Republic to sign that the subvention should not be given to NIPR and ASCON. Again, his problem with ASCON was that he appointed people who were not members of ASCON.
Nzeribe, the Chairman of ASCON, told him that was unprofessional. He still
wanted to inaugurate them and Nzeribe stood up and told him plainly, you can't
inaugurate non-professionals to serve in the board or
council of ASCON. So he got Mr President to write that our money should be
vied and taken over by the government. So, he succeeded in blacklisting, in
a way, ASCON and NIPR.
We held meetings with him, begged him, we told him these organizations would
die. He didn't care. So, We made sure that we used public relations techniques,
including lobbying, which is a legislative public relations tool in the House
of Assembly to make sure that he too didn't get that money. They summoned
him up to four times to release the money. That you can't vied people's salary,
because we had staff at headquarters of NIPR and ASCON and we had capital
and other projects, not just recurrent. Although he didn't do that till he
left, we succeeded in getting that money put in what is called escrow account.
So he lost it and we lost it.
NIPR is still infested with the problem of quarks, how are you getting on
with it?
The problem of quackery is like the problem of corruption. As we cannot get
100 percent free society anywhere, it will be difficult to eliminate corruption
in NIPR. And quackery is corruption. Somebody who knows he is not a trained
professional in any field trying to practice that profession; that is corruption.
NIPR as a profession is young all over the world. It is even younger in the developing countries. It was just an association in 1963. It was just in the 1990 that it developed some teeth as a professional body.
So, it is not easy to check quacks. The former president has tried, but it
is still there.
In a country where you find it extremely difficult to implement the law how
do you hope to overcome that?
I agree we are not envisaging 100 percent success as I have already said.
But we hope to make a difference and most importantly, to reduce the extent
of abuses confronting the profession. We are not going to use
force. It will be through persuasive campaigns, attitudinal change campaigns,
etc. Public Relations does not believe in just harmer. It is push and pull.
It is carrot and stick approach to management. Let the employers know that they are breaking the law of the land.
Now that a new administration headed by President Musa Yar'Adua is in place, has NIPR received any funding from the Federal Government?
The present minister of Information, Mr John Odeh, is friendly to NIPR. I
have held discussions with him. We have warmly renewed our relationship with
him. In the
last budget session, he assured us that he would follow the law.
But I cannot tell you now, that we have gotten the money. It is only few days ago that the President accented to the budget.
Unfortunately, it has been published in the press that Federal Government has resuscitated NIPR and ASCON funding. That is news papering. The truth is, yes, there is intent but until it has manifested, all I am saying is there is hope. When that happens I will talk to the press that the money has started coming.
To what extent then can you say the country has benefited from the services
of NIPR?
From what I said earlier, use of non professionals has impacted negatively
on the service profile of NIPR to the country. If you get a quack Doctor to
treat a Patient, he is most likely to rather kill the patient.
The image programme, the Heart of Africa programme and other image laundering programmes in and outside the country would have been better done.
Managing the country's image is not exclusively a media affair. Public Relations is action and communication. There are a lot of things we would have done differently, most effectively and with tangible results if we were mandated to organize these and other programmes. Besides, we can advice government quietly because PR has an advisory function.
We could advice on even policy direction; on conflict or crisis management
for effective resolution. If governments were doing that, they won't be pouring
in so much money checking 419, armed robbery, corruption in the real sense
of the world not just paying lip service to it.
Given what Public Relations can do, how would you say the Niger Delta crises
has been handled?
The NIPR is not yet involved in the problem of the Niger-Delta. From what I have already said, it is only this year that we are beginning to hope that we would work with government to advise and to package programmes, campaigns that would help to solve problems including Niger Delta imbroglio.
Right now there is no direct intervention. We are not there yet. Of course
the problem is denting the image of Nigeria, and we are not happy with that.
To find a solution to the problem we need to go in and talk to the people.
Work out programmes of actions and communication. We hereby advise government
not to work with the so-called experts who say that they are PR managers or
foreigners even. These people do indeed escalate or even make the matter worst.
It is surprising that in some oil companies, Engineers are made Public Relations
Managers and they don't know anything about Public Relations. Some just go
and bring some foreigners and call them foreign experts to handle public relations.
We hope that soon, we would package programmes of actions and communications aimed at helping to solve or reduce the conflict in the Niger-Delta. We are not a cure all medicine. We would work with the government in its policy formulation and actions on issues like; when should soldiers come in? When should the police come in? We would work with the Army and Police, as well as other relevant organizations. We would work with the Niger-Delta people themselves; the youths, traditional institution, various groups and leaderships. We will tell them what is appropriate for them to do and indeed, where they should go in their own and collective interest.
Where do you hope to take NIPR at the end of your tenure?
I have already moved NIPR from the dungeon to light.
We have resolved the internal crisis within the last one and a half years
when I was elected in Lafia. I hope to consolidate internal peace, understanding
and true espirit de corps. Then move on to get the external stakeholders like
the Federal Ministry of Information, Federal Ministry of Education, National
University Commission (NUC), Head of Service, etc. We would make sure our
certificates and diplomas are of high quality. Run high quality workshops
and seminars. We have started for the first to work with the Mandatory Continuing
Professional Development Programme (MCPD).
Now we are accrediting universities and polytechnics.
If we do not accredit your programme your graduates would not be registrable in NIPR without taking examinations. These are the innovations that make for greater professionalism. It is also under my tenure that we started the first ever Ph.D programme in Public Relations, at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. This will help to encourage research and professionalism at the highest level.