By Princewill Ekwujuru
AS the Nigeria Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) goes to the poll by November 2009 what should be uppermost in the minds of the electorate is to choose a candidate that has the interest of the institute at heart. The reason is that over the years, the body has remained stagnant, there has not been appreciable improvement in the affairs of the institute. There has been contending issues bedeviling the institute; that had impeded its growth; some of these problems have contributed to the underdevelopment of Public Relations practice in the country. What the NIPR requires now is a person spirited enough  to move the practice forward. Some of the candidates contesting for the position of the president  are not visible.  Vanguard was on guard to track Alhaji. Yusuf Mohammed who is contesting for the presidency of the institute. In this interview the interviewee raised some salient questions, and expressed his desire to lead the institute.

What is the problem with NIPR that you think has impeded its growth?
I think it is better to be very frank, but you may access whatever I say and then put it in your own way. The situation is very bad, because,  if you can just take it back to eight years before now, this is the NIPR that has a training school, this is NIPR that has vehicles for official assignments. This is the NIPR that has all what it takes to bond communicators together, which means all the equipments you may think about, all the infrastructure are there. This is the NIPR that has serene atmosphere secretariat. This is the NIPR that goes round the country, and each and everyone will like to become a member. This is the NIPR that has people like Chujuka who will  make sure that quakes appearing or even trying get membership. This is the NIPR that anyone will go within the corporate world; you see them collaborate. This is the NIPR that will even address National Security issues and federal government will sponsor it.

This is the NIPR that majority of it programme would be sponsored by big organisations e.g CBN, NNPC, PPMC, PTDF all these organisations. This is the NIPR that is all over the educational sector, making a logical data on what is happening in any government before time, this is the NIPR that  has better relations with the Ministry of Information, because we are a quarsai parastatal under the  Ministry of Information and Communication. This is the NIPR that is the dream of every member, the NIPR that was presided over by Dr. Sam Epele, to Kanu Ofori, to Tony willy Harry, to Alex Akinyele, to Mazi Okereke, reaches to Sabo Mohammed, to Jibade Oyekan etc.

This is the NIPR that they killed. This is the NIPR that they lead to the national assembly to get  N40 million from government. As at 2001, when we were expected to gathered in Owerri, Imo State to re-elect Jibade Oyekan, and he was re-elected, the money came, the money  he struggled for, because I followed him to the National Assembly, when Senator Ibrahim Mantu was the Chairman, Senate Committee on Information, and Abike Dabiri, Chairman, House of Representative Committee on Information. There was  instruction to go and get a national secretariat, a permanent PR school site.

The Ministry of Works gave Chief Oyekan,  a land, an,  abandoned property in Yaba, where it was intended to move the national secretariat and establish a NIPR school. Today, you see our Diploma and Certificate students go to primary schools to get tuition.

This is the NIPR that has different departments as at that time, there is a department of marketing, education and training, there is a department of membership, and there is a registrar, but today, there is no any single department, only the registrar and Junior staff. So, this is the NIPR we want to change. This is the NIPR that is suffering today, because government doesn’t relate with us.

I am happy today, because I am a member of NIPR, but we have not a courtesy visit to Prof. Dora Akunyili, as the Minister of Information and Communication, other professional bodies like APCON, NIM, COREN, NUJ, even NUJ that we call our colleagues. The Architects association etc have gone to see her.

Public Relations is no more like what they think it was before like to be protocol officer, to be an errand boy. It is management function. Public Relations is a management function, if you are not in management function, if you have not reached the clerical stage, you cannot practice Public Relations. But today who are the members of the institute. It is Dick and Harry.

So, this is the NIPR that we want to change.

This is the NIPR that we have been dreaming to change, because, we have been dreaming, uptill now we are dreaming. You will say oh! lofty  ideas, but when we come to vote, we are not there, we either don’t attend the AGM or we don’t pay our dues. So where are heading to.? This is the we would like to change.

When eventually you become the President of the institute would you still push for subvention from government?

Subvention for NIPR  is not anything that one can rely on, Why do we want get subvention from government even though, because were are registered as a professional institute to help the image of government that is why we are clamouring for subvention that if  given you cannot utilize  properly, government will withdraw it. APCON and NIPR had problems,  but, APCON came back to their senses. Getting the subvention is no big deal we just do a memo to the government.

I remembered that a memo was written by Nweke Junior when he was minister to the President that NIPR was taken to court, the case has not been withdrawn from the court. We can still can go back to government to get the subvention, because we are registered like an institution under the government. Though there are procedures. So, if you want your subvention returned, you have to go back to the national assembly, and explain. We will do it, it would be proper to have an NIPR that is financially ok. We will return back to subvention.  In the course of six months we can bring back the subvention.