Former Force Public Relations Officer, Commissioner of Police Emmanuel Ojukwu (retd), has urged Police PPROs from the 17 Police Zonal Commands, 36 State Commands, and the FCT to uphold their reputation because the public is their mirror.
He made the call during day two of the PPROs’ Conference taking place at Kakanfo Inn, Ibadan, Oyo State on Tuesday, 13th December 2022.
Ojukwu, one of the facilitators, talked on the topic “Reputation Management/Professional Ethics” and took the PPROs through the definition of professionalism, the ingredients of professionalism, the principles of professionalism, National ethics, and Police ethics.
He also talked about the attributes of Police Public Relations such as adaptability, integrity, discretion, etc.
He said the training was germane and came at an appropriate time when Police Public Relations Officers needed a lot of capacity to deliver their services, and when the Nigeria Police, as an institution, needed to raise its game in communication within and outside the Force.
The training, according to him, “has come to increase their skills, and competences and give greater awareness in the minds of Police PROs nationwide, on the need to communicate strategically and in the best possible way, in line with international best practices.
Ojukwu further said that the Police PROs who speak for the Police, who work on the image of the police and defend the indefensible, sometimes, need to be in line with what happens in the society and to know the moods and attitudes of the people.
“Another thing is strategic communication itself, vis a vis the internal environment where you have the Police management which includes the IGP, senior officers, Commissioners of Police, and other ranks who are the real policemen, in the theatre of policing. How do we communicate with them and get back feedback from them? I do believe the take home from here is to learn how to better communicate with the internal public.”
“From understating, we know there seems to be a lot of gaps when it comes to strategic communication and we emphasized the need for the police to adopt strategic communication when it comes to both the internal and external environment they work with, Ojukwu said.
Registrar/CEO of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), Olalekan Fadolapo, was also at the Conference with his team namely; Lanre Adisa, Kelechi Nwosu, Jude Odia, and Dotun Babatunde.
Kelechi Nwosun spoke on integrated marketing communications such as owned, earned, paid, and social communication. He also spoke on feedback mechanism, evaluation/evolves.
On his part, Lanre Adisa spoke on creativity, consumer insight, brief prompter, return on attention and return on investment. He also emphasized understanding media strategy, planning, and execution.
Jude Odia took the PPROs through having a brief, profiling the target audience, and constant communication with the youths in their area/command. He asked them to develop a strategic communication mechanism for their target audience.
On his part, Dotun Babatunde took the PPROs’ through the New Digital Media & Social media communication where brand awareness, extending customer, reputation management, and building a community of advocates was discussed.
The day two activities came to an end with a lecture on Social Media, curbing misinformation, disinformation, and mal-information by Dr. Monday Asibagun.
