By Victoria Onehi
The Public Relations University of Nigeria is to be established soon, the President of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) Dr Ike Neliaku, fnipr has said.
Neliaku who spoke to journalists at the event tagged ‘Meet the President’ which held in Abuja on Saturday said the University will be the first of it’s kind in the world not just in Africa.
” NIPR is establishing the Public Relations University of Nigeria.Its the first of it’s kind in the world, not in Nigeria,not in Africa but in the world. We have researched and there is no school like that in the world. Within this quarter,we are inaugurating a committee that is going to develop the concept.” He said.
Neliaku also disclosed that the Institute will soon set up a finishing school like the Law school for legal practitioners.
” Also,we are setting up the finishing school this year.We discovered that people graduate as Mass Communication graduates and from other related fields and they desire to be Public Relations practitioners. There is no school were they can go and professionalise,the kind of thing you have in legal practice.So,we are establishing that school.
” The essence of the school is that we believe Public Relations is not just a profession for civil servants,it is a profession that empowers and it is very important for the growth of the economy, personal economy, family economy, organisation economy and National economy.”Neliaku said.
The NIPR President said the Education Advisory Board Chairman who is the Vice President
of the Institute Prof. Emmanuel S. Dandaura, fnipr will be concluding plans on the school and it will be unveilied soon.
He noted that practitioners on the field will be the faculty and will teach other people based on the successes they have recorded in their practice of the Public Relations practice.
Similarly, Neliaku disclosed the the institute will soon unveil the Young Professionals Hub.
“We have the Young Professionals’ Hub, where young people come to play a role in moving the NIPR forward. During the consultation, we heard people talk about the place of young people in PR practice, particularly the NIPR.
“We did a simple study and discovered so many young people doing well in PR are outside the institute. The question then was, how do we encourage them to come in? Therefore, we set up a team under the Chairmanship of the Vice-Chancellor, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Prof. Kate Azuka Omenugha, fnipr and then we came up with the Young Professionals Hub.
“It is a vital programme as we need to warehouse these young people who are brilliant, creative, energised and innovative, and transform them into tools for nation building. They desire to contribute to nation-building, but they lack the platform, so we are offering them the platform, including students in PR,” the President said.
In his remarks,the Director General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON) Mr. Jibrin Baba Ndace, Mnipr, enjoined journalist to become members of NIPR.
“I want to advise our colleagues that they should not approach retirement before they join NIPR. Every journalist should be NIPR member from Day One because it positions you as person. It creates opportunities for you as a media practitioner.”Ndace said.
He charged the President and members, Governing council of the Institute to continue to uphold the tenets of the profession adding that only those qualified should be allowed to practice the profession.
