Nigeria will continue to play a leading role in strengthening and elevating public relations practice at home and across Africa, the Minister of information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris has said.
The minister also 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.
Idris, who expressed delight at the recent election of a Nigerian, Dr. Omoniyi Ibietan, as the Secretary-General of the African Public Relations Association (APRA), recalled he recently received the President of the African Public Relations Association, Mr. Arik Karani at his office.
Idris said Karabi commended Nigeria for being the first country in Africa to give Public Relations its due as a profession.
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.”
The Minister also noted that 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,” the minister said.
“Rest assured that the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will continue to provide the enabling environment for everybody within Nigeria’s communications industry to thrive.”
