By Ere-ebi Agedah
In a bid to change the narrative and equip spokespersons in public, private, and civil society organisations, the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, NIPR is set to host a two-day Summit in Abuja.
Addressing a Press conference ahead of the summit, Dr. Ike Neliaku, President and Chairman of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, noted that the summit will afford professionals in the field an opportunity to learn new strategies for the job and a departure from conventional practices in the field of spokesmanship.
Organized in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation, Dr Neliaku noted that highly experienced veterans from within and outside the country have been carefully selected as resource persons to broaden the knowledge of participants at the summit coming up from March 26—27.
With the theme, “Change Narratives, Change Society”, the NIPR boss disclosed that the summit will be declared opened by the Vice President, Kashim Shettima and will host technical session, spokespersons clinic and other segments that will enable experienced spokespersons to share their success stories with younger colleagues.
The NIPR boss listed the topics to be treated to include, “Emerging Trends in Crafting Press Statements, Press Briefings and Talks Shows”, “Public Speaking Skills for 21st Century Spokespersons”, “Artificial Intelligence Tools For Spokespersons”, “Future Proofing Corporate Communications”, “Global Trends In Managing Risks, Disaster and Crisis Communications”, “Bridging Citizens-Government Communication” among others.
In his remarks, the Chairman of National Spokespersons Summit Organising Committee, Dr. Sule Ya’u Sule said time has come for the spokespersons and communication managers to update their skills to enable them perform effectively in line with the growing demands of the job.
“Gone are the days when the spokesperson can only issue a press statement. Now certain situations demand not even to speak to the press. Certain actions will take care of the situation.
“There are so many innovations now as far as this job is concerned. That is why we try to gather spokespersons so that they can be updated.
“Moreso, our airwaves seem to be saturated with violent communications and that is what brings so much trouble, so much distrust in the country. We are trying to teach the culture of non-violent communication”, he said.
Similarly, Moji Makanjuola, Chairperson of the Sub-committee on Publicity, emphasized that the narrative of Nigeria can only be changed positively by Nigerians themselves.
She emphasized that the summit’s primary objective is to incorporate the media into the developmental aspirations of Nigeria.
“Nobody can change the narrative of Nigeria for Nigerians except the media. The narrative is all about changing where we are and seeing ourselves as partners in progress. We can’t, as a country, aspire for development without integrating the media as an integral part,” she stated.
