In order for a high ethical standard to be upheld in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) economy, there need to be trust between the government and the people, the government and the private sectors, the media and the people they serve, experts in the Nigerian communications space say.
They are of the view that consequence management, where people are held accountable for their actions, is very essential in reviving perceived trust in the economy.
“We cannot talk about reputation if there is no trust involved, that is one of the challenge that we reputation managers face in our different organisation, and this has given rise to fake news,” Yomi Badejo-Okusanya said in a panel discussion at the 2018 Caritas Reputation Leadership Roundtable tagged “Ethics, Reputation and Technology in a VUCA economy, Wednesday in Lagos.
“The first crisis of a VUCA economy is the disruption of trust, and our first challenge must be on how we can rebuild that trust so that the various component of a nation or an economy can start working on the basis of trust,” he said.
Emeka Oparah, vice president, corporate communications/CSR, Airtel Nigeria, said the issues of fake news, unauthorised recording, manipulation and distortion of facts, images and videos, and hate speech were issues that must be tackled in the country as such moves were targeted at ruining the reputation of an individual, a firm or an economy.
He noted that the situation had even been compounded with the prevalence of technology, as some media platforms used incorrect facts and information in the name of dishing out news.
According to Oparah, in order to restore sanity of quality information, the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) must insist on the registration and continued education of practitioners in order to promote and sustain professionalism. The institute must sanction aberrant conduct to serve as a deterrent to others
“We must also be ready to test the cybercrime law of 2014 that was signed by former President Goodluck Jonathan, as this would install sanity in government offices,” he added, citing scenarios where public officials go unpunished even after being seen guilty of such offence.
Communication experts were of the view that lack of data might also be one of the problems behind false release of information.
Adebayo Ojo concluded the event with a launching and book presentation, titled “Public Relations Thoughts & Deeds,” where he explored the world of public relations and the emergence of specialised public relations.
The book explained that while there might be a plethora of definitions and a magnitude of approaches to public relations strategy and practice, there were still significant peculiarities that underlie successful practice in specialised sectors, especially energy, oil and gas.
