FROM INFORMATION TO?PUBLIC COMMUNICATION - THE NEED FOR A STRATEGIC REVIEW OF?NIGERIA’S INFORMATION POLICY & STRUCTURE A POSITION PAPER TO GOVERNMENT

FIRST THOUGHTS

“The two words “information” and “communication” are used interchangeably, but they signify different things. Information is giving out; communication is getting through”

– Sydney J. Harris

“Communication is about making connections to achieve a common goal; it’s the powerful tool that brings a nation together in spite of the multiplicity of opinions, needs or desires. It is the platform that helps individuals and government ventilate their thoughts, fosters dialogue and allows a people find the driving force for progress and development”

-Anon

“Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing”

– Rollo May

The Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, my brothers Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu, senior members of the Presidential Communication Team, ladies and gentlemen, I thank you for inviting me to deliver this paper to the Presidential Communication Team. Nigeria requires an update of our Information Policy and the migration of this into a Public Communication Policy. The last National Communication Policy conference held at ASCON Badagry in 1987, when the first National Communication Policy was crafted. AAPN (Now AAAN) was invited and represented by Senator Akin Odunsi and Messrs Chris Doghudje and Ayo Owoborode. That policy was effectively put in operation in 1990. Effectively, the nation has run with this Policy, and it is certainly time to review it to now effectively manage a changing world order and a massive 180 million population and other stakeholders.

What is an Information Policy?

It is a deliberate system of principles to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes in the area of public dissemination of critical information. A Policy is a statement of intent, implemented as a procedure or protocol. Policies are generally adopted by a governance body within the government, in line with the overall governing policy of an administration.

Policy differs from Rules or Laws. While Rules/Laws can compel or prohibit behaviours (e.g. a law requiring the payment of taxes on income), policy merely guides the actions of those that are most likely to achieve a desired outcome.

Policies can be understood as political, managerial, financial, and administrative mechanisms arranged to reach explicit goals.

In the absence of a current and relevant Information Policy, the government through the Ministry for this responsibility is likely to be floundering and unable to properly articulate the administration’s message to the people; worse is its inability to have an effective feedback mechanism through which the government needs to feel the pulse of the people and their reaction to its various policies. An effective Information Policy can also serve the purpose of galvanising the people towards an effective Social Mobilisation and Civic Responsibility campaign and process.

This paper will therefore examine the current situation, the history, its operations, effectiveness, the channels of communication, the need for an immediate review, how to go about it, the proposed benefits and likely costs, the institution of a new regime of managing public communication, and most essentially, an extension of the government’s plan to project the success of its policies in an articulate and concise way to the nation. My hope is for this proposal to be well considered and approved, so that it will go a long way in changing the way government communicates with Nigerians and the world.

For the purpose of this proposal, Information and Information Policy will be used up to the point where they are replaced with Public Communication and Public Communication Policy.

BACKGROUND TO THE PROPOSAL

Governments all over the world need to inform and receive a feedback from their citizens, and each government devices what it sees as the most effective and self-serving ways of doing this.

The COMMUNIST AND SOCIALIST states essentially use Propaganda and it is usually a one-way flow, where daily, the citizens are simply informed and given updates and instructions. It is unlikely that an effective feedback mechanism is built in because these are autocratic governments. Information is via the state electronic, print and other media. Two perfect examples are North Korea and Russia.

Closely following them are THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES, especially in Africa. It matters little whether they are Socialist, Military or practising some form of Democracy, they hold down tightly on the rein of information organs and use them pretty much the same way the Communists and Socialists do. Nigeria has experienced this a few times under various military governments, where the governments determined what went out and what people read and heard through its official media channels, and even sometimes the private ones, which were often coerced into playing the same roles the government channels did. Inevitably, the Nigerian public information system still operates some relics from the military era in the structure and operation of our Information Ministry. I will say more on this later.

The third is the more contemporary system, and is what we have largely in the Western nations: the US, Canada, EU, UK, Australia, and parts of Asia like Japan etc. They have totally liberalized information dissemination and replaced it with public communication. They have strengthened the organs, built in freedom of speech, liberally use technology, and empower their people to own the process. Few of them have “government” channels like the NTA, FRCN etc., and where they do, as in the case of the BBC in the UK, it is independent, and makes its income from radio and TV licensing etc., reducing reliance on the government, so it can be independent and objective. Indeed, in all of these countries, they no longer operate a stand-alone Ministry of Information such as we and third world countries have. I will soon discuss this under “Structures”.

Nigeria largely operates information management in the second category, and there is a very strong carry-over from the military era. Federal and State governments have and continue to invest in electronic, print and other media. NTA and FRCN for the Federal, where the DGs are political appointees reporting to the Information Minister. Under the same Ministry are other parastatals, all part of a structure mostly inherited from the military era, whose main task is largely propaganda and not the dissemination of critical information. Some of them are News Agency of Nigeria, the National Orientation Agency etc.

So what do we have? Agencies that are little more than propaganda arms of the various governments. Of course very few Nigerians trust the contents from them, and would rather turn to the various local private stations and the international media for their news.

Incidentally, Democracy, the form of government we are currently operating in Nigeria gives a voice to the people. While ironically Nigeria has the largest number of the “most of out of school children” in the world, we also have some of the most educated people. We are therefore discerning and are able to strongly articulate our thoughts – social media and the privately owned media have given us major platforms to ventilate what we think. Indeed, because the world has become a global village, Nigerians know what is happening in other countries, see how democratic systems work, how the citizens relate with their governments and so also believe the same should happen here in Nigeria. They “tell” to the world whatever they believe is going wrong with the government in Nigeria, further calling the attention of the world to Nigeria. On account of the fore going, most Nigerians are at parallel lines with the government.

Unfortunately, the government has done little to close ranks with the people and activities of the current government have been grossly under-reported and managed. From a professional standpoint, the communication apparatus has not delivered the necessary effect. There are two citations:

1. The CHANGE Campaign, and

2. The overall management of public communication

THE CHANGE CAMPAIGN

The APC ran a robust and successful campaign in 2014/2015 based on the CHANGE theme. It was very effective and what Nigerians needed to hear at the time. It was expected that the new administration would adopt same and integrate it into governance at all levels to push its substitution of the PDP government with something that was different and better. Sadly, it didn’t work this way for various reasons. Key was that the Federal Executive Council was not constituted in time, and CHANGE was time-bound, and needed at least an Information Minister to jump-start it. By the time a Minister was appointed, it happened that he was disconnected from the CHANGE idea because he was not part of its visioning, strategy development and execution. It was also clear that if CHANGE was left inactive for too long, it would lose relevance and literally become an orphan, and be unusable in the 2019 campaign; government and the party would have to devise another theme and message.

And this is precisely what happened where the government could no longer use CHANGE and came up with the NEXT LEVEL idea, which in many professional opinions is a weaker alternative to CHANGE. CHANGE could have been a platform for the re-orientation of Nigerians to a new way of thinking, doing things right, changing from a corrupt society, from a society polarised along ethnic and religious lines, etc. CHANGE shouldn’t just have been a campaign line because Nigeria does need change; sadly, the government lost a major social mobilisation opportunity.

THE OVERALL MANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC COMMUNICATION

Without any doubt, this is one area where the government needs to greatly improve. And predictably, the deficit came up during the 2019 elections campaign. Simply put and in our opinion, the Ministry responsible for managing government information doesn’t appear to understand what is involved and required, and so has not done much to actualise its mandate. The Ministry has been strong on propaganda, but has done little to communicate government achievements in so many areas, failed to connect with the people and help them understand things from the government’s perspective, and done little to build the society through communication. Since nature abhors vacuum, apathy and disenfranchisement set in. Opposition seized on this lapse and feeling of seclusion to reinforce the feeling of dejection and filled the public space with misinformation and disinformation. I have presented what I consider a more effective model in this proposal.

This is where Nigeria is at the moment, a very weak public communication structure, that is also not trusted because most of the time it projects government propaganda.

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE INFORMATION MINISTRY

It is helpful to go into a bit of history, so that we can better appreciate why we are where we are.

What metamorphosed into our Ministry of Information started in the late 50s and very early 60s as the PR Department and operation of the Nigerian government, before being promoted to the status of a Ministry of Information. Its task was largely to report government activities. It was not based on any strategic plan or intent. There was of course no deliberate feedback mechanism in its structure. The British developed this model and did not encourage much feedback as part of the overall plan to keep the people as uninformed and as voiceless as possible. Allowing any form of feedback was going to spur nationalist excitement; and amazingly, apart from a few changes here and there, government information methods still follow this pattern.

As time went on, the activities and scope were enlarged, but with basically the same objective: INFORMING THE NIGERIAN PUBLIC (unfortunately this basic function of information was not even carried out effectively or efficiently). Parastatals and agencies were added such that today the Ministry of Information is made up of eighteen of them, as listed below:

1. APCON (Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria)

2. Federal Radio Corporation

3. National Broadcasting Commission

4. National Film & Video Censors Board

5. News Agency of Nigeria

6. Nigerian Film Corporation

7. Nigerian Press Council

8. Nigeria Television Authority

9. Centre for Blacks and African Arts and Culture (CBAAC)

10. Voice of Nigeria

11. National Commission for Museum and Monuments (NCMM)

12. National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC)

13. National Gallery of Art (NGA)

14. National Institute for Cultural Orientation(NICO)

15. National Orientation Agency (NOA)

16. Nigerian Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR)

17. National Theatre/National Troupe of Nigeria (NT/NTN)

18. Nigeria Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC)

For an Information Ministry, out of the EIGHTEEN parastatals, agencies and councils, only FIVE are directly involved with the business of direct information dissemination! This can only be understood and appreciated when one considers the budget constraints of the Federal Ministry of Information and its lack of effectiveness. We will be fully discussing this later in the paper.

CURRENT POSITION

We have a Federal Ministry of Information & Culture under a Minister. Each Parastatal, Council and Agency is headed by a DG, Registrar etc., who is also the CEO, and reports through its Board to the Hon Minister. For example, the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria, APCON has a Chairman (appointed by the President), and a Registrar/CEO appointed by the Council, who reports to the Council. The Chairman reports to the Hon Minister.

All the parastatals depend on the government for their funding through subventions, even though some are in a better position in terms of internally generated revenue. Inevitably, the government is unable to meet all their budgetary needs and where they are not viable enough in the area of IGR, they end up not being able to do little more than paying salaries and not strong enough to take on projects.

It is clear that this current position is NOT working. The Ministry through the organs is hardly fulfilling effective communication obligations, doesn’t have enough money and is too unwieldy. Ideally the number of parastatals etc., should be pruned down either by merging some of them, or even reviewing their further existence.

THE NEED FOR A POLICY REVIEW

Of more critical importance is the need to review the country’s Information Policy and migrate same to a Public Communication Policy. To use the word “review” is to assume that one currently exists. It is our position following several investigations that even if one exists now, it must be very dated.

IT IS THEREFORE OUR PROFESSIONAL OPINION THAT THE FIRST THING TO DO IS REVIEW WHATEVER INFORMATION POLICY NIGERIA HAS, WITH A VIEW TO DEVELOPING A FRESH AND RELEVANT PUBLIC COMMUNICATION POLICY. The new policy must be very holistic, embrace all developments and media, dovetail into the larger government brand management policy, come up with a workable strategy which on approval must now be adopted and implemented by all organs of the Ministry.

The import and advantage of this is that all organs of the Ministry will be in a position to implement their policies and projects against the background of a central strategic policy. This single-minded approach and cohesion will enhance the effectiveness of the government’s communication efforts.

Right now, what happens is that in the absence of an up-to-date policy, there is a weak central communication strategy. And so inevitably, the Ministry of Information is simply running an activities-based operation, rather than a strategy-based one. When we have a strategy-based policy, every arm of the Ministry from NTA and other news agencies, APCON, Nollywood, Tourism and Culture etc., will take their cue from the central policy and develop their activities based on the policy. And so we will have a holistic approach to public communication management.

FROM INFORMATION TO PUBLIC COMMUNICATION

Let me crave your indulgence to bring back the quotes I shared earlier:

“The two words “information” and “communication” are used interchangeably, but they signify different things. Information is giving out; communication is getting through”

– Sydney J. Harris

Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing

– Rollo May

“Communication is about making connections to achieve a common goal; it’s the powerful tool that brings a nation together in spite of the multiplicity of opinions, needs or desires. It is the platform that helps individuals and government ventilate their thoughts, fosters dialogue and allows a people find the driving force for progress and development”

-Anon

The use of the word “Information” for the purpose of sharing and exchanging information in a nation is archaic, old fashioned and anachronistic, and is no longer contemporary and relevant. The concept of “Information” is about dishing out reams of fact-based news in a one-way process through state organs like the NTA, FRCN, Daily Times etc., with little or no room built into the process for interaction and feedback. And it usually ends up as the management of propaganda. Worse, it does not depend on the use of modern tools of communication and when it sometimes does, it is not effectively done.

What the government needs and critically too, is a PUBLIC COMMUNICATION system that informs and receives feedback that is processed into governance. What the government therefore needs to immediately do is completely revamp what we have in the following process:

1. NOMENCLATURE CHANGE

We propose the immediate change of the name Ministry of Information to MINISTRY OF PUBLIC COMMUNICATION. The government is not just informing, but sharing and exchanging news, information, data etc., and receiving an effective feedback which is then used to serve the people. The name change will also strongly signal the fresh direction for the Ministry and the government.

2. DEVELOPMENT OF A PUBLIC COMMUNICATION POLICY

It is inconceivable that a government will run a public communication process without an up-to-date one; the last one was crafted in 1987 and adopted in 1990. The fresh policy will be the course or principle of action adopted by the nation following serious considerations. We often hear of Foreign Policy, Military Policy, Health Policy, Education Policy etc., but hardly hear of an Information (now Communication) Policy. And yet the country needs to communicate with its people and external audiences and other stakeholders. So what do we use as guideline?

3. DEVELOPMENT OF A COMMUNICATION STRATEGY

From the Communication Policy will be developed a Strategic Plan & Framework. A Strategy is the plan of action or plans of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim and objectives. What do we have now? In the absence of a Policy and therefore a Strategic Plan, the Ministry of Information is unable to weld together the various arms that can manage public communication. For example, Nigeria’s Nollywood is vibrant, APCON is effective, our music is well respected, etc., but each is working on individual strategies; there is no single one holding them together.

The government as part of the strategy can as the United States does, adopt a regional acculturalisation plan. Nollywood is then briefed; ditto the musicians and other organs of communication. Our movies are then produced with French and Portuguese translations, and are widely promoted and distributed across the African region. This is what the US has done with its Hollywood and has completely culturally dominated the world!

4. ADOPTION & INTEGRATION OF POLICY

The new Public Communication Policy and the Strategy will be approved at the highest level of government and the administration, and will be cascaded down to the States and even the Local Governments. A deliberate Immersion Programme will be put in place to ensure that everyone fully understands it and is equipped to implement.

5. PERIODIC REVIEW OF POLICY

It is mandatory that the Public Communication Policy and the Strategies are periodically reviewed for effectiveness and relevance by the Ministry to especially align with the dynamism of global trends.

6. ADOPTION OF APCON AS THE SOLE REGULATORY BODY FOR THE MARKETING COMMUNICATION PROFESSION

APCON should be seen, recognised and adopted as the sole regulatory body for the marketing communications profession. And for pragmatic reasons:

? APCON was set up under a federal law under Decree 55 of 1988, and has been actively managed, playing key roles in government

? The components of APCON include all the major stakeholders in the marketing communications industry: AAAN (Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria); MIPAN (The media independents); ADVAN (The Clients); OAAN (Outdoor practitioners of Nigeria) etc.

? APCON is already responsible for regulating Mass Communication syllabus in all higher institutions in Nigeria

? APCON regulates local and foreign practitioners of Marketing Communication in Nigeria

? The government can adopt APCON and work with it, pretty much what the British government does with its Central Office of Information (COI). The UK government is the UK government’s marketing and communications agency. It reported to the Minister for the Cabinet Office. It was a non-ministerial department and became an executive agency. It worked with Whitehall departments and public bodies to produce information campaigns on issues that affected the lives of British citizens, from health and education to benefits, rights and welfare.

WHY IS THIS CRITICAL AT THIS TIME?

Due to successive poor leadership, there is a wide gap between the government and the people which has led to total distrust between Nigerians and the leadership, the government and the governed. There is need to bridge this gap between the two sides of the divide:

? The government must provide the right leadership - Nigerians have been looking for leadership for decades; this government must provide that leadership, the people must be proud of their leaders and be able to trust the government.

? The government must carry the people along and change age-long paradigms and negative sentiments that have polarized the people along ethnic, cultural and religious lines. Nigeria is a complex nation that hitherto had been divided and disenfranchised due to these issues. It is time to bring the nation together and forge ahead, with a people sold out to partnering with the government.

? The government needs to fan the patriotic embers again and get the people back to once more declare that they are “proudly Nigerians"

? The government must re-orientate and guide the people on our collective value system. The EFCC ran a very strong social mobilization campaign themed “The Dignity of Labour”, and getting Nigerian youths to work hard. It is time for a holistic look at the country and the indoctrination our people about our value systems again. (We have developed a separate proposal on this titled, “TIME FOR CHANGE”), and is available on request.

? There can only be a faithful following if the people know and understand what the government is doing and why it is going in a certain direction. The people must feel that the government cares enough to share government plans and is willing to also hear from them.

? The Nigerian populace is largely technology-enabled and has changed in media habits as other citizens in other democratic nations. Mobile subscription in Nigeria is 149.9 million people (75% of the population) and internet users are 98.39million (50% of the population). NTA, FRCN and other government vehicles are grossly inadequate to reach the Nigerian population especially in today’s era of multi-screening, strong and relevant content from local private and international media. Also, while the government has made some attempt to reach the Nigerian and/or international public, it lacks the critical content, empathy, relevance, technology and pace required.

HOW THE PROPOSED STRUCTURE WILL OPERATE

The new Ministry of Public Communication is proposed to be a fusion of the current Ministry of Information & Culture, and the Ministry of Communication. Why? Globally, the concept of a stand-alone Ministry of Information has largely become irrelevant. Nigeria needs to upgrade as well. And at any rate, the current Ministry of Information & Culture suffers from a couple of limitations:

A. Weak Financial Base/Lack of Adequate Funding

The MOIC has never had enough budget to implement its goals (I speak from personal experience, having been part of it as the pioneer Secretary, and later the CEO of the Nigerian Rebranding Project, and also later as the Chairman of APCON). What we have ended up with are 18 parastatals that are largely financially weak and ineffectual.

B. Too Many Parastatals

18 Parastatals are too many and apart from NTA, FRCN, APCON and perhaps one or two others, their roles are not sharply defined. There will be the need to merge and scrap, so that the reduced number we have left will be stronger.

C. Weak Technological Base

Effective communication in this age is based on technology. Many of the parastatals are running almost on manual strength in a digital age, and so are not delivering value and are not competitive. Websites are old fashioned, not regularly updated and are visually unattractive. There are no exciting social media feeds. We felt the effect of this during the election when government could not effectively respond to the overwhelming social media assault by the opposition; under normal circumstances, a virile Ministry should have been in a position not only to respond robustly, but indeed be in charge of the narratives.

D. Communication Ineffectiveness

If the current Ministry of Information is designed and structured to effectively communicate with Nigerians and other stakeholders, and is not achieving this objective, then it has to be reviewed. And without any doubt, and as the events of the last couple of months have shown, Nigerians and others have not been adequately updated on the achievements of this government and administration. It was clear from the campaigns that many of the achievements of the administration sounded like news to many people because they had not been adequately articulated prior to that time. News must be treated as news so that it can offer freshness and relevant and timely information.

ADVANTAGES OF THE PROPOSED STRUCTURE: 1+1 = LIMITLESS OPPORTUNITIES

The proposed merger of the current Ministry of Information & Culture and the Ministry of Communication to form the Ministry of Public Communication will solve many current challenges and provide limitless opportunities in the area of public communication. The combined power and influence of the Information and the Communication Ministries will create a more effective public communication vehicle. Let us consider some of the expected advantages:

A. The Power of Technology-Driven Communication

The current Communication Ministry supervises the telcos (MTN, Globacom, Airtel and 9-Mobile). At the moment, their tools and technology drive an efficient global communication and information exchange. The proposed Ministry of Public Communication is able to reach more people with speed and efficiency using the mobile phone, social media, email etc., relying on the infrastructure of the current Ministry of Communication. The proposed Ministry can develop and manage new platforms for sharing information and data, receiving feedback, managing opinions etc.

B. Financial Liquidity

At the moment, one of the challenges faced by the Ministry of Information and Culture is the shortage of funds; it never receives enough budgets, and I should know, having had to go lobby for money a few times when I was managing the Rebranding Project, and as the APCON Chairman. The new Ministry will have access to some of the over N12 billion generated daily by the telcos, and so will be in a better liquidity position.

C. Cross-Advantage

NTA, FRCN etc., will benefit from the technologies offered by the telcos under the supervision of the new Ministry of Public Communication. Nigerians can watch their favourite programmes on their phones, laptops etc. In addition, fresh technology will open opportunities which can be converted into consumer products to generate new and additional income for the parastatals.

D. Efficiency Drive

By the time the non-performing parastatals under the current Ministry of Information are reduced and streamlined, a tighter, more efficient operation will emerge.

E. Commercialisation & Self Sufficiency

The new Ministry will give birth to new parastatals that are more commercially oriented in the areas of research, digital marketing etc. This will increase the income stream of these parastatals and make them less dependent on government subventions.

F. Enhanced Human Resources

As a result of better liquidity, the new Ministry can improve and develop current skills and invest in new ones. The new Ministry can set up training institutes and help improve the skills of other workers in other Ministries and even outside the government.

G. Better-Focused Government Messaging

With more capital resourcing, better trained staff and the investment in up-to-date tools and technology, and the capacity to attract more capable professionals, and coupled with a more strategic approach, the overall benefit to government will be a better-managed public communication machinery.

THE MINISTRY & THE PRESIDENCY

It is critical to identify and discuss how components of the new structure will work seamlessly together with partners, with the minimum casualty. A very critical one is the relationship between the proposed Ministry of Public Communication and the Presidential Communication Team at the Villa. We see a need not only to clearly define the roles, but also establish the cooperation structure. Sometimes we have wondered who should speak on what in respect of certain public issues.

In our opinion, the lines should be well drawn, so that there is no duplication of efforts and conflicts, by adopting the following:

1. The Presidential Communication Team should manage the Presidency and all communication related to it. For this we envisage everything that pertains to the President, the Vice President and other relevant offices and operations directly under the Presidency.

2. The Ministry of Public Communication should manage all the details on the nation. It will manage the various organs as represented by the parastatals and agencies, the national assembly, the judiciary etc. It will also be the chief spokesperson for the government. The other day, the Presidential SA on the Diaspora spoke for the government on the issue of jailed Nigerians in the Middle East; this in our opinion should have been handled by the Information Ministry.

3. There must be strong and regular cooperation and liaison between the Villa Communication Team and the Public Communication Ministry, so that inevitably, grey areas can be managed quickly with minimum disruptions and casualty.

A COMMUNICATION RAPID RESPONSE TEAM

One of the short comings of this and previous administrations is the response to emergency and crisis situations. It is at two levels:

1. The response of the President or the Vice President

2. The management of the emergency and crisis situations

Our response time to situations of grave emergencies is usually slow in terms of when for example the President or the VP ought to address the nation. Usually in many countries, a President responds the same day, often within a few hours when we have disruptions like earthquakes, or as we have lately seen in the US, when some lone gun man goes on a killing spree. For us, when we receive information of things like bomb blasts, killing of people by herdsmen, or some other national disasters of magnitude, the President or the VP MUST address the nation either by direct broadcast or a press conference, to be followed by a Press Release, and then a regular update.

The timely appearance of the President or the VP shows empathy and leadership that cares. In the absence of these, the timely release of a media document responding to the matter also helps to douse rumours and mischief. Inevitably when this is not done or done timeously, rumours and fake news fill the void, and the same government will then still need to respond to these!

A Communication Rapid Response Team will always have crisis issues to manage.

See the amazing response of the French President when the Notre Dame church was partly destroyed by fire? Within minutes he was at the site, making an immediate pledge that the church would be rebuilt. What did this achieve? Within hours, French companies and individuals had pledged over €700 million to the rebuilding project. Now imagine if the President didn’t say anything for days, and if he did not even visit the site? The French President’s response provoked an additional sense of patriotism. This is part of what we are talking about!

Also consider the statement credited to Omotola Jalade, the famous Nigerian actress that Nigeria was “hellish under President Buhari and VP Osinbajo”. Omotola is as big as they come, with amazing local and global credentials. Even though Bashir Ahmad, the Personal Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on New Media, rallied to respond to her, the response could have been more robust, and given Omotola’s larger-than-life profile, perhaps a more tactical press release would have been more effective, instead of just a twitter response from Bashir Ahmad. The debate was also on whether Bashir should have responded at all, not being a member of the Presidential Communication Team. Was his response on such a serious matter personal or official? It again underscored the need to have the buy-in of all stakeholders at the strategy level, and keep them engaged, so that they can be good ambassadors for Nigeria.

The setting up of a Communication Rapid Response Team comprising of members from the Presidential Communication Team and the team from the Ministry of Public Communication will consistently manage the process and communicate with Nigerians and the outside world consistently.

IMPLEMENTATION

AAAN member agencies are happy to work with the government in driving the implementation process from Strategy Development to full implementation. We have very experienced and capable managers who will drive the operation relying on our TQM capacity. The fully integrated service we can offer will include but will not be limited to the following:

1. Strategy Development and Execution

2. Public Enlightenment and Interaction

3. Media & Perception Audit Management

4. Research and Vox Pop/Opinion Polling

5. Activations

6. Training etc.

These communication tools will adequately help and support the government in effectively connecting with Nigerians and the international community better, and generally present the government in a more positive light. We are conscious of the very difficult terrain under which your teams work, and are prepared to partner with you.

I thank you for the opportunity given to deliver this paper and wish you all the best.

‘Lolu AKINWUNMI, frpa

APRIL, 2019