NIPR gets tough on illegal practitioners
The Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) has vowed to arrest fake PR professionals who practice the profession without proper recognition or license.
President, Chairman of Council, NIPR, Mallam Mukhtar Sirajo, disclosed this at the NIPR Annual Conference/Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, themed: ‘Optimising Public Relations Strategies for National Cohesion’.
Mallam Sirajo pointed out that NIPR is working with the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, to facilitate the arrest of people caught practicing public relations without license in the country.
In his words: “An aspect of the law says the Attorney General of the Federation is supposed to set up a tribunal to try people caught practicing public relations without license, whether they know it or not. But we are undergoing advocacy visit to remind them of the existence of this provision of the law, so that they can do the needful.”
He, however, stressed that the body already knows those who are practicing public relations illegally, adding that their names would soon be published in the national dailies to embarrass them.
“We are already compiling the list of people who are practicing public relations without license from top to bottom, and very soon we are going to publish their names in the newspapers to embarrass them and for the world to know them.”
“The government too is complacent in this, not only in the hiring of foreign public relations expert but even in the hiring of Nigerians who are not qualified to practice public relations by the law. Most of the people that you hear speaking for this governor, speaking for that ministers, speaking for ministries and speaking for that corporate
organisations, a lot of them are not members of NIPR and in the eye of the law, they are committing a crime,” he stressed.
Mallam Sirajo enjoined unlicensed PR practitioners to register for NIPR Master Class where they would be subject to intensive crash programmes of about a week and, at the end, if the institute is satisfied, get certification to practice as professionals.
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