PR Consultants Identify Shortcomings of Practice in Nigeria
By Tunmise Adekunle
In a bid to ensure that professionals make meaningful impact capable of creating sustainable development in the country, Public Relations practitioners, recently, at the Lagos Sheraton Hotel & Towers, gathered to review practices and proffer solutions to some of the basic problems in the profession.
Organized by Marion Communications and sponsored by The Lagos State Radio Service, the breakfast interactive session identified lack of self development, inability to position public relations functions as an integral aspect of management and non conformity to ethics and standards of the profession as some of the basic impediments to the practice of public relations in the country.
These shortcomings, they agreed, often led to advertising agencies and management consultancies executing public relations functions and becoming more relevant in marketing communication management than PR practitioners.
Speaking on the topic, "Trends, Issues and challenges in Public Relations" N'naemeka Maduegbuna, President, Public Relations Consultants Associations of Nigeria (PRCAN) went down memory lane to trace the evolution of Public Relations in the country and concluded that the era of PR been an all comer affairs was over.
According to him, the growth and development of the economy, increasing literacy level and the need for organizations to establish empathy with key stake holders has accelerated demand for public relations practice in recent time and PR practitioners should equip themselves to take advantage of this development.
Doing a matrix of the profession in the country, he identified deregulation of the economy, digital revolution / information age, democracy and increasing demand for fair competition, growing enlightened practitioner base and increasing demand for world class standards in corporate governance as some of the opportunities,
He therefore urged practitioners to take advantage of the increasing growth in market size which has increased in the last few years, projecting a 15 % growth in the economy in 2005.
In her contribution, Mrs. Tinu Aina-Badejo, the Director of Marketing of the Lagos State Radio Service, the sponsors of the forum, said such gathering are needed to improve the standard of every profession. She enjoined public relations practitioners to create good working relationship with the media as both depend on each other for effective operation. She pledged Lagos State Radio Service support for such event aimed at generating fruitful intellectual discourse.
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