Mr. Joseph Okonmah is the Managing Director, Jasek Communications Limited, and the immediate past president of the Nigeria Institute of Public Relations. In this interview with DEBORA KOLAPO, he outlines the challenges PR practitioners face and their expectations from the Federal Government. Excerpts:
Last year, the Federal Government, through the Ministry of Finance, engaged the services of a foreign-based public relations agency at the World Bank’s Spring Meeting in the United States, and not a Nigerian PR firm. Does that mean indigenous firms are not qualified?
In terms of local content, governments need to look inwards and be sincere with what we are doing. I can assure you; we have many of us that are qualified to take up any part at the national level. It is better for the Federal Government to start looking inward and begin to work in partnership with PR practitioners in Nigeria, who are members of NIPR and are qualified to practise in Nigeria.
Advertising agencies are doing better than PR agencies. What are the factors responsible?
I am not comparing. There is a difference between advertising and Public Relations, because we dwell more on reputation and auxillary matters, but advert is paid for. You find out that if you are paying somebody, whoever is paying will want to get the result immediately; but in PR, it does not manifest immediately because we have to build on certain things, like goodwill, reputation and a lot of other things that will make us sell our product and position in a better way.
How would you rate the immediate past and present administrations in terms of their contributions to the growth of the PR industry?
Both governments are the same and we must know that government is a continuum in that, it is about policies and some certain deliverables. The challenges the former government faced are different from the ones the new administration is facing and that is because of the dynamic nature of human life.
They are not facing the same thing, except the ones that are very common to all of them but they are trying their best. A lot more will need to be done for us to get to our professional Eldorado; we are not yet there but we will get there in a matter of time. So we cannot compare or say they are not doing their best.
What do you expect from this administration?
The law enforcement aspect of it needs to be beefed up; the police system, the judicial system, all of them must be on top of what they are doing, to make sure that all the professional bodies are delivering and are doing it very well. If the policing system, judicial or law enforcement aspect are not right, on getting to understand who should be a professional, how to be a professional, then it becomes difficult for the NIPR to operate the way it
should operate.
What is the institute doing about quacks?
The enforcement aspect of it is what we really need to intensify. The compliance committee at the national level is trying to ensure that only practitioners can practise, because we found out that some people are still encroaching and they need to be taken up, face the consequence of their actions.
In addition, I am a lawyer; you cannot be a lawyer without being called to the bar. So, that is the same way people need to ask the requirements you have, to practise PR. Are you recognised by the law for you to practise here in Nigeria? If the answer is no, then they should face the law. The quacks are the ones messing up the business for the real people who are qualified to practise because they are gate crashers.
