Public Relations is a Medicine, Practitioners are Doctors, says Idris Katib

By Kemi Adefaka

The Public Relations Manager of Crescent University, Abeokuta, Idris Katib, has enlightened members of the public why the profession of public relations is a medicine and the practitioners are doctors.

He disclosed this while featuring on an Ogun State Television (OGTV) programme organized by PR Primus recently to review the impact of public relations in 2021.

Katib said “When a doctor prescribes medicine, for instance, the Artesunate combined  malaria drug of 2-2-1 and it is strictly adhered to based on prescription, there will be good results. That is public relations.”

He explained that the performance of Public Relations in 2021 was largely dependent on whether the chief executives of organizations and heads of government listened to the their public relations professionals or not.

Citing the performance of public relations in the education sector as an example, Katib said PR performed excellently in some areas and badly in others in 2021.

He said it was a good public relations for Crescent University, Abeokuta, to be one of the few universities on the list of a few Nigerian universities  that achieved 100 percent performance in their programme accreditation by National University Commission (NUC).

He said yardsticks employed by the NUC to grade universities accreditation performance are the quality control, academic contents, employers’ rating, physical facilities and staffing.

He further emphasized that the major yardsticks in the output of any university are performance of products in employment, further studies especially abroad and entrepreneurship, adding that Crescent University Alumni had performed excellently in all the yardsticks over the years.

Katib featured along with two other PR experts in the sector including the Ogun Sate Head of PR of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), My Dyke Ogbonaya and Mr Peter Oyeneye, who is Chief Executive Officer, Advanced Management Academy, Abuja.

A Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations and CEO of PR Primus Mr Akin Okudero anchored the programme.