Reputation critical to solving issues of good governance, others in Nigeria 

The Acting President of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Professor Emmanuel Dandaura, has said reputation is critical to solving the issues of good governance, accountability and credibility in Nigeria. 

Dandaura noted this at the reputation roundtable with the theme, “Navigating Reputation challenges in Digital Era” organised by the NIPR FCT chapter in Abuja.

According to him,  nobody can help our leaders at the various levels to ensure that they address their actions and their thought processes in a way that will reduce the deficits we have in the area of trust,  credibility, acceptability, and in getting people involved in what they are doing than the public relations professionals . 

He described the roundtable as a  welcome development from the FCT chapter. 

Also, the NIPR-FCT Chairman, Stanley Ogadigo, explained that Reputation Roundtable Initiative is a product of the N NIPR FCT chapter and the reasons are simple. 

“One, we want to begin the year with impacting the right knowledge to reputation drivers by extension directors of public relations and managers of public relations across different parastatas and organizations.

“The reason is simple. We need to begin the year with the right knowledge to be able to meet up with the challenges of the year. Secondly, this is very important because, like I said during the opening remarks,one of the greatest challenges facing the nation today is reputation.

“And then at the national level of the Nigeria Institute of Public Relations, we are making everything possible to ensure that the reputation of the country is improved.

“And then at the chapter level, we are also taking this very, very seriously. First and foremost, the executive committee of the chapter would want a chapter that is driven by a set of persons who are knowledgeable about the profession and the industry.

“So, the package is put together to train the reputation managers across various organizations  to ensure that they are in tune with modern realities in terms of reputation building and management.

“At the end of this training, it is expected that we, the reputation managers and public relations officers, will go to our various organizations and add value to what we do. 

“And that value addition will translate to improved bottom line, which every chief executive officer is looking forward to.

“So, it’s a whole lot of benefits that the attendees or the participants intend to achieve. Again, part of the reasons why we are here is to also see how we, as an institute, will give institutional support to our members who are manning the offices of public relations officers and reputation managers of different organizations. 

“The time has come that we need to empower our members, not individually, but coming with our institutional support to support anybody who is certified by the institute and holding that position of reputation building and management director in the federal, state, local government, and even private sector.

“So in a nutshell, we want to also see how we can collaborate very closely with the directors of public relations to ensure that we give them the institutional support that is required. 

“And then the reason, again, is simple, because we are fighting bankruptcy in the system, and we need to also encourage our members to ensure that they even have the requisite tools to even function and function effectively. 

“With that, even others outside will appreciate what we do, and then they will want to be a member.

“That is also part of ways of fighting bankruptcy. Bankruptcy must not be law enforcement and all that. No. It’s also a process of fighting bankruptcy in the profession. 

“So we are determined, as the FCT, to train our members so that they will also take the opportunities that the president at the national level is creating to ensure that only certified members of the institute are empowered to be directors of public relations across various organizations,” he said.

Also, in a paper presentation by the Dr. Danladi Bako said we need to reinvent our reputation not as a country with the largest number of churches and mosques yet bedeviled by high crimes and deepened criminality, but as a country of forthright, trustworthy, decent and compassionate people.

He said we must restate and restart our dominance of the continent’s agricultural economy, high education, superlative health care, tourism El-dorado and high riding sports champions capable of conquering the world.