By CHARLES IWUOHA

The Federal Government has welcomed the current moves to establish a degree-awarding academy for Public Relations in Nigeria. Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed ldris, lauded the moves in a statement personally signed by him and issued yesterday, Saturday, June 29, 2024.

He was reacting to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) recently signed between the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) and the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management for a degree-awarding academy for public relations practice in Nigeria.

The Minister In the statement also welcomed the recent election of a Nigerian, Dr Omoniyi Ibietan, as the Secretary-General of the African Public Relations Association (APRA).

He said that It is worthy of note that Public Relations (PR) has now been designated as a cadre in the Federal Civil Service, with effect from December 2023.

According to him, the Information Officer Cadre has been re-designated to “Information and Public Relations Officer Cadre”, and the Executive Cadre to “Executive Officer (Information and Public Relations)”.

Idris said that NIPR has played a critical role in championing this, and deserve commendation.

“Nigeria,” he said, “will continue to play a leading role in strengthening and elevating public relations practice at home and across Africa. Recently, when I received the President of the African Public Relations Association, Mr. Arik Karani, he commended Nigeria in this regard.

“[Nigeria] was, for the longest time, the only country in Africa that had a law that professionalized public relations. It was Nigeria that started it on the continent, and only last year that Zambia come out with its own law. So now we have two countries on the continent, and only now in Kenya, the bill for professionalizing public relations is at the second reading in Parliament.”

The minister assured that the administration of President Bola Tinubu will continue to provide the enabling environment for everybody within Nigeria’s communications industry to thrive.

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