A public relations expert and former President, African Public Relations Association (APRA), Mr Peter Mutie, recently advised African leaders to polish their reputation by embracing the culture of reputation management and branding. Mutie who gave the advice in Calabar while contributing to a paper on “Reputation Management for Country Branding” presented by Robyn de Villiers, Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Bursen-Mersteller, South Africa, said that such move was necessary for African leaders to positively influence perceptions of their countries and products by the global community.
He said that reputation management would also foster good governance; ensure sustainable nations and valuable product brands. The APRA boss, urged members of the association to engage their countries to push out African brands in governance, personalities, products and nations. “To achieve this, we must make up in Africa and start branding our own brand. You are only relevant if you have value. That is our vote and we must do it. This is because if you wait for someone else to do it, they will not do it, so NAPRA should stand up and take the lead”, he stressed.
Robyn de Villiers had in her paper explained why African government and countries need to manage their reputation. She said since trust is low, individuals, organizations and governments in Africa should always engage professionals in image or reputation management. At all levels of governance, there are many roadblocks to strong democracy. Conflict triggered by political activities and communal, ethnic, religious or resource allocation rivalries, poses a major threat to democracy. Corruption is a key problem that endangers the reputation of a leader and country.
In Nigeria, the problem with public relations practitioners is the lack of both the capacity and resources to effectively engage government and advocate change. Another problem is that government institutions have not established meaningful partnership with Nigerian public relations executives. So, both lack the capacity to carry out their own mandates. The domination of Nigerian politics by an oligarchy a small elite, to the exclusion of the majority has over the years posed serious treat to the image and reputation of the country.
Many Nigerians have in the past created bad image for the country through different indecent acts such as corruption, money laundering, crimes, drug peddling, terrorism, among others. The increasing militarization and recent bombing of oil installations and vandalisation in the Niger Delta particularly questions or dents the image of the country. These negative trends are occurring in the context of poor social and economic indicators across the country, and they undermine the ability of public relations practitioners to engage the democratic process at the maximal levels for the system to flourish.
Past leaders of Nigeria did not see the need for rule of law and to promote their reputation. These institutions had already shown a willingness to change and operate effectively and transparently, but they did not work to improve governance by engaging image builders as well as civil society and private sector stakeholders. One of the best ways to build the capacity of public relations professionals to partner with government and leaders is to empower them to evaluate the fiscal and administrative responsibilities of the leaders to enable them understand the level of their culture of reputation management and branding. By so doing, public relations practitioners will be in the proper position to monitor the activities of the leaders in reputation management.
Another good way is by reinforcing policies and systems that will improve transparency, mobilizing public relations professionals to participate in government planning and budgeting and making them monitor financial flows as well as assess the quality of services rendered by leaders. Public relations practitioners should also be assisted to hold elected officials and leaders accountable to ensure credible reputation.
In 2011, for example, USAID/Nigeria worked to ensure a credible national election in the country by helping political parties to build coalitions and provided training for domestic and international observers as well as organised civic education to strengthen political parties to ensure parallel vote tabulation. Such programme could be worked out to integrate public relations professionals into Nigeria’s political process.
Along with business, public relations develop a strong association among politicians. In San Francisco in 1933, Leone Baxter and her husband, Clem Whitake launched their public relations firm and went on to establish a reputation for winning election campaigns. The government’s role in public relations became established during World War I with the formation of the United State Committee on Public Information headed by George Creel, a newspaper man. The job of Creel and the commission was to bring public opinion more in line with the needs and pace of government . Some arms of government, especially the army and the police, train people in public relation, not only to turn out press releases but also to study and interpret public opinion and build the image of their officials.
The activities of image makers in the election process through voters and politicians education will serve as an avenue to promote peaceful and non-violent elections, as well as raise the reputation of our leaders. Today, public relations and information departments operate in almost every major department of government and companies. Effective public relations programmes help prevent problems in image and public opinion before they occur. Public relations involves many different functions apart from publicity and press relations, so public relations professionals must have strong working relationship with the leaders and develop an identity within the government. Public relations practitioners should do everything within their capability to enhance the image of Nigeria and the leaders by preventing problems before they occur.
The leaders and government should understand that all eyes are on them locally and internationally and that the people would work with them according to their image and reputation. The Nigeria government must entrench a strong partnership and mutual relationship with public image makers to help in restructuring the battered reputation of some Nigerian leaders. It is expected of every patriotic leader, the citizens and public relations practitioners to defend and protect the integrity and reputation of the country at all times, as we are aware that even some Nigerians in Diaspora have given the rest of us a bad reputation.
Post originally appeared on Thetidenewsonline
