Use PR Experts, Agencies for Government Communication- Ojobo

This skill of the Director of Public Affairs of telecom industry regulator Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is not evident at first sight. Or second. Listen, however, to brilliant, Mr. Tony Ojobo speak on the work of the communication professional in Government and there is no doubt to the listerner that he understands hoops, loops and jumps.

Ojobo mounted the rostrum at the Breakfast Meeting of the Public Relations Consultants Association Thursday, October 29, 2015, at Adna Hotel, Ikeja GRA, Lagos. He spoke of “Communication in the Public Sector: Issues, Challenges and Prospects.”

He talked to an eager audience. The environmental context made the presentation by the NCC spokesman one that aroused even keener interest by the professionals who have gathered every month to hear their colleagues on client side speak on issues in public relations, one of the fastest growing disciplines of the modern age.

Before Ojobo was Mr Kufre Ekanem of Nigerian Breweries Plc, Mr Emeka Oparah of Airtel Nigeria and Mr David Okeme of Unilever Nigeria.

A stellar cast in all respects and Mr Ojobo showed the shoes fit.

Thursday, October 29 was just three days into the earth-shaking news of the imposition of a fine of N1.04 trillion by his institution on telecom market leader MTN Nigeria Communications. The business world shivered. The international community paid attention. Moreover, the debates kicked in.

Upfront, Ojobo asserts that “political neutrality is a cornerstone of public sector communication.”

To communicate government or any MDA effectively, the professional has to manage masterfully various competing interests and agenda, much more so than his counterpart in the private sector.

He adds ruefully that “the politics of the day determines to a great extent the pattern of communication between government agencies.” Even more important in this balancing act, Ojobo states, is the caution: “You do not have to be political, but you must also be politically correct.”

Communication functions in the public sector to promote citizen participation in service delivery, to enable informed decision making and service design, and to engender accountability. The communication professional in government setting in Nigeria faces many challenges. They include balancing the demands of the oath of secrecy that civil servants swear and that the Colonial Government instituted many years ago versus those of the new Freedom of Information Act. “Secret files still exist since colonial times to avoid protests from the public. Is it virtue to keep corporate activities and documents secret? ” he asks.

Other challenges include “the inability of public agents to strike a balance between their loyalty to the government and the interest of the citizens” that “makes public officers shy away from telling the whole truth to avoid embarrassing the government”. There is possibility of spokespersons being misunderstood and classified as saboteurs; difficulty in determining what to share  and what to  keep secret; and critical and cynical reception of messages from the public sector by the media and citizens.

However, the tendency to protect MDAs from unnecessary exposure “often results in many speculations in the public domain, thus creating problems.”

Given this, are government agencies open to communication? Can they? Should they?

Ojobo is convinced that MDAs should not only be open to communication but embrace it because, as he avers, “Secrecy and non-transparency cause under-the-table dealings, making organisations prefer to be quiet on their actions.”

He notes that with FOI Act, there is no hiding place for public officers. Even so, the FOI Act has guidelines on the types of information Government Agencies and officials can release to the public.  He shared many examples of effective and ineffective communication.

The NCC Communication Team handles the interface between the regulator and various stakeholders.

They include 150 million often vociferous subscribers to the different networks, the media, the network operators and the multiple players in that ecosystem, Government, and its various arms, et cetera.

The NCC, Ojobo discloses, had of necessity and choice operated a communication-centric and listening organisation. Telecommunication is ubiquitous and affects lives. It is a 24-hour service.

Challenges in the operating environment in Nigeria means there are issues on the side of customers, operators, governments.

The complaints come to NCC, which has opened its doors with a helpline, Subscribers Parliament and various platforms to listen and to address the challenges.

The above is the context for the work of the regulator. Before the recent bomb on MTN, subscribers often accused NCC of sharing bed space with those it regulates.

The networks on their part accused the institution of connivance with the market leader. As Walmart Corporation spokesman Dan Bartlett observed at the Global Public Relations Summit 2015, for NCC, as for Walmart, “there is a daily referendum on our reputation.”

Based on the experience of handling this challenging communication tasks, Ojobo recommends that Government agencies should not only have proper structured Communication Divisions but also must engage external counsel for their professional insights and detached perspective.

His declaration was music to the ears of the professional firms gathered under the PRCAN umbrella.  The endorsement came against some interesting historical and contemporary background.

The government gave impetus to public relations and communication in Nigeria with the establishment of the Information Department of the Colonial Service in the 1940s. The leading organisations of the era, the private sector United African Company and the public sector Nigerian Railway Corporation, also followed suit.

Use of professional communication counsel declined over the years, though. A survey by PRCAN in 2014 showed that Governments at Federal, State and Local levels were the least in patronising PRCAN member-agencies who contrastingly played major roles in servicing no fewer than 60 major brands. NCC and the Central Bank of Nigeria were some of the few Government organs that understood the imperative of effective professional communication.

Given that there are about 500 agencies of Government, poor and ineffective communication means that citizens do not know many of the agencies or what they do. Or how to seek redress for poor or no service. They are supposed to be accountable to us citizens.

So, what about MTN? Once again, Ojobo had to show dexterity in walking a tight rope. He was at the PRCAN event in his professional capacity as a key player in communication to speak to fellow professionals. He did not come to address an NCC press briefing on the sanction of MTN.

Ojobo would only volunteer the information that it had taken NCC since 2011 to get to the point of the humungous fine. He stressed the commitment of the regulator to maintaining the sanctity of the regulatory framework in the sector as well as promoting best practice in regulation and investment for the interest of Nigeria.

He says the three other players complied with the instruction; the defaulter kept doing so wilfully. There were also security dimensions to the challenge of having unregistered SIMs on telephone networks.

Ojobo stated: “Sanction is supposed to be a deterrent. The fine of N200,000 per unregistered SIM was fixed deliberately high to deter companies from disregarding the instruction. We did not really expect that we would get to any operator and find so many improperly registered SIMs. We expect 100% compliance. If there is no compliance, there will be sanctions. That is the message.”

For the communications profession, the message of this trapeze artist is clear: Master your craft.  Benchmark against best practice locally and internationally.

Make communication integral to the policy and processes of the organisation and for the public sector make it serve as an enabler in fulfilment of vision and mission. Get external counsel because of its benefits.