The Federal Government has promised to provide an enabling environment for Nigeria’s pool of teeming public relations and communications practitioners.
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, gave the assurance in a statement by him, welcome the establishment of a degree-awarding academy for public relations practice in Nigeria, on Saturday.
The degree-awarding academy followed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations and the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management.
“Rest assured that the administration of President Bola Tinubu will continue to provide the enabling environment for everybody within Nigeria’s communications industry to thrive”, he stated.
Idris also welcomed the recent election of a Nigerian, Dr Omoniyi Ibietan, as the Secretary-General of the African Public Relations Association.
He said it was worth noting that Public Relations had been designated as a cadre in the Federal Civil Service, with effect from December 2023.
“The Information Officer Cadre has been re-designated to ‘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 so deserves commendation. Nigeria will continue to play a leading role in strengthening and elevating public relations practice at home and across Africa”, Idris noted.
He also highlighted his interactions with the President of the African Public Relations Association, Mr Arik Karani, who commended Nigeria in this regard.
Karani had told Idris, “[Nigeria] was, for the longest time, the only country in Africa that had a law that professionalised public relations.
“Nigeria started it on the continent, and only last year did Zambia come out with its law.
“Now, we have two countries on the continent. In Kenya, the bill for professionalising public relations is at the second reading in Parliament”.
