By Michael Eboh

The Federal Government has stated that the myriad of problems currently facing the country is creating an image problem for the country.

Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information and Culture, Mrs. Ayotunde Adesugba, who stated this at the monthly meeting of the Nigeria Institute of Public Relations, NIPR and launch of the Institutes monthly newsletter, lamented that the fuel crisis and other economic challenges are denting the image of the country.

Adetugba, who was represented by the Director, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Mrs. Veronica Adeyemo, called on professionals, such as the NIPR to always remember the country in their deliberations and engagement so as help lift the country from these problems.

She tasked the NIPR, as well as other professional associations, to proffer solutions to salvaging the country’s image and in solving the problems confronting the country.

In his response, Mr. Tayo Haastrup, Chairman NIPR, Capital City Chapter, Abuja, promised to support the government in projecting a positive image for Nigeria.

According to him, the NIPR would introduce programmes and policies that would support the efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari to present a positive image of the country both locally and internationally.

He said, “We need a national conference on national integration, and what the present government is doing would be a very good direction for anybody to support. Image laundering and policies are very important.

“Let me also tell you that the Buhari is already helping us in the aspect of image laundering. He is a man of integrity; he is a man that developed countries believe in, and you can see him travelling here and there; there are receiving him very well. This is the number one citizen that is already helping us to launch and launder our image all over the world.

“On the NIPR side, we as professionals, in terms of image laundering, would be supporting him and we are going to create programmes and policies that would support the image of this country in any format and any way.

“We need to have trust in ourselves, we need to support this country, believing that it is a great country; we need to support the government in whatever it is doing; we need to support the anti-corruption drive of the government and we need to launder the image of Nigeria and this country would be great again.”