The President of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Dr. Ike Neliaku, has called on Nigerians to shun negative attitudes capable of destroying the country’s reputation.
He urged Nigerians to imbibe the culture of a positive mindset and promotion of the nation’s unique values, as opposed to the current habit of speaking ill of the country.
Neliaku gave the advice in his presentation as a keynote speaker during the 2024 Annual Conference of the Niger State Chapter of the NIPR in Minna.
The Vice President of NIPR, Prof. Emmanuel Dandaura, spoke on behalf of the President and mentioned the difficulty of trust deficits as a factor influencing people’s attitudes.
He called on PR practitioners to always uphold professionalism, ethics, and integrity and deploy tailor-made communication strategies to navigate the daunting, multi-faceted challenges impacting their practice environment.
“May I clarify that propaganda is not part of public relations. It has elements of deceit and falsehood, and what it does is that the innocent victims may follow you for a while, but when they discover your lies, you lose them completely, at the detriment of your organisation,” he said in a statement by the Director, Public Relations, Stanley Ogadigo, given to Persecondnews on Wednesday.
While condemning poor leadership across various strata of the nation’s institutions, the NIPR boss said PR practitioners have a duty to bridge the trust gap between the leaders and the people, noting that trust remains a fundamental pillar in relationship management and nation-building.
He tasked practitioners with leveraging technological innovations to navigate the myriad of operational and environmental challenges, adding that data and technology play critical roles in modern public relations practice in a challenging environment like Nigeria.
“You must create engaging content to tell your stories and be innovative in your communication approaches,” he added.
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