Celebrating Diamond Jubilee in life of any individual or organization is no mean feat, considering peculiarities of Nigeria as a nation where life expectancy is barely 56 years.
Sixty years of Public Relations in Nigeria is not by any perspective Uhuru. In fact, compared with advertising practice, any discerning public relations practitioner would conclude that they are miles apart. No thanks to misconceptions of what public relations is all about.
Public relations is a profession that helps businesses and organisations manage their image and build lasting relationships with the public. As a public relations professional, you engage with customers and clients to ensure a cordial and trusting relationship between the company and its market. Knowing the duties and responsibilities of a public relations role and the key functions of the position can help you determine whether the profession is ideal for you.
Every industry has challenges. The construction industry has bad weather. The medical industry has supply shortages. So does public relations world over. But just because challenges are inevitable doesn’t mean you can’t prepare yourself. Knowing what’s likely coming and planning the best way to tackle it will make you a better professional PR, work bestie, and more.
We should not be fretting with technology. AI will transform public relations, making it easier to draft press releases. Chatbots will continue to improve the user experience and enable faster distribution of brand messages to the public.
In today’s fast-paced and interconnected world, the art of Public Relations (PR) has become an indispensable tool for organizations to effectively manage their image, build strong relationships, and cultivate trust with their stakeholders. Public Relations encompasses a range of strategic communication practices that aim to shape public perception, enhance reputation, and drive positive outcomes.
It is widely acceptable that Public Relations emerged from the United States of America, on the global scale in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This is because public relations-like activities were discovered in the early days of American settlement as each of the colonies used publicity techniques to attract settlers.
However, the British Institute of Public Relations’ definition has come to be a household definition. The institute defines Public Relations as ‘‘the deliberate, planned, and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between organization and its public’’.
This is the most popular definition among many practitioners. A careful examination of this definition reveals painstaking effort by the British practitioners to carve a niche for the profession and to remove it from the realm of an all-comers profession.
A review of the above definition shows that Public Relations is planned. It is never haphazard or sudden. It is a well thought out and designed programme to warm an organization (government inclusive) to the heart of its publics. In a nutshell, Public Relations is everything done to improve mutual understanding between an organization and all those whom it comes into contact both within and outside. It is much more than just cultivating contacts. It is about devising and implementing strategic campaign, preventing and reacting to crisis, ensuring that an organization is always correctly and positively represented.
The Biblical injunction, ‘see that you do not blow your trumpet’ does not suffice in Public Relations. One must publicize himself; his organization or nation’s good works and cloth it with personality. Currying favour of the public is the ultimate goal of management of every organization. I sometimes shudder anytime I listen to some of our leaders. And I would ask: where are the Public Relations practitioners?
Perhaps, they tend to confuse Public Relations with propaganda. Undoubtedly, Public Relations differ from propaganda. Propaganda is an unwholesome message use in persuading people towards a particular cause. It is the dissemination of bias or mixed information with the aim of manipulating the views of the public. It is unlike Public Relations which is much misunderstood and under-valued management tool.
Erroneously, to many people, PR is another form of advertising while others dismiss it as dealing with journalists (important though) and sending out press releases. The basic philosophy of PR involves timely management of information based on sound and effective skills in communication using media as basic outlets. Thus creating that enabling environment crucial for the day- to- day survival all organizations.
I established the aforementioned in letting us come to understanding that Public Relations is not new. What is, therefore, new is the modern method of accomplishing it.
For holistic comprehension, maybe we should look at the Nigerian experience as we celebrate 60 years of practice. During the First and Second World Wars, not much could be said about the development of Public Relations in Nigeria. But from available records, Nigeria, which was part of Her Royal Majesty’s Empire was known to have participated in the Empire Exhibition in 1924. This event led to the establishment of the first information office in Lagos with the primary aim of disseminating war information.
In 1944, as a result of the increased activities of the office, its name was changed to Public Relations Office in order to disabuse the erroneous impressions and opinions of the members of the public who regarded it as a war information office and centre for espionage. The new office (PR office) was headed by D.C. Fletcher with the main aim of exacting a favourable image to the outside world.
By 1947, following the adoption of Richard Constitution, the PR office was changed to Public Relations Department, and in that same year, a regional office was opened in Ibadan, followed by another in Kano and Enugu in 1948 respectively. From then onward PR activities increased, as members of the press and the public at large could make inquiries about government activities.
In 1954, the original aim of the PR department was changed to monitoring and interpreting social-political events as well as economic matters affecting Nigerians and foreigners alike. One of the indigenous employees at that time was Ben Enwonwu. Later E. Esua, (MBE) and Rev. Bishop Kale were later to join the Public Relations Department.
There was improved information management and various advisory committees were constituted among others. The activities of these people led to the emergence of the press club by Lagos journalists. Nigerian Institute of Public Relations emerged from this club as Dr. Sam Epelle who was the father of the Nigerian Public Relations, was a member of this club.
Today, there are a number of Public Relations consultancy firms holding forte and making things happen. As we celebrate Diamond Jubilee, the onus is on the government of the day to engaging core PR practitioners. Allow average Nigerians to understand that indeed there is a ‘Renewed Hope’. Just as we have tax reforms committee and other committees, let there be Public Relations committee headed by a core and seasoned PR practitioners.
The world is on fire and the public relations landscape is more digital, more dynamic, and more maddening than ever.
•Pastor Yusuf, PR consultant, can be reached via abovemedia@yahoo.com.
