By Danjuma Amodu
The reputation of the National Youth Service Corps will be defined not by the volume of messages it puts out, but by the quality of experience people have with the scheme over time, the Vice President of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Prof Emmanuel Dandaura, has said.
Prof Dandaura, a professor of Strategic Communication, stated this in Abuja while delivering a lecture at a capacity-building programme organised for NYSC Public Relations, Media and Protocol Officers.
Speaking on the theme “Managing Perception, Protecting Reputation: Communication Strategies for NYSC,” he said every interaction between the Corps and its stakeholders is an opportunity to reinforce trust, and must therefore be handled with consistency and professionalism.
According to him, there is a clear difference between perception and reputation, noting that while perception can be shaped quickly with attractive messaging, reputation is earned slowly through consistent right actions.
“You have a responsibility to help NYSC to build a reputation, and you cannot build it on nothing. You will not be the one to determine the reputation, but you can contribute towards building it,” he said.
“You can do this by ensuring that the scheme does the right things all the time, so that as people experience NYSC, they will have a good feel. It is their decision to say you are reputable and not you telling them that you are reputable.”
He warned that when public messaging does not match lived experience, believability suffers and trust erodes, with long-term consequences for institutional reputation.
Dandaura urged the officers to move beyond the traditional view of public relations as image-making, describing that approach as outdated and temporary. Instead, he charged them to operate as reputation counsellors and as part of the leadership function of the organisation.
“If your practice is tilted towards image making, you are in the wrong place. This is not the age that public relations is practiced as image making. Today, it has evolved as a leadership function and that is why NIPR is establishing the University of Public Relations and Leadership because both complement each other,” he said.
He called on the participants to be proactive in advising management, grounded in environmental scanning, data gathering and the ability to anticipate outcomes.
He also stressed the need for NYSC communication officers to consistently provide the right input that guides management decisions and addresses the concerns of diverse stakeholder groups.
Prof Dandaura commended the NYSC management for prioritising staff capacity development and urged participants to leverage the knowledge gained to enhance the reputation capital of the scheme.
