The Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) has urged Nigerians to imbibe the culture of positive mindset and promotion of the nation’s unique values against the current habit of speaking ill of the country.
In his presentation as a Keynote Speaker during the 2024 Annual Conference of the Niger State Chapter of the NIPR Tuesday in Minna, the President, Dr. Ike Neliaku said that there is need for citizens to desist from negative attitudes capable of destroying the reputation of Nigeria.
The President who was represented by the Vice President, Prof. Emmanuel Dandaura, noted the challenge of trust deficit as a factor influencing people’s attitudes and called on public relations practitioners to always uphold professionalism, ethics, integrity and deploy tailor made communication strategies to navigate the daunting multifaceted 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. That cannot be associated with PR”, he said.
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 to leverage technological innovations to navigate the myriad of operational and environment challenges.
“You must create engaging content to tell your stories and be innovative in your communication approaches” he said, stressing that data and technology play critical roles in modern public relations practice in a challenging environment like Nigeria.
