Government communication machinery needs massive overhaul – experts

For weak communication and allowing insecurity, which is not peculiar to Nigeria, to dominate international discuss amid the country’s growing economic indicators, a media expert has suggested a massive overhaul of government communication machinery.

Assessing the competence of the government communication apparatus, especially as regards the insecurity and dissemination of information on the fast growing economy, Nnaemeka Maduegbuna, the CEO of C and F Porter Novelli, told BusinessDay that a lot of ways in which government communication process was managed in this country “leaves much to be desired.”

According to Maduegbuna, the recent crisis has shown that the skill set required to manage communication goes beyond the ability to be just a good reporter.

“What has happened is that government has over the time used a lot of people to manage communication that their skill set are suspect for the job. Most of them are not well equipped to do the job,” Maduegbuna, who once managed the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE), said.

The public relations expert, who believes that practitioners need to make sure that their capability is at certain level so that they can perform, said as a strategic and professional communicator “you will be able to advise your principal on actions within the context of objective because you don’t set objectives for the client.”

Asking government to borrow a leaf from private sector type of communication, Maduegbuna said despite the crisis over Boko Haram, Nigeria’s economic indicators were very good and all were not above the message clutter, which government should continuously play up.

Recently, the Presidency’s constant reactive stance of denying accusations from Nigerians, including the opposition group, caught the attention of Nigerian media experts who described such arrangement as faulty media strategy.

The Presidency is always in the news defending itself against attacks in the media, a development Lai Oso, the dean of School of Communication, Lagos State University, said “portends faulty management strategy. It appears the Presidency cannot foresee what the issue is and try to set agenda with effective communication.”

The government should be on top of situations, advance reasons for actions instead of coming from the rear to defend itself, Osho advised.

Akonte Ekine, a communication strategist, who in a report earlier, assessed the situation differently, saying government should not necessarily deny or reply opposition comments if it was heavily involved in its direction and projects. “If you are focused you should not spend time talking to everybody. When you mind your focus what everybody says should not matter to you,” Akonte said.

It is his belief that when it is a proactive government, it will lead discussion.

Daniel Obi