Ali Rabiu Ali
Worried over the rising cases of insecurity occasioned by mistrust, misunderstanding and misconceptions of actions of fellow Nigerians, the Nigeria Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) is planning a citizens’ summit for all shades of ethnic nationalities and stakeholders to proffer solutions to persistent problems of the country.
The Chairman, North-west NIRP Summit Planning Committee, Dr. Sule Yau Sule disclosed during a press conference at the Secretariat, Kano state Council of Nigeria Union of Journalists on Wednesday.
“Various components of the country are threatening to secede because of one issue or the other, as a result;
“People are afraid to travel to other parts of the country due to mistrust; is that how we were in the past,” he queried.
“See what is happening in Somalia, Rwanda, Afghanistan…. which country will accept refugees from Nigeria? not even our neighbors.
“Is it not just only 10,000 Nigerians that crossed over to Niger republic and the government complained, if the country disintegrates, what will we gain?” he asked.
He said it is the job of public relation professionals to fix the worrying issues, adding that NIPR would not allow the country to slide into anarchy.
“So, the NIPR as a credible professional body that is statutory in charge of maintaining relationships, mend where there are cracks, build where it does not exist and improve where it exists will provide a platform for dialogue in the six geo-political zones.
“It will accommodate all shades of ethnic nationalities to discuss what exactly is the problem and how to solve it, because if we allow things to continue in this manner, we will all suffer from our inactions.
“We are assuring that all views, grievances from the discourse will count,” the PR guru said.
The summit is tagged “National Integration, Peace and Unity.” It is structured in three phases, at state, zonal and national levels.
The one for North-west zone will take place in the second week of October, all the issues collected will be deliberated upon at the National event in November, 2021.
According to Dr. Sule, the draft copy of the resolution(s) will be transmitted to the presidency for implementation.
Fielding questions from journalists on implementation and legal backing to convene the summit, Dr. Sule said, the NIPR is an institution fully backed by the constitution and has the power to convene the summit.
On implementation, he affirmed that resolutions from so many conferences, confabs and summits have been swept under the carpet, but the NIPR one is devoid of politics, he assured of implementation because the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has given his blessings to the organizers.
“When the report is implemented, certainly the tension will go down,” he assured.
The planning committee members at the press conference are Director Public Elightenment, Ministry of Information, Nasir Tahir, Moving Image Executive Director, Abdulkadir Muhammad, Editor-in-Chief, Solace Base online publication, Adbullateef Abubakar-Jos, Prince Ajayi Memaiyetan, the Chairman, NIPR Kano state Chapter, Aminu Hamza.
Others are Deputy General Manager, Premier Radio, Usman Usman, Mori Ibrahim, Isham Habib and Yusuf Abdulsalam.
NIPR was established in 1963. The body attained the status of a Chartered Institute in June 1990 through Decree No. 16 (now an Act of the National Assembly).
