Dr Omoniyi Ibietan has been as elected the Secretary-General of the African Public Relations Association (APRA) at the ongoing 35th Annual Conference and Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
He is the Head, Media Relations at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and a fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) and APRA.
He was elected into a three-man Executive Council. The other two members are Arik Karani (Kenya), President and Dr. Michele Mekeme (Cameroon), Vice President.
Ibietan, speaking shortly after his election, promised to work with other members of the Executive Council to continue the trajectory of reforms in APRA.
He said he will work for the expansion of the democratic space by encouraging greater participation of national public relations institutions on the Continent.
The new APRA Secretary-General said he would 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.
At the ongoing APRA Conference, Omoniyi Ibietan presented the first paper at the commencement of business sessions.
The title of his paper is Digital Inclusion As Arbiter Of Accessible Public Relations: A Case Of Nigerian Communications Commission.
Using Castells’ Theory of the Network Society and the Knowledge Gap Theory, and based on the actions of the Nigerian government through the activities of the NCC, Omoniyi Ibietan advanced a thesis that digital inclusion is the arbiter of digital public relations.
He discoursed a perspective that NCC’s digital inclusion programmes, projects and activities are foundational to digital economy because investment in and coordination of expansion of digital infrastructure, demonstrating their affordances and enhancing people’s access to such resources, constitute the building blocks and raison d’être of digital economy and inherently digital public relations.
He did this through implementation of laws, policies, guidelines, developmental regulation, collaborative partnerships, social investments, operational efficiency and ancillary actions that are consequential and quantifiable, and using copious pictorial evidence.
He is a journalist, writer and author and, as Head of Media Relations Management NCC), he oversees aspects of the public communication strategy of the national regulatory authority for telecommunication in Nigeria.
Omoniyi Ibietan was, earlier in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic, a Special Media Advisor to a former 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.
Omoniyi Ibietan 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.
Omoniyi Ibietan 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, Omoniyi Ibietan 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.
His first book, Social Media, Social Demography And Voting Behaviour In Nigeria, was published by Premium Times Books in Washington in May 2023.
Considerably traveled in Africa, North America, Europe and Asia, Omoniyi Ibietan, married with children, plays tennis and scrabble, loves reading and writing and loves meeting people, especially people from other cultures.
APRA, the successor to the Federation of African Public Relations Association (FAPRA), instituted in Nairobi in 1975, exists to foster unity of Africans and their global allies through interactions and exchange of meaning.
Pivoted on standardisation of public relations practice and scholarship on the Continent to enhance its relevance to the African reality, APRA member states and individuals meet annually at a location in any of its regional centres (East, North, South, West, Central, Indian Ocean Islands, and Francophone).
The essence of the meetings is to have a conversation with a thematic focus on any of its key intervention areas (Health & Education, Economic Integration, Good Governance, Tourism & Leisure, and Infrastructure Development).
The theme of this year’s conference is “One Africa, One Voice: Bridging Africa’s Communication Divide”.
APRA Côte d’Ivoire 2024 is endorsed by the Government of Côte d’Ivoire, the Holding Opinion & Public (THOP) and major global PR associations namely, the International Public Relations Association (IPRA), the International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO), the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management (GA), the African Union Commission (AUC) and PR national associations across the Continent.
Additionally, the Conference featured the eighth edition of the Innovation Summit (IN2SUMMIT) and include the seventh edition of the SABRE Awards Africa, holding tonight.
The APRA secretariat is in Nigeria, and the body maintains an observer status with the African Union.
