Peter Ademu-Etteh, the managing director of a public relations outfit, Enentis Communications, talks about challenges of PR practice in face of the new media and how Buhari’s administration can benefit from PR practitioners.
What is your assessment of PR practice in Nigeria?
The practice of Public Relations (PR) in Nigeria is experiencing a great shift in focus and function. The practice is moving away from publicity for the sake of it to communicating to engender desired perception and change in attitude and behaviour. By this paradigm shift, PR in Nigeria is fast becoming an integral tonic for profitability in business and good governance.
What do you make of the view that the industry is becoming an all-comers affair?
Public Relations practice in Nigeria is a highly regulated profession with high standards set for practitioners by the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), the body recognised by law to regulate the practice of PR in Nigeria. The NIPR attained the status of a chartered institute in June 1990 through Decree No. 16 (now an Act of the Federal Republic of Nigeria). By virtue of this law, NIPR derived the power to register members and monitor professional conducts through an established code of ethics. Just like other respectable professional bodies, the law allows standard academic and professional qualifications for admissions into the Institute. It is therefore illegal to practice PR in Nigeria without certification and registration by the NIPR. However, like every other profession in Nigeria, PR profession is faced with quacks and impersonators who are portraying the profession in bad light.
In what way would you say the new media has affected PR practice?
The visual and social media have changed the face of PR practice in this decade. Information and communication technology (ICT) has made stakeholders and customers more sophisticated. They move with these rapid changes in technology and emerging communication platforms like the social and online media. Our response at Enentis Communications Limited is to understand the changes, the emerging communication platforms, the issues and their impact on business, politics and wider society. We then design clear, persuasive and fit-for-purpose communication that shapes stakeholders’ perceptions that lead to desired behaviour change. Our joy is to help clients understand how changes in technology, business and stakeholder demography are affecting their businesses and what we can do to mitigate negative impact on their reputation to ensure profitability.
What is the future of PR practice in Nigeria, given that everybody has access to one media platform or another?
It is only PR that integrates the complex information into a simplified picture that is easily understood, believed and acted upon. Availability of many media platforms cannot take the place of PR. Those media platforms are channels that PR practitioners will continue to use to reach intended publics. PR is the process of establishing and sustaining mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics. PR practitioners are agents of opinion change and engineers of consensus through persuasion.
How did you get into PR practice?
I had always wished to influence people and be a visible reference point. The guidance and counselling I received in my secondary school (Wesley High School Otukpo) helped my understanding and focus on what courses I needed to read to get into journalism and ultimately into PR practice. The counselling worked. After practising as a freelance journalist for some years, I decided to get into PR practice to engineer needed changes.
What has changed since you started PR practice?
The focus when I started my career 24 years ago was on press releases, events and exhibitions. Today, emerging media platforms, growing stakeholder sophistication, ever-changing ICT, and advances of globalisation have caused changes. PR has also had to change to keep pace with the changes. With the advent of internet and social media, stakeholders who are internet savvy are the ones trying to define reality, and they do so with immediacy. Power to communicate now belongs to the people, courtesy of the internet and associated media platforms. PR practitioners must hone skills in integrating online media with traditional media platforms to reach target stakeholders.
You left the oil industry for PR practice; why?
Life is about making positive impact on some segments of society within some defined time dimensions and then moving on to other areas. Whenever my mission is accomplished in any organisation, I move on to the next for fresh challenges. Shell was the 6th place I worked. Prior to joining Shell, I was the head of Public Affairs Department of National Population Commission in Benue State. I was also the principal consultant at Debita Communications, consultant at Jontsaf Public Relations Limited, and senior consultant at New Earth Public Relations Limited. I was a freelance journalist before veering into PR practice. I was hired by Shell in 1998 as a public relations expert, together with some of my colleagues, to help the company overcome some reputation management challenges that the company was facing. I had a great career in Shell: head of PR and Brand/PR adviser to the MD, head of Stakeholder Management and manager, Communications Production Services. We achieved the company’s objectives and today the company’s reputation in Nigeria is greatly enhanced. However, I needed freedom to self-actualise as well as enrich the PR practice in Nigeria with my fresh perspectives. It became a compulsive passion that could not be achieved within the confines of Shell. That was why I set up Enentis Communications Limited in April 2014 before my exit from Shell in November 2014.
President Buhari’s government has received equal dose of both commendation and bashing. What PR strategy would you recommend to him by way of going forward?
President Buharishould assemble a PR team to proactively advise his administration on perception, attitude and behaviour change management. Ad-hoc or fire brigade approach will not work, as knee-jerk actions have no efficiency. The team could brainstorm and develop the PR strategy that will help him meet the expectations of the people. The PR team will give him honest advice and equip him to manage and meet the expectations of Nigerians and the global community. He must fight corruption, end insecurity and carry out people-oriented programmes that will connect him to the people. His PR campaignsmust be based on perception drivers – concrete achievements. Performance that is communicated will catalyse good reputation.
