|
NDDC and the challenges of the human climate By
Coping with the demands of the human climate constitutes one of the areas of opportunity and challenge for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). The people of the region have suffered gross neglect over the years despite the region's enormous contribution to the economic prosperity of Nigeria. Consequently there is widespread poverty, lack of social and economic infrastructure and a high rate of unemployment and crime. This in turn has bred a frustrated population, ethnic polarization and anti-establishment hostility and agitation. In such a crisis-laden region, relations between the people and institutions operating there are in flux and under stress. Growing awareness has transformed people's expectations to demands and means of reconciling institutions with restive people are vital. Strategic community relations oriented towards changing the psychological climate that will enable NDDC adapt mutually with the people and also win their cooperation in executing its programmes are imperative. Issues management together with a communication strategy aimed at erasing public distrust will forestall conflicts and facilitate adjustments. Most of the people's expectations have been elevated to become demands. A major demand is for a role in a prosperous economy and society that the people see emerging, especially as they now know that the resources fostering the prosperity come from their area. This means understanding the people's expectations, discussing their demands with a view to directing their attitudes are vital. In Niger Delta today, there is great diversity of people and their interests, leading to a splintering of viewpoints and identification with various special interest groups. This situation makes the process of dealing with the human climate much more complex, requiring a broader awareness of the socio-political dynamics of the area and the need for broad-gauged public relations professional who have capability to initiate a proactive public relations programme that will establish relationships of mutual benefits to all parties involved, and also provide means of working out accommodation which makes arbitrary or coercive action less likely. To achieve this, a three-phased public relations action programme is required. The first phase will involve consultations with community leaders, traditional rulers, council, state and National Assembly members of the area together with youth and women leaders with a view to collating the development needs of the respective communities. This phase will not only enable NDDC to adapt mutually with the various community groups but will also erase suspicion and distrust created by the woeful failure of NDDC's predecessors OMPADEC and NDDA. After the consultations, each community will be requested to appoint a five-man representation that will from time to time liaise with NDDC to work out areas of mutual concern. The second phase will involve a two-step line of action. The first will be development of a Master Plan where all accepted development needs of the various communities will be incorporated. Here, Engineer Godwin E. Omene's background will evidently be an asset to the commission. With his Shell background, there is no doubt that he has a vast knowledge of the geography of the area and will be equipped with enough information material to craft out a Master Plan relevant to the oil producing communities. With a master plan in place, the next line of action will be the drawing up of a time table for the projects that will be carried out on yearly basis. The third phase of the public relations action programme will be mainly to initiate a communication strategy aimed at entrenching and enhancing public credibility of the commission. Communication messages and themes designed to emphasize actions so far taken will remove skepticisms. Actions such as the consultations held with various communities and the drawing up of the master plan will build trust and attract the people's support. Communication target audience will not only be the oil communities but also various external publics capable of influencing government action. Using well selected communication media and internally produced information material, the target audience should be expanded to include council, state, and National Assembly members of the area, all national legislators as a whole, the state governors of the region, social activists and public interest groups, environmentalists, journalists and media houses. Information material or publication for external publication should be attractive, clear and authoritative. This should be backed up with periodic series of sound tapes and video tape recording for television houses, conveying themes and messages that will position NDDC as an institution dependent upon the people's support, sensitive to the people's aspiration and positively determined to execute its development programmes creditably. The writer wrote in from Lagos |