Mrs. Nkechi Ali-Balogun, a versatile PR practitioner with over two decades experience in the sector, is Chief Executive Officer, NECCI Consulting. In this interview with Ambrose Nnaji, she speaks on the principles and practice of PR vis-à-vis opportunities, her management style, among others. Excerpts:
well, PR practice in Nigeria, I will say, has come of age even though we still have a lot to do. If you look at it from our history and from where we started in this country, as first agency and you follow it through, you see that we have actually metamorphosed into a profession that can compare with what is practised abroad. So, I want to say that PR practice in Nigeria has come of age. Of course, we still have challenges but those challenges still roll across every other profession in the country and that is the issue of funding, in the sense that people are not able on their own to understand the need for funding.
I mean abroad, it is just for you to bring a proposal and somebody will file into it and then they can sponsor your programme. In Nigeria, we’re still lagging behind in the area of PR research, lagging behind in PR audit, PR survey, community development, etc. We’re lagging behind because organisations, very few of them, understand and know why they have to spend money in this area.
Funding is a challenge because let’s take a community for instance, you have identified their need, you have gone to that area, you have surveyed, let’s even assume you have a business in communication, and you have seen that the only way you can make the business thrive is to create an angle that will help both your organisation and the community. You need funding and you need your executive to buy into your idea or your initiative.
Available opportunities for PR
Practitioners are thriving. Again, I personally know that the problem we have is of people understanding the need for PR. People very quickly will run to advertising because people are interested in what they see more than any other thing. But our job is beyond visuals. So, people take advantage of this and they are also beginning to be able to convince consumers on the need for public relations.
Comparative analysis of Nigerian PR practitioners and counterparts abroad
Very few PR practitioners are actually experts in the area of PR and I think that the Nigeria Institute of Public Relations is looking very seriously into that to make sure that its members are properly trained and equipped to practice public relations in this country. I think they are doing a lot in that area. We are expecting that there will be some form of sanity. I think the current president is very interested in ensuring properly qualified personnel in the field of PR. I expect a lot of sanity to come into the profession very soon. I don’t think it is only PR practitioners that have that problem. But I’m happy today public relations is beyond press releases, beyond posting things on the social media, beyond smiling at people. In today’s PR, you need to have a good qualification, good university degree in PR or Mass Communication or the other area that will assist you to understand what PR is all about so that you can practice.
PR and public perception
PR is not what people say it is. PR is the ability to manage information in such a way that parties, the community and the organisations are able to use whatever information to their own advantage. So I don’t see any lie in it; people who lie in public relations are those who are not actually trained in the field. To manage PR, you have to look at the situation, you analyse the situation and make predictions based on that analysis and based on that analysis you want to advice management in such a way that they will be able to work, so you don’t advice management without analysing. There must be a true analysis of the environment to be able to advice your management. So, I don’t see any lying in that and if you also are able to manage information in such a way that you avert some problem, it is not lying. PR thrives on truth and it is always truth well told.
Don’t forget the fact that PR practitioners still report to management and it doesn’t have the last say, our job is to advice management and it is management’s business to listen to us and in a case where the management doesn’t listen to us, there is not much we can do. It is not that the PR department will just sit down to wait for information to get to you. As a PR person, your business is to look for information, understand your environment at any given time.
Ethics in PR
Well, ethics and values; whose values, whose ethics? I ask whose values, whose ethics because ethics play a major in every profession. But you see PR today, we are working for CEOs, ex-officials whose values are different from what you think it should be or whose ethical understanding are also below what you think. It is a problem because we are not in a country where people will easily resign, and say look these people are not ethical, I must resign. As it is practiced in the western world, somebody can easily resign his job on ethical ground and quickly get another one. But here, a lot of things are put into place. I’m not saying it is right but you find that every practitioner will try as much as possible to make sure that he or she works within what is ethical in the profession; make sure he carries out his job within the ethics of the profession, within a value judgment that is correct and at the same time makes sure that he carries management along with him. But supposing the company or organisation or the corporate organisation is such that they are not ethical, well I expect a PR officer that has integrity not to work in that organisation irrespective of what his needs are.
Management style
Even though I did management as a course when I was doing my MBA, I found out that management is an institution. There is really no hard and fast rule to it. Of course, there are so many kinds of management one should follow. But I have always believed in team work and I have always believed in the fact that we all have something to offer to the growth of an organisation and the CEO does not know it all. I can learn from my workers and my workers can learn from me and together we can come up with a great idea.
Staff motivation
It depends on the staff. I don’t just motivate the staff because I want to motivate them. The staff must also show me there is a reason why I have to motivate him/her. Every move that I think a staff has done -I also make sure I reward that staff. And how do I do this? Sometimes, when we have international programmes, I make sure they come with me and sometimes it could be cash rewards and at other times, in all our trainings I make sure they are trained and I give them certificates for attending. So, there is always capacity building for them and most times, even though a lot of people we employ these days don’t like reading and that’s the truth. Most employees don’t give us value for their pay. The moment you employ them, it’s like they come in here to do nothing and it’s a very painful experience. Otherwise, I believe in team work, I believe that we all have to learn from each other.
Reprimanding staff
It depends on what they do, beyond stealing I don’t just have to reprimand them. Though I have not had that experience, I don’t think that I’m one that reprimands anybody. All I do is to counsel the ones that I can counsel but if it is the issue of stealing I will quickly send you out. Even though I want to remain in touch so that I will be able to counsel you but will not hesitate to send you out if you become a threat to the company, otherwise any other minor issues can be sorted out within.
Most cherished moments and harrowing experience
I don’t think I have had any harrowing experience. There are challenges here and there that sometimes you organise events and people will not turn up. I will not say it is harrowing but it is not good because you would have spent a lot of money preparing the programme. Otherwise, I would say I have had a wonderful time from the first time I started my journey into PR and I hope it remains so.
Toughest decision as CEO
One of the toughest decisions I have taken was either to go into core public relations or remain in training. I think it was a very difficult decision for me because I know if I had to go into core public relations, which is actually what I practice, maybe it would have paid me more. I mean, by now, I would have some very heavy account. But I had to move into training because I identified the need gap in the area of training. When I was in the PR department, I discovered then that we didn’t have any person to go training unless you went abroad, there were scanty programmes here and there. I think that was one of the toughest decisions. Do I regret that decision? Sometimes I do because I see my colleagues that we started and they are doing so well. But then, I’m also doing well in my area but these days most organisations are cutting down on training.
