‘Nigeria’s PR industry should not be all-comers affair’

John Odiboh is the CEO of Trevent Company, an integrated marketing communication firm. In this interview, Odiboh discusses with Ifeoma Okeke some issues in public relations practice in Nigeria. Excerpt:

What is your rating for professionalism and level of ethical standards in Nigeria’s PR industry?

I delivered a paper in Abuja two years ago on the ethics in Public Private Partnership. My submission was that we don’t have a collective ethics or philosophy as a nation. Before now, we saw very strong professions because they were guided by strict ethics. But now, everything has fallen to the ground because we have a nation that does not promote ethics as a value. You can buy people to go against their culture and that is why we have the issue of Boko Haram.

They are the decadence that we have witnessed in values and ethics in Nigeria. The professions as we have now are not isolated from the larger society. We are expecting that now we have a new government that has pride for war against indiscipline, discipline, that ethics level will begin to grow again. We hope to see Nigeria where ethics is made a priority to move the nation forward.

Do you think PR has played enough roles in promoting brands in Nigeria?

Yes, to a large extent. If we look back to 20 years, it was only advertising doing that role. It was restricted in the sense that advertising has its limitation. It was just out there to let us know the products in the market, but PR has become a game changer, which has brought another dimension of looking at what products and services are available. There is a more scientific approach to looking at things, researches are done now. It is giving a lot of brands prominence in Nigeria. Because of the role public relations are playing in giving brands prominence in the newspapers, you could see that people want to showcase what they have. Anybody can aspire for greater heights because the avenues are just there.

APCON recently came up with advertising reform partly to protect the local industry; would you prefer this in Nigerian PR industry?

I am commending this because our local industries must be protected. Every profession that does not have a strong code of conduct will very soon have strangers coming into it. There are professions that are very protective like the medical profession but in the communication space, we let it out to anyone. We should also be very protective of it, so that it is not an all-comers affair. Let us see professionalism at its best.

What are the major challenges facing PR companies in Nigeria and ways to navigate through them?

Finance is a challenge, in the sense that after you have done a job, payment becomes an issue from clients. You have staff to pay, office to run and other bills to pay and this becomes a problem. Secondly, is the issue of proliferation, because there is no strong legislation, you see anybody coming into the space. We also need policies to regulate the practice. Thirdly is the foray of international or foreign public relations practice in Nigeria. They have reduced the space for local players. So, they battle to stay alive because of competition coming from abroad. People that are not trained are also there to compete and at the end of the day, they will price down and fail to deliver and it is like dragging the practice in the mud.

Tell me about your firm?

The Trevent Company is a complementary communications company. It is a communication company that is unique with different approaches to business execution. It is a combination of public relations, integrated marketing communications and the creative arts. Creative art is important in interpreting communication messages for our clients, and that is what we have been doing for the past three years that we came into existence.

What has been your experience since the past three years?

For any new firm, there is a little resistance but with time, you will see people embracing it. In May 31, we will be having a family comedy show that is one of the things that public relations allows you to do. You will see a lot of cooks, comedians, decorators say they are event planners but they are actually supposed to be vendors to the public relations person, who is managing or planning an event. They even look at us encroaching into what they are doing but it is actually the other way round.

When we try to get vendors to make something happen, they resist. They do not see themselves as vendors. With time, we will set the records right. That is why I will advocate that the public relations practice be given a lot more voice in Nigeria.

During the presidential campaign, we saw a lot of people coming out to say they are spokes persons for parties and the kind of things they say are insighting and hate messages and that is not public relations. So, you would expect that it is public relations practitioners that should be allowed to hold that kind of positions.

We need to have a strong association or body that can bark and bite at the same time. There should be strong advocacy for legislation. To practice as a lawyer, you have to study law, go to the law school and to bar. Not everyone should assume that position of being a spokesperson; it should be for people that are trained. So, I am advocating strongly that the public relations practice in Nigeria be given more bite and more voice.