Engage Govt. through Advocacy, BAA Consult boss tells PR practitioners
Public Relations practitioners in Nigeria have been urged to adequately engage the government of the day through advocacy as that was the only way government could formulate policies that would enhance the profession in the country.
Chief Consultant, B. Adedipe Associates Limited, Dr. Biodun Adedipe, made this assertion during the Fireside Chat organized by the Public Relations Consultants Association of Nigeria (PRCAN) with the theme: “Macro-Economic Factors That Will Impact the Nigerian Marketing Communications Industry in 2018” at The Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.
Adedipe emphasized that for PR profession to experience growth as well as partake in the economic opportunities in 2018, its practitioners must begin to engage with the government on areas that the profession needs improvement.
According to him, government gets a buy-in from other sectors of the economy before they roll out their policies or budget for the New Year, advising PR professionals to ensure that they key into the overall plan of the government before the budget and policy formulation processes begin each year.
He said: “The idea of advocacy simply is that government rolls out its policies in the new year every time they pronounce the budget for the new year but before that budget is put together, they will need input, so the idea is that you need to create a platform where your members come together and you agree on what you want to ask from the government in terms of policy.”
“It could be to change certain existing policies that hinder your business or maybe to introduce new policies that can elevate the business. So, what you do at such a level therefore is like an advocacy on what should be done to improve the business environment and also the industry so that you can support the efforts of the government in terms of job creation.”
“When you do that at a time when inputs are being collected for the budget and you have your own input going in there that will shape the policies for the coming year, then you are creating the relevance of your profession through advocacy.”
The BAA boss further cautioned the Public Relations practitioners to take a clue from the banking industry, saying that they have what is called the Senior Treasurer Retreat (STR), a body of top professional bankers who always meet annually to engage with the government by submitting a memo on what they need in the coming year.
“So that makes it a practice every year and because of the quality of what you bring to the table which is your input, government will also be eager to receive your memo on ways to improve your profession”, Adedipe concluded.
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