The new president of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Dr Ike Neliaku, has pledged that henceforth only professionals would practise PR in the country.
Neliaku was elected Thursday by delegates at the end of the institute’s Annual General Meeting held in Abuja.
The erstwhile chairman of the FCT chapter of the institute defeated Mrs Nkechi Ali-Balogun, the Lagos chapter chairman, to emerge as president.
Chairman the electoral committee, Chief Casca Ogusu, announced the result at the end of the election exercise early this morning, adding that Professor Emmanuel Dandaura, a communication scholar, has been elected the Vice-President of the institute.
Shortly before the announcement of the election of both the President and Vice President, the institute announced the election of 17 members of its Governing Council who were earlier elected by registered members at the AGM.
The NIPR is run by a 22-member Governing Council, comprising the 17 elected members and 5 nominees of the Federal Government.
The President and Vice President double as Chairman and Vice Chairman of the council for a two-year tenure.
In his acceptance speech, Neliaku pledged that the new council members would use the NIPR platform to chart a new path for the institute and re-invent Nigeria.
He said: “Our profession needs a new dimension. We will make sure PR is practised by PR professionals. We won’t allow our ‘break fast’ to be taken by people that are not trained.
“We will take the issue of compliance and enforcement seriously, reinvent our profession for the purpose and the value of the nation.
“Countries that understand the value of the Public Relations always excel, so, therefore, we are going to rebrand Nigeria.
“As we have our colleague as Minister of Information, who understands strategic communications, we will work with him to generate new ideas with support of my team.
“I want to assure that with our collective efforts, we can rewrite, reinvent and review our profession for better in this new dawn.”
