Following several years of trouble shooting on national integration drive, by the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) strong indications have emerged that a strategy for a multi-ethnic and multi-sectoral integration strategy may soon be consummated through a national summit slated for August this year.
Coming after a nationwide consultation with different interest groups, a four-member council team of the Institute, led by Dr. Ike Neliaku on behalf of President of the Institute, Mukhtar Sirajo, recently visited the Head Office of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), to intimate the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Commission, Prof. Umar Danbatta, of the steps already taken to ensure that the summit comes to fruition.
Neliaku said the key objective of the visit was to see how the Institute can leverage communication to address security concerns, enhance peace building and facilitate national integration.
Describing NCC as one of the pillars of Nigeria’s national integration efforts, he said the Institute believes the Commission will partner in the successful hosting of the “Citizens Summit on National Integration, Peace and Security (CSNIPS)”, which takes place in Abuja, from 23rd to 24th August, 2022.
In the processes leading to the summit, Neliaku said the Institute had organised zonal dialogue sessions with leaders of thought, representing ethnic and institutional interests, and had met with a diverse group of state and non-state actors as a way of rallying all stakeholders to support the project and participate in the implementation of its resolutions.
“The central objective of this Summit is to emplace a new way of re-inventing citizenship,” he said, emphasising that the proposed Summit fits into NIPR’s doctrinal professional practice principles to build and maintain image, relationship, peace and harmony.
He also applauded the Commission under Danbatta’s leadership, for exceptionally upholding the legal prescriptions of the Institute in appointing professionals in the management of its public relations activities, which also aligns with professional principles and practice of public relations as prescribed in the NIPR Charter. “This explains why the NIPR is always enthusiastic in partnering with NCC whenever the opportunity presents itself, and we look forward to NCC’s support towards successful hosting of the Summit,” he said.
Director of Public Affairs of NCC, Reuben Muoka, who received the team on behalf of EVC, said the purpose of the visit is striking to the disposition of the Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission who admires every efforts that will contribute to national integration. He promised that the Commission will certainly partner in this particularly “impressive, seminal and laudable project” in the context of the proposed Summit.
Muoka said the EVC of NCC, holds NIPR in high esteem, “which is the reason he cherished the visit and asked me to receive you in his stead. You can rest assured that he will be positive to this request for collaboration for the good of the nation.”
The NCC spokesman said he was particularly delighted that NIPR, to which he belongs, would be the first that he was receiving on resumption as the Director of Public Affairs at the Commission.