Governor Sule, Dr Omeri others win NIPR Diamond Prize for Innovative Leadership

By David Odama

Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State and the former National Orientation Agency NOA Director General, Dr Mike Omeri has won the National Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) Diamond Prize for Excellence in Innovative Leadership.

Governor Suleand the ex-NOA DG were awarded the prize during a colourful dinner celebrating the Diamond anniversary of the NIPR, at Transcorp Hilton Hotel Abuja on Thursday.

Introducing the winners across eleven various aspects of leadership, Professor Emmanuel Dandaura, NIPR Vice President, said the institute awarded the leadership following recommendations based on the performance of various leaders and how these leaders fit into the prizes identified.

Professor Dandaura announced that each winner of the prize will also take away two hundred thousand naira as cash prize for the diamond prize in excellence in a given area.

Thereafter, the two notable citizens of Nasarawa state were declared as the winner of the NIPR Diamond Prize in Innovative Leadership.

In his response, Governor Sule stressed the significance of public relations especially in an era of fake news and social media excesses.

The Governor particularly commended the NIPR for seeking to establish an institute of public relations in the country, with the first of such institutes to be established in Nasarawa State.

According to him, establishing the public relations institute will provide the much needed platform to blend knowledge with practice, which will add value to media experts, journalists and graduates of communication.

“I don’t know how an Engineer will come to a public relations event and say a few words. But it’s an assignment given to me. How did I get here? I got here because I believe public relations is liberty and liberty is public relations. In an era of the social media where all sort of things can be said, that can lead you to love somebody you can hate and can lead you to hate somebody you should love.

“There is no better time than for us to grab an opportunity. For us in Nasarawa State, we try to look for opportunities and we grab them. When we saw the opportunity for the public relations institute we came into it and believe very strongly that Nasarawa State needs one, Nigeria needs one, Africa needs one. We are happy that the first one to be established in Nigeria will be established in Nasarawa State.

Also speaking at the occasion, former NOA DG, mike Omeri expressed gratitude for the recognition extended to him say this will spur him to serve the nation and humanity better.

Omeri who urged the public Relations to stimulate, ginger and liberate the practice of information desimination in Nigeria, expressed the confidence that NIPR would use the mechanism at it’s disposal to strengthen information desimination as a veritable tolls for galvanizing active relationship between the government and the entire citizens.

The former NOA DG also called for a conducive working environments for information desimination where the practice of Public Relations can be used to reshape the society.

“We have so many media experts who have no public relations. We have so many journalists who have no public relations. We have so many people with degree in communications and they have zero public relations. This is why we see public relations as leadership.