PR PRACTITIONERS IN THE NORTH CHALLENGED TO WORK HARD

The Northern Regional Minister, Moses Bukari Mabengba, says the practice of Public Relations as a profession in Northern Ghana leaves much to be desired due to the fact that most people in the area do not really see the significant role the profession plays towards the overall growth and development of institutions and the people.

According to him, most PR task within most organizations is either relegated to the background or completely abandoned. Adding that, even in situations where PR officers are appointed in some institutions, such officers are not usually properly placed within the set-ups of those institutions.

Mr. Moses Mabengba who was addressing the first Northern Public Relations Conference and Training Workshop in Tamale, was however hopeful that with the presence of Institute of Public Relations now in the Northern Region, the PR officers would take advantage of it to upgrade themselves to maximize the fortunes of their organizations and the region at large.

The conference called on Public Relations Practitioners to rise up and work to achieve the goals and aspirations of their institutions and organizations towards the development of the North.

The practitioners have also been advised that for any development agenda to succeed in the North, people outside the area must first be counseled to change their bad perceptions about the place and its institutions, organizations and people.

The two-day conference was organized by NU IMAGE Communications, an event management company that exist to purposely to use the power of the media to positively project the potentials that abound in the three Northern Regions of Ghana in collaboration with the Institute of Public Relations (IPR).

In his welcoming address, Mr. David Babayara, Director of NU IMAGE Communications Company said the conference was aimed at creating opportunities for the practitioners living in the North to also showcase to the rest of the country what they are capable of doing.

He hinted that his outfit was coming out with new programmes which would be showing on the national Television, adding “it will be the first ever TV magazine programme dubbed Northern TV which aims at highlighting life and lifestyle of the people in the three Northern Regions. It would also help bring to light some of the hidden treasures that are left unattended to.

Renowned communication experts like Mr. Joseph Emmanuel Allotey Papoe, Major (Rtd) Albert Don-Chebe, Mr. Ibrahim Awal, and Dr. Margret Amoakohene facilitated the workshop.