It has been established that the effectiveness of communication makes or mars a brand or an organisation. The contribution of media relations to an organisational success can not be overemphasised. Hence, the reason most corporate organisations invest heavily in ensuring that their media departments are functioning overtime.
These were the thoughts of a foremost journalist and chairman, Buhari Media Organisation, Omoniyi Akinsiju, when he featured as a guest on the weekly Freelanews Leadership Session, while dissecting the topic Political Leadership: Importance of effective communication in a democracy.
Akinsiju, who is also the chief executive officer of Utako Investment Company Limited, stressed that communication in a democracy is the generation of information of diverse nature and characters to the people (this may be targeted per time) with intent at creating awareness, education and or enlightenment.
“The topic tends to be academic in outlook, so I’ll try to side step the theories underlying it and try focus on implications. I will also try to be brief as much as possible.
“Communication is an essential sphere of human existence and forms the basis of relationships either between two people or among peoples.
The veteran journalist also regarded communication as the oxygen that sustains democracy.
“I strongly believe that effective communication is the life-wire of a democracy, which in itself being about people and relationships forged from associations therefrom.”
Akinsiju, who also believed that communication practice in Nigeria since the inception of our democracy is of the bullet type, said that the purpose of a democracy, politically speaking, is processing the formation and enabling administration of the government.
“To this extent, the vitality of the government so formed, is functioned on communicating the essentials of the government, governance and existence to the people by those that have been invested with the trust of the people to govern on their behalf.”
On why he stated that communication by successive governments is bullet type, Akinsiju said;
“Government spokespersons merely circulate information with the belief that recipients (the governed) will take and adapt. It’s unfortunately a tradition carried over from the military era.”
The chairman of Buhari Media Organisation submitted that effective communication in a democracy is a comprehensive feedback system.
“However, effective communication as implied in the topic has taken the communication spectrum beyond awareness and education. Effective communication in a democracy must, first, thrives on a robust feedback system such that information dispersed is retrieved down the spectrum as distilled responses from the recipients, the people, in this regard.
“Yet, the feedback mechanism should not just be mechanical. The quality of feedback that completes the communication circle must be determined by the intents of the message, which is pivoted on the use of information dispersed to the people.
“In other words, information dispersed must be of given function to the recipients, for economic well being, social elevation, political advancement or of knowledge that can be applied to advantage as the case may be.
“But then, the most effective communication, to my mind, is that one that starts from the people. It defines that before a government takes a position, the people must be consulted and their opinions aggregated and dispersed back to them.
“This reduces conflict and provide clarity for recipients.”
In his own contribution, Ayọ Dúródọlá put United States and Nigeria in perspective.
“I have seen the communication line of the US government; from drafts to levels of clearance…to who is authorised to speak ….to what we call media guidance on various topics. Now this is what keeps the message in focus. No official will say anything outside the guidance. Now, Nigerian government doesn’t work like that; all the media aides will say different things. From the minister to press secretary to social media to the president himself. Do you think one can change this given the political landscape and norms peculiar to Nigeria?” Dúródọlá asked.
Akinsiju responded that, “The primary responsibility of media messaging and management of government in Nigeria lies with information officers that are staff of the information ministry. I sincerely believe they need a lot of training.”
Julius Adeguna asked,”Why should the responses be distilled sir? Does that explain why governments do not take unfriendly feedback?”
“Distilled, here, actually means summary. This is so because the population of recipients is much, yet, it is important that every opinion expressed on a given matter must reflect in the distilled response. That’s what I mean by submitting that there should always be consultation by govt before policies are made public,” Akinsiju responded.
When asked if he had ever been in a situation where he had to defend his principal, as the chairman of Buhari Media Organisation, against his personal opinion.
The BMO chair responded, “First, status clarification! I am not a staff of the government, but a volunteer driven by my conviction in President Muhammadu Buhari. As a professional, I am a purveyor of truth; that’s my training. If I do not believe in a position no matter who’s it may be, I won’t publicly defend on canvass it.”
He said that the people centred communication strategy as highlighted above also functions as an attenuating factor for what was described as the filter of fault lines through which some people on the receiver end of the spectrum filter information dispersed to them.
“In Nigeria, this filter are made of our national fault lines of ethnicity, religious sentiments etc,” he concluded.
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