NIPR 2023 conference, elections: Time to address institute’s dwindling fortune

FOR many stakeholders in the nation’s Public Relations (PR) space, the forthcoming annual general meeting and the election of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR)hold its significance for practitioners and PR practice for a myriad of reasons.

One of such is that the institute’s AGM, scheduled for the federal capital, Abuja, this month, provides the much-needed opportunity for the repositioning of PR practice in Nigeria, and shore up the waning equity of the professional institute.

Despite being one of the oldest professions in the country, not a few believe that a lot is wrong with the practice, and the institute regulating it. Perhaps, the main reason for the excitement the institute’s forthcoming AGM has continued to generate among stakeholders.

Interestingly, the two frontrunners, Nkechi Alli-Balogun, Principal Consultant/CEO of NECCI Ltd and Dr Ike Neliaku, Executive Vice Chairman, Rightangle PR, who have thrown their hats into the ring for the exalted office of the institute’s president, said they are not oblivious of the challenges confronting the institute. More comforting to stakeholders are the assurances coming from the duo that those obstacles are not insurmountable and that  they have what it takes to clean the Augean stable at the institute and reposition it for better exploits.

For instance, Neliaku, a fellow of the institute, in a letter expressing his interest to contest,  believes his wealth of experience, garnered over 35 years across professional, public and private sectors, put him in good stead to deliver the good. Nkechi, another fellow of the institute, on her part, believes she has a roadmap, a recipe for the numerous challenges bedeviling the institute.

One of such challenges is that of benefits, which the former NIPR chairman, Lagos chapter, believes practitioners are not getting enough of.

“What does a holder of NIPR certificate benefit? The person with an ICAN certificate is upgraded and given some perks of office, but we are still seeking recognisable relevance for our NIPR certificate. So the first thing we must do is ‘caderisation’,”  she had stated at a media briefing recently.

Nkechi also believes the issue of enforcement should be looked into and she is ready to do just that, if voted into office.

“We have everything needed to regulate the industry. So I am going to enforce a lot of things,” she stated.

But, beautiful as those manifestos are, not a few practitioners believe that there are far weightier challenges confronting it, for the next president,  desirous of repositioning the institute, to really address.

For instance, they believe the time is ripe for the next president to work on the existing NIPR law to make it more adaptive to present realities.

The present NIPR Act No 1990, they say, is anachronistic and out of date and, as a result, cannot give tangible progress and value to the modern-day practitioners.

According to them, it has become imperative for the institute’s  registrar, who is the head of the secretariat, to have executive power and not the president, as currently obtained at the institute.

“The president and council members  are ‘birds of passage’, while the Secretariat staff should enjoy permanence like the civil service. This is what obtains in ICAN (Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria);  NIMN (National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria); CIIN (Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria); CIPM (Chartered Institute of Personnel Management) and many other professional groups.

“Ours should not be an exception. Through the ‘rejigged’ law, we can rescue NIPR from itself,” argued a Lagos-based practitioner, who would not want his name in print.

Another is the agitation for a permanent building for the institute. Many practitioners believe it is rather belittling for an institute regulating a practice often regarded as the fifth ‘P’ (perception) in the marketing mix in the most populous black nation in the world  to still continue to operate from  a rented apartment, despite the calibre of practitioners it parades.

“I hope the day for the change will come, when an institute of our dream at 60 will not be living in a rented apartment,” another practitioner said.

Unfortunately, while  the clamour is no longer new to those conversant with happenings at the institute, it still, however, yet to be addressed.

Will the institute, this time,  use the opportunity of the forthcoming conference and elections to put its  house in order, and assuage the feelings of those, within its rank, that are gradually getting fed up with its affairs? Will it succeed in electing a set of leaders, ready to go the whole hog in addressing some of the issues raised by stakeholders, at the forthcoming AGM?

While time will definitely tell, not a few however, believe the  forthcoming elections can be used to change the old order, and put the image laundering institute on the path of growth.

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