With recent landmark achievements of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) both within the country and in the African PR space, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, has commended the feats, acknowledging the critical role the Institute has played in positioning the country to global reckoning.
Idris, who is also a Fellow of the Institute, in a statement this weekend, welcomed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations and the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management, to establish a degree-awarding academy for public relations practice in Nigeria, noting that Nigeria will continue to play a leading role in strengthening and elevating public relations practice at home and across Africa.
While also commending the recent election of a Nigerian, Dr. Omoniyi Ibietan, as the Secretary-General of the African Public Relations Association (APRA), Idris revealed that with the efforts of the NIPR, Public Relations (PR) has now 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 deserve commendation,” he said.
Speaking on the reputation of the country in the African PR field, Idris related: “Recently, when I received the President of the African Public Relations Association, Mr. Arik Karani, he commended Nigeria in this regard.
“He said, “[Nigeria] was, for the longest time, the only country in Africa that had a law that professionalized public relations. It was 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 for professionalizing public relations is at the second reading in Parliament.””
Idris pledged that the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will continue to provide the enabling environment for everybody within Nigeria’s communications industry to thrive.
