Nigeria is the only country on the globe without good public relations and anyone telling its story on the international front, an analyst says.
Michael Williams, a Port Harcourt-based PR expert, says Nigeria needs someone to tell the world what is happening in it and what efforts government is making to address key issues.
The negative tales are told about Nigeria in many countries because nobody is really revealing the potential of the country and what is happening therein, Williams says.
Speaking with BusinessDay in Lagos, he says with a proper public relations officer working for Nigeria, the world will really know a lot of positive things happening in Nigeria. By doing so, Nigeria will not rely on the negative reportage from the Western media, he states.
“Nigeria has been suffering from public relations problem and no one is there to speak up on its behalf,” he says.
Bukky Karibi Whyte, a Lagos-based public relation consultant, says the situation is worrisome.
Perhaps, according to her, the nation has not yet appreciated the value of having a public relation’s office, saying, “Nigeria needs to be conscious of the need to have a public relation.”
According to Williams, there is no one to make the world understand that if there is a problem in Borno State, Lagos is actually fine, and anyone visiting Lagos is hours away by flight and hundreds of miles away by road from Borno State.
“Every country in the world is represented in the world travel market, every country. The only country without public relation agency running around is Nigeria. And Nigeria is one that really, really, needs it,” he says.
Nigeria does not necessarily require countering bad news with good news, he states, adding that sometimes bad news is bad news, as the world is not afraid of bad news, but the world wants to know what has been done to put things right.
Nigeria probably over-relies on the foreign media to tell the stories for Nigeria, he said, pointing out that the country needs to tell its own stories using public relations office to sell Nigeria to the whole world.
“Some countries around the world experience worst things than what Nigeria experiences, but those countries still have more tourists trooping into those countries because there is always someone to tell the world what has been done to fix the problem,” he explained.
Doing public relations job does not mean denying the existing challenges, but to acknowledge those challenges and announce solutions and proactive measures to avert reoccurrence of such in the future, he said.
According to Williams, many people around the world may not know where Borno State is located in relation to other parts of Nigeria. It is, therefore, difficult for people to know because no one does public relations jobs for Nigeria.
He called on the Federal Government to start addressing the issues of public relations for Nigeria to halt continuous misinterpretation of the country.
“There is no one to tell the world that Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt are fine,” he said.
