By Demi Adeniyi
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, has assured that the Tinubu administration would continue to provide enabling environment for everybody within Nigeria’s communications industry to thrive.
Idris, who disclosed this in a statement issued at the weekend, said this is in recognition of the huge impact the profession is making, not only in the country but across the African continent.
He described the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), signed between the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations and the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management, for the establishment of a degree-awarding academy for public relations practice in Nigeria as another effort being made to deepen public relations practice in Africa.
Idris, who described as a welcome development, the election of Dr. Omoniyi Ibietan, as the Secretary-General of the African Public Relations Association (APRA), also applauded the designation of Public Relations as a cadre in the Federal Civil Service, with effect from December 2023.
With the recognition, the Information Officer Cadre has been re-designated ‘Information and Public Relations Officer Cadre’, and the Executive Cadre to ‘Executive Officer (Information and Public Relations)’. The NIPR played a critical role in championing this, and deserve commendation.
He assured that Nigeria will continue to play a leading role in strengthening and elevating public relations practice at home and across Africa, adding that he would continue to work with the African Public Relations Association, and its President, Mr. Arik Karani, to deepen the practice of public relations in Nigeria and the Africa continent.
He said: “Nigeria, was for the long time, the only country in Africa that had a law that professionalised public relations. It is Nigeria that started it on the continent, and only last year did Zambia come out with its own law. So now we have two countries on the continent, and only now in Kenya, the bill to professionalise public relations is at the second reading in Parliament.”