Afrigather 
By Prof Okey Ikechukwu
With the present nationwide excessive social temperature over inflation, trade charge considerations and different points, it’s simple to say that this isn’t the time to speak concerning the head of any establishment of State in any respect. However not when a ebook is written concerning the particular person in such a manner that it’s as a lot an account of institutional historical past as additionally it is a story a couple of man whose trajectory is being inextricably woven into the story of an establishment of state as properly.
I met Bashir Adewale Adeniyi the Comptroller-Basic of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) almost 15 years in the past, at a administration retreat for senior and center degree customs officers the place he was a participant. In the middle of the 2 modules I took throughout the programme, I seen how he blended into the panorama in a peculiar kind of manner. Alert, unobtrusive, calmly and seemingly informal, however with a subdued air or seriousness and a pleasant disposition that was additionally at all times scrutinizing the world.
He didn’t increase too many, and even, questions throughout the retreat. However he took notes. Selective notes, that’s; each time one thing struck him in the midst of the assorted shows. He was completely attentive, however with out seeming too absorbed like a bookworm. I stated to my colleague, as I used to be leaving the weeklong occasion on the third day: “That different one with a staid and unforced composure is prone to someday develop into the Comptroller of Customs”. My colleague chuckled and requested why. Once I replied that there was one thing about him that urged such a profession path, and in addition that he have to be good at “organized engagements, with none sense, or air, of panic or trepidation”, my colleague accused me of “extreme grammar”, and we left the matter at that.
I took discover when Adeniyi routinely outperformed many who had served as spokespersons of the Nigeria Customs Service, (NCS) earlier than him. I seen when he was introduced Comptroller Basic of the NCS. I additionally seen when the Service launched into the set up of scanners with a 200 containers clearance per hour capability, beneath his watch.
I wrote about it on this web page, on June 8, saying: “It will actually tackle the issue of port congestion and drive effectivity, whereas placing an finish to the nightmare (properly, together with daymare) of importers and clearing brokers. One factor is obvious on this regard: The Customized’s Commerce Facilitation Programme of the Comptroller-Basic of Customs, Mr. Adewale Adeniyi, is yielding one thing price trying ahead to. Nigeria Customs is working in collaboration with Commerce Modernisation Mission Restricted on this infrastructural intervention”.
Then, final week and from nowhere, Kabir Abdulsalam and Mariam Umar Na’Allah got here out with a ebook detailing Wale Adeniyi’s accountable utility of the rules {of professional} public relations within the administration of a public group. The ebook, titled, Impactful Public Relations in Customs Administration, solutions the next inquiries to a great measure: (1) Who’s Wale Adeniyi? (2) How did he enhance stakeholder engagement as Comptroller Basic of the Nigeria Customs Service? (3) To what extent can public relations expertise, expertise throughout the system and understanding of worldwide finest practices in customized administration be dropped at bear on the lifetime of a decades-old group in a VUCA world? (4) What distinction can efficient administration, disaster communication expertise, the lobbying of determination makers, CSR initiatives, and fame administration make within the remaking of a authorities company?
Utilizing Adeniyi as a peg, the ebook presents the reader detailed insights into how to achieve success as a frontrunner with a Public Relations orientation. The reader who truly makes use of the publication as a guide for skilled success within the public relation business will likely be a hit story. The authors insist that Adeniyi merely deployed his coaching in relationship administration and his grasp of the dynamics of the sector, guided by sectoral and world finest practices they usually gave good causes for his or her submission.
Whereas the ebook efficiently showcases the journey of 1 man in addition to the journey of a corporation beneath a brand new imaginative and prescient, it additionally exhibits how what Adeniyi had learnt over time as an insider gave him the very basis he wanted for crafting and driving sustainable organizational reengineering. He made public notion administration a uniquely important element of accountable workplace holding. Thus, this ebook of 12 chapters presents the reader precious insights, suggestions {and professional} finest practices for PR professionals, utilizing the endeavours of a seasoned practitioner as reference.
A part of what the authors got down to obtain on this ebook, and which they achieved within the first chapter, was to indicate the significance of stakeholder engagement and the way the brand new CG of Customs adopted this method as a software for belief constructing and border neighborhood engagement. The authors additionally confirmed how this identical software and methodology finally grew to become devices for the strengthening of regional relations beneath the brand new CG.
The PR lesson from this, particularly the CGs endeavour to strike a steadiness between nationwide safety and commerce facilitation speaks volumes about his capability for strategic engagement whereas at a really delicate responsibility put up. The abstract of these classes is captured for the reader on this paragraph in chapter 1: “Efficient stakeholder engagement positively influences organizational, outcomes, resembling innovation, studying, sustainability practices, and different accomplishments”.
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Chapters two and three of the ebook take care of media relations and press releases, as management, communication and organizational branding instruments. The authors drew from historical past, and from the experiences of different nations, to drive house the relevance, significance and affect of media relations, together with Adeniyi’s deployment of media visitations as a frontrunner. Anybody who needs to attract helpful classes about speech writing, rejoinder writing, characteristic/opining articles and extra to look extra intently at this chapter.
Chapters 4 and 5 x-ray for the reader the which means of occasion administration and occasion design, such that an important level about the subject material of the chapter is captured thus: “PR and occasion administration require creativity, communication, coordination and context consciousness”. And chapter 5 drives house some very important classes on constructing an internet persona, amongst different issues. One of many very important classes right here, particularly close to the constructive affect of PR on NCS beneath Adeniyi, is captured thus in chapter 5: “…the NCS has achieved outstanding milestones in its digital presence and public engagements…”.
The sixth chapter, which offers with disaster communication, has these to inform us: (1), Get a transparent understanding of what the problems are, their scope and sure affect, earlier than you have interaction; (2) Safe administration and/or management approval earlier than taking any situation into the general public area; (3) Construct belief by transparency and empathetic interpersonal relations; and (4) Guarantee that there’s a designated spokesperson who’s skilled, accountable and accessible, to deal with all public engagements.
Chapters 7 and eight take care of lobbying and CSR, respectively. Chapter 8 is vital for anybody who needs to garner helpful insights into CSR as a strategic crucial and the function of CSR in neighborhood relations, particularly what’s written there concerning the “Three Classes of Good Neighbours” and the shift from CSR to accountable enterprise technique.
Chapter 9 of Impactful Public Relations in Customs Administration, provides you virtually every little thing you want to find out about fame, fame administration, and the way NCS used the pillars of fame asset to make a lot distinction beneath its present CG. The instruments for this embody the inhouse publications circulars, official web site, Nigeria customs broadcasting community (NCBN).
Right here is the authors’ submission concerning the affect of those publications on NCS: “The strategic perform of in-house publications throughout the Customized Service has reworked the group’s communication panorama, fostering inside cohesion, constructing transparency, and belief within the public, showcasing achievements and improvements, humanizing management and fascinating numerous stakeholders”.
The questions thrown up by this ebook, and answered for the reflective reader who sees past the mere narrative concerning the CG of Customs, embody the next: (1) How does a PR skilled take up onerous core management and administration place and performance seamlessly on this new capability? (2) What traces of motion are open to an progressive chief who meets the pressures of the second armed solely with good concepts about love for nation and information of his sector? The reply to those questions lies within the ebook we’re presenting right here at the moment.
That solutions lies on the very core of what Adeniyi began, and remains to be doing, at NCS. Good intentions will at all times have a bumpy trip when the terrain is made up of competing, various and even dangerously domineering pursuits and orientations. The authors have taken us by one man’s private journey, in addition to his experiences; guided by his personal competence, his resilience and his artistic creativeness. They’ve additionally proven how this one man’s journey has develop into the journey of a corporation within the firm of a corporation.
Kabir Abdulsalam and Mariam Umar Na’Allah’s Impactful Public Relations in Customs Administration, presents measurable and verifiable assertions about numerous points of PR, administration and public administration. The ebook provides those that want to journey on this highway a highway map and a information. The observations, insights, and ideas within the ebook are usually not at variance with the submissions of business gamers and stakeholders in each the general public relations occupation and the regulatory companies subsector.
The main submissions of the ebook are simply relatable and experience-confirmed independently. The ebook is, without delay, an account of the trajectory of the CG of NCS and in addition a great profiling of what to do in a corporation to make a distinction; utilizing skilled PR rules and sectoral and business information.
The compact ebook, Impactful Public Relations in Customs Administration, ought to be put out within the public area for PR college students and practitioners. Effectively-meaning people and organizations can buy and generously donate as many copies as attainable to schools of mass communication, enterprise and public administration. The ebook must also be thought of a helpful and relatable literature for the Institute of Superior Authorized Research, Administrative Employees school of Nigeria (ASCON), the Nationwide Institute of Coverage and Strategic Research (NIPPS) and different excessive calibre human capital improvement and management establishments and organizations.
I contemplate this ebook a great self-advertisement for the authors and the publishers and I congratulate them for it. Their capturing of the important PR classes on the finish of each chapter of the work is a novel and arresting encapsulation of the vitals of each section of the ebook. The ebook exhibits the right way to lead by relating in a sustainable manner.
it’s simple to say that this isn’t the time to speak concerning the head of any establishment of State in any respect. However not when a ebook is written concerning the particular person in such a manner that it’s as a lot an account of institutional historical past as additionally it is a story a couple of man whose trajectory is being inextricably woven into the story of an establishment of state as properly.
