The 2023 Lagos Public Relations Stakeholders’ Conference (LPRSC), held recently, in Lagos, could not have been timelier. With a new government, at the centre, just settling down for business,  there couldn’t have been a better time for the nation’s reputation managers to air their views on the burning issues of unemployment, nation-building, and their grave implications for the nation’s economy, if not effectively handled.

 

While explaining the essence of the 2023 conference, the Conference Convener, and Lead Consultant, Addefort Limited, Mr. Olabamiji Adeleye, stated that the  event has become a platform for PR practitioners to set agenda for government and relevant stakeholders on key issues of national Interest.

He  added that NIPR, Lagos Chapter, had, in the past one decade used the conference to address some key national issues, revolving around Promotion of Made in Nigeria goods, Environmental Sustainability, Health Care and Wellness, Security and Peace, the Right and Duties of Consumers and Foreign Direct Investment (DFI),, among others.

Adeleye added that the choice of this year’s event theme:  ‘Stakeholders’ Conversations on Employment Creation and Nation Building’, represents a deliberate effort, by the organisers, to address a key social issue, so as  to avert a national crisis it could cause, if left unattended to.

“Since the first edition in 2014, the Annual Lagos Public Relations Stakeholders’ Conference has been consistent towards the actualization of its set vision of promoting the socio- economic development of the nation,” he added.

 

In her welcome address, the Chairman, NIPR, Lagos Chapter, Mrs. Comfort Nwankwo stated that this year’s edition, the tenth in the series, was meant to set agenda for stakeholders’ engagement, and lead the discourse, aimed at   reawakening national consciousness.

 

She reiterated the Chapter’s commitment to sustaining the platform as its own way of contributing to national development,  noting that, over the years, Lagos NIPR had built the conference to become a veritable platform to discuss and proffer solutions to the social, political and economic challenges plaguing the nation.

 

“We are committed to sustaining this platform as a way of contributing to the development of our dear country,” she assured.

 

Commending the Lagos  NIPR for the choice of the theme, the newly elected President of  NIPR, Dr. Ike Neliaku, urged  government, and other stakeholders, to focus on creating creative employment, adding that the educational curricular in schools, presently,  are designed for students to just study and pass examinations.

 

He also called for a peer review among leaders to enable them compare notes on leadership, and come up with the best possible strategies of delivering quality governance to the people.

 

According to him, the country is presently going through these trying times because the PR element has not been factored into the national  economic plans.

 

“I think this conference provides us with the opportunity to tell the whole world that the missing link is here,” he stated.

 

In his remarks, the former Commissioner for  Information, River State, Dr. Austin Tam George, berated government’s tame efforts, regarding employment creation in the past.

 

Speaking on ‘How Not To Create Employment’, George urged government shelve the idea of creating jobs y propaganda and deceit.

 

“We need to understand that where there are no jobs, there are no jobs. We know government alone can’t do it, but there has to be sincerity of purpose on the part of government to be able to work with the private sector to form that kind of productive synergy, that will create jobs for our young people. Propaganda, as we have seen over the past eight years, has not created a job,” he stated.

 

The former River State Information Commissioner also believes jobs are not created by psycophancy, noting that falsifying data, regarding employment, to massage government’s ego, will not, at any time, help the cause of governance.

 

“I also believe you can’t create jobs by tribalism or nepotism, as we presently do here. It should be entirely on merit so as to achieve the desired results,’ he stated.

 

George also called for less emphasis on certification and credentialism.  He believes emphasis should be on skills, noting that that remains the only way to turn acquirers of such skills to employers of labour.

In his Keynote Adderss, former President, NIPR, Dr. Rotimi Oladele,  tagged ‘Job Creation and Nation Building’, advocated for a functional education.

 

“We need to move away from literacy to functional education. Policy makers  and law makers should be volunteers with wisdom, expertise and experience who need no ‘Ghana must go’ bags of money to do the needful,” he stated.