By Zeenat Sambo
The President of the Nigeria Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Dr. Ike Neliaku, has inaugurated two committees on the forthcoming first edition of the Nigeria National Spokespersons’ Awards (NNSA) scheduled for March 2024.
This is part of the historic deal with the Image Merchants Promotion Limited (IMPR) – publishers of PRNigeria, Economic Confidential, Spokespersons’ Digest and other titles – for the transition of the annual Spokespersons’ Communication Awards (SCA) into NNSA.
Speaking as the Chief Host of the 5th edition of the Security and Emergency Management Awards (SAEMA) and 3rd SCA held in Abuja on Thursday, Dr Neliaku said it is important to celebrate and acknowledge PR practitioners and spokespersons in their efforts to promote the image of their respective organisations as well as protect the image of Nigeria.
While appreciating the efforts of IMPR in honouring PR professionals who are making everyone proud, he said this led the organisation to sign an MoU with IMPR to work together and expand the award in a manner that will now take it a national platform.
Speaking on the collaboration, Neliaku revealed that from the 25th-28th of March, 2024, both organisations will host the first National Spokespersons Summit and Workshop in which the new NNSA will be embedded.
“This is because we recognise the importance of spokespersons in nation building and development. We always insist that speaking and talking may not necessarily be communication. So we decided to take the necessary expertise required to groom a generation of spokespersons that would not just speak for their organisations, but will begin to speak for Nigeria,” he said.
Speaking on national development, the NIPR president noted that the organisation is hosting the summit to support of the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation in fulfilling its mandate.
“Considering that the Minister, Mohammed Idris Malagi, who is a fellow of NIPR, values and understands what it is to communicate, not just to inform, but to make communication an essential part of his information management.
“He has used such knowledge and tactical PR skills to manage information and communication in the last few months, which helped to douse tension in the wake of the COP28 over-bloated delegate saga.
“He simply issued a statement categorising the number of representation and where these representations came from. And that put a stop to the fake news,” he said.
The six people representing the two organisations to coordinate preparations for the NNSA are; Segun McMedal, former chairman of NIPR in Lagos State who will chair the committee; Comptroller Joseph Attah, a fellow of the Institute; Mohammed Dahiru Lawal, the Head of Fact-check and Investigation at PRNigeria; Saad Shuaib, Business Manager at PRNigeria; Mrs. Ekalome Udo; and Mr. Stanley Ogadigwu who will serve as Secretary of the committee.
The jurist committee will be chaired by Prof. Mabel Aworihoma. Prof. Anthony Igwefe, Dr Matins Akinam, Dr. Saudat Abdulbaki, Mr. Kabir Abdulsalam and Mr. Ishola Ayodele will serve as members while the Managing Editor of PRNigeria, Mr. Abdulrahman Abdulraheem, will serve as Secretary.
Speaking on behalf of the two committees, Mr McMedal thanked NIPR and IMPR for the honour and pledged to do their best to organise a befitting ceremony next year.
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