Experts threaten Legal Action against Use of Non-Professionals as Party spokespersons
Nigerian media owners and Public Relations experts have frowned at the engagement of non-professionals by political parties as directors of communication and have agreed to propose laws that will strength the media profession and quality of election campaigns in the country.
They made this known during a virtual meeting organized by the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) in collaboration with the Consortium of Nigerian Communication Experts (CONCE) on Saturday.
Discussants at the meeting noted that across all political parties, campaigns for the 2023 elections have deviated from the real issues and have been centered around abuse and use of derogatory words, mainly as a result of the fact that non- professionals are appointed spokespersons of political parties.
President of Africa Public Relations Association (APRA), and Group Managing Director of CMC Connect (Perception Managers), Yomi Badejo-Okusanya, said election was about democracy and every election or political campaign must be issue-driven, with messages clearly conveyed in a strategic manner.
“The heart and kernel of any election or political campaign is the communication…Many time in Africa, we think that we do not need to convince the electorates, we need to convince some powers that be (sic). So a lot of actors are not speaking to the electorates,” Badejo-Okusanya noted.
Similarly, Principal Consultant at NECCI Consulting, Nkechi Ali-Balogun who spoke on audience segmentation, observed that Nigeria’s 18 political parties contesting for the 2023 general elections deployed political communications to various degrees of proficiency in line with their identified audiences.
She added: “The challenge remains whether their choice is suitable for their purposes and whether they are optimizing it”
On his part, a senior lecturer at the Department of Mass Communication, Bayero University, Kano, Sule Ya’u Sule addressed the language and tone being used in the campaigns towards the 2023 elections.
He pointed that political campaign messages ought to appeal to the audience in order to capture attention and generate sympathy from the public and the use of abusive or derogatory words was counterproductive to this goal.
“What we hear from all the candidates are not PR type communication. We hear violent communication coming out from our presidential candidates and this will translate in instigating followers to foment trouble.
“NIPR and other regulatory agencies have a role to play because we must insist that all political parties only appoint professionals to man their communication outfits,” Sule said.
Founder and Chairperson of Nigerian Women in Public Relation, Tolulope Olorundero also shed light on how the various political parties have used social media to drive youth engagement and promote party activities with a view to get support for their candidates.
Olorundero noted that the 2023 electioneering period has witnessed a louder clamour for a third force which started on the platform provided by social media and is largely driven by the youths.
“Ultimately, for the parties that have utilized and ignored social media so far, what has happened is that the youth engagements on these social media platforms have been largely unethical, divisive and uncoordinated, Coordination of all communication activities ideally should have come from a more strategic communication standpoint led by public relations professionals,” she suggested.
A professor emeritus is strategic communication analytics at North Dakota State University, Fargo, Charles Okigbo tasked the NIPR to take the lead in providing public enlightenment and set the standard on managing political campaigns in the country.
