By The Head of Media Relations at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr Omoniyi Ibietan, has won the seat of the Secretary-General of the African Public Relations Association (APRA).
Ibietan who is also a fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) was elected at the ongoing 35th Annual Conference and Annual General Meeting taking place in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
Ibietan in his acceptance speech promised to work with other members of the Executive Council to continue the trajectory of reforms in APRA, expand the democratic space by encouraging greater participation of national public relations institutions on the Continent and work more closely with the African Union Commission and Council of Ministers to put public relations at the heart of policy, programmes, and project implementation.
He was elected into a three-man Executive Council that other two members, Arik Karani (Kenya), President, and Dr. Michele Mekeme (Cameroon), Vice President.
At the at the conference he presented his first paper on: the commencement of business sessions. The DIGITAL INCLUSION AS ARBITER OF ACCESSIBLE PUBLIC RELATIONS: A CASE OF NIGERIAN COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION.
In his paper, he advanced a thesis that digital inclusion is the arbiter of digital publirelations.As.
A former journalist, Ibietan, recently published his first book, SOCIAL MEDIA, SOCIAL DEMOGRAPHY, AND VOTING BEHAVIOUR IN NIGERIA.
As Head of Media Relations Management at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), where he oversees aspects of the public communication strategy of the national regulatory authority for telecommunication in Nigeria. Earlier in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic, he was Special Media Advisor to the Federal Minister of Information and Communication.
He has over 20 years of experience in media and communication scholarship and practice, spanning journalism, academia, policy discourse, communication strategy, regulation, and stakeholder relations.
He earned BA and MA in Communication Arts and Communication & Language Arts from the Universities of Uyo and Ibadan in Nigeria, respectively, graduating atop his classes.
Earlier, he obtained a diploma in journalism with distinction from the Moscow-Based International Institute of Journalism.
He holds a Ph.D. in Communication from the North-West University in South Africa, with specialisation in political communication. He is a IP3 certified regulation specialist and holds a mini MBA in telecommunications from NEOTELIS in Paris.
He is also a member of the African Council for Communication Education (ACCE), an Associate Registered Practitioner of Advertising (arpa) and member of the International Institute of Communications (IIC), the world’s only policy debating platform for the converged communications industry.
As a scholar, he focuses on patterns of political communication through new media; media and culture studies; and theoretical & normative foundations of communication in relation to democracy and freedom. He is on the faculty of the Nigerian campus of Italy-
based Rome Business School (RBS), where he teaches doctoral students PR & Advertising and Media Management & Communication Strategy.
He also facilitates learning to students in the Master of Corporate Communication programme at RBS.
