Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Director of Public Affairs, Tony Ojobo, has expressed support for the ‘Engage a PRCAN Agency’ campaign of the Public Relations Consultants Association of Nigeria (PRCAN).
He advised the government and its agencies at all levels to hire the services of professional PR consultants.
Ojobo gave the counsel at the fourth PRCAN monthly breakfast meeting in Ikeja, Lagos, where he was the guest speaker.
The event was sponsored by Airtel Nigeria and Compact Communication.
Ojobo said “public relations is more than radio, television, and newspapers. Public relations involves a lot of ‘behind-the-scene’ engagements that cumulate in good will that helps in times of crisis.”
He advised PR practitioners to be mindful of the difference in consulting for private and public organisations.
“The private sector is essentially motivated by profit; consequently, communication is driven by the desire to make more money.
“However, the burden of social responsibility has also extracted pragmatic commitment by many private organisations to seek stakeholder cooperation.
“On the contrary, the public sector is the part of economy that serves the public and consists of governmental entities at different levels.
“Their sources of income are taxes, resources generated from natural endowments, foreign grants, and other similar funds belonging to central and local governments.
“Therefore, their main goal is to communicate government policies and get citizens’ support for such policies.”
Ojobo explained that most public sector organisations do not have public relations officers or spokespersons, and sometimes the chief executive officers (CEOs) do not understand the role of public relations.
Therefore, he added, the CEOs cannot fully appreciate the value of the communication strategies proposed by PR consultants, let alone seek to engage their services.
In his view, a major challenge would be the inability of PR consultants to public sector organisations to strike a balance between loyalty to the government and the interest of citizens.
PRCAN President, John Ehiguese, said the meeting was in furtherance of the commitment of the association to boost the capacity of PR consultants to better understand clients’ point of view and manage their expectations better.
Private sector communication professionals previously featured at the meeting included Nigerian Breweries Corporate Affairs Adviser, Kufre Ekanem; Airtel Director of Corporate Communications and CSR, Emeka Oparah; and Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN) President, David Okeme; who is also Unilever brand building director.
PRCAN is legally chartered by a bye law of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) to cater to the interests of the consultancy side of PR practice in Nigeria.
It currently has a membership of 51 PR consultancy firms providing services in at least 21 PR practice areas.
