By Dahiru M. Lawal

TECHDIGEST – Towards the end of February and way into the first half of this month, Nigeria’s mediasphere – conventional and unconventional – was awash with an unwarranted crisis that raged between the Kano Emirate Council particularly involving the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Aminu Ado Bayero via his Chief Protocol and Uncle, Isah Bayero on the one hand and one of Nigeria’s foremost carrier, Air Peace on another hand.

The dispute involved issues around flight delays, alleged discourtesy and amateurish professionalism in handling the fall out of the incident that catalysed the quarrel in the first instance. Typically, ‘Sabi it all meddlesome’ actors took advantage of the situation to spew their disgust against one another’s traditional, ethnic or religious affiliations on social media and blogs, polarising the discourse across ethnoreligious lines and diminishing the key important issues and factors on both sides that should have been on the front burner.

In order to avoid total descent of a situation that had the potential to transmute into a physical crisis, experts waded in with various informed analyses of what they thought could have been done professionally better such that the face-off wouldn’t have escalated and fanned the embers of hatred between followers and fandom of both entities involved. One of such pundits who waded in, was no other than the globally acclaimed multi-award-winning crisis communicator, Yushau Shuaib, who in his article, “Air Peace, Kano Emir and unwarranted attacks,” summarily posits that the dispute could better have been resolved beyond textbooks and theories. Many seemed to align with that thought as the debate doused soon after his take went viral.

Unfortunately, some rabble-rousers will never go to sleep, especially when public sentiment is reconciled and peace envelops a hitherto heated polity. So, I was not surprised when I woke up to an article by a certain Tony Eluemunor where he vainly attempted to attack Shuaib’s Aristotle like position on the matter, in a supposed rejoinder, “Shuaibu on Emir and Air Peace: Teacher don’t teach me nonsense.”

Eluemunor’s arguments were not only puerile, but they were lacking in basic critical thinking, problem-solving and reason-based dissensions.

For instance, the man attempted to define and even pinpointed what he, in his self-glorifying thoughts termed “gaffes,” but he fails to realize that the biggest joke is on him for failing to comprehend what he seeks to counter. Eluemunor couldn’t comprehend that what Mr Shuaib practically did in his submission was to pass the idea of the need to take result-oriented decisions in such a situation based on evidence and calculated hunches. These “strategic” moves do not have to be conventional, theoretical or textbook-based! Hence the refrains by Shuaib stating that “beyond theory,” “strategic” and “communication.”

I’m struggling to reconcile if it is the phrase “beyond theory” or the term “STRATEGIC communication,” that was too complex for Tony to decipher. But if that’s the case, I hope the above breakdown suffices. Otherwise, as a budding communicator and Shuaib’s mentee myself, I’m willing to offer Mr Tony free tutorial services to upskill him with the concept, unless of course, he is up to some mischief.

Fair enough that Tony at least understands that “communicators have to find the most effective ways to communicate with the public,” but too bad that he does not see how this applies “beyond theory.” It goes to show that Shuaib’s ideals of strategic communication are one that is reserved for sophisticated communication thinkers way beyond Tony’s league and comprehension, so he has no business taking on Shuaib’s piece in the first place. It was even more laughable that the Eluemunor was relying on ‘Wikipedia,’ of all journals in the world he could have tapped from, to make an airtight point. So laughable!

But beyond all these glaring fundamental flaws, I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt by probing his human capital and perhaps any accolade to his name that would have emboldened him to attempt to disrespectfully interrupt a globally acclaimed PR professional on “expertise,” but simple search engine results about Eluemunor shocked me to my marrows.

Apart from controversies, Eluemunor’s name only turned up in search results with questionable involvements, the sort only a hack hustler and never an expert can be involved in…no social media capital, no professional/unbiased pedigree, no standard pen direction, no formidable byline and most notably is his hatchet job as defender-in-chief of Nigeria’s most corrupt former governor in Nigeria. Anyone can easily google for confirmation.

That was why the same man was described by a September 2009 article as a “sad enigma and even sadder story.”

In fact, in the prelude to that article titled, “What did James Ibori pay for Tony Eluemunor?” the writer states as follows and truly so; “to be honest, I do not remember Tony Eluemunor very well. Only that I used to read him in the press about 20 years ago or so, and fairly recently in The Guardian and the Independent newspaper. I have tried to look at his work on the Internet, but at that time, the Internet did not exist, at least in today’s form, so there is not much. What I find interesting is that he signs his name in the respected colours of the University of Harvard: “Eluemunor, a 1991 Fellow of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.”

Apart from that, his thought process and attack dog stylistics has remained undynamic and static for, I guess, as long as he has been writing. For instance, a 2017 article he wrote titled “Ibori: Setting the records straight,” had the same treatment and pattern he gave Shuaibs article – quoting extensively from the original articles, incoherent argument and false claims such as the dangerous ones he levelled against Mr Shuaib.

But just so Tony is not too deluded, Mr. Yushau Shaib does not consider himself “some expert in strategic communication,” as Tony tries to maliciously portray. The world does and this is evidenced in his league of clientele and numerous awards within and outsides the shores of this country.

There is no debating the fact that Mr Shuaib’s PR credentials transcend borders and there is no yardstick or measurement in the world that can place his expertise and creative mien below the margin. The man practically embodies communication.

Just last month, a national daily, Thisday newspaper described Yushau Shuaib as “a consummate writer and crisis-communicator par excellence. A distinguished public relations practitioner of sterling quality, his ingenuity has won him both local and international recognitions.

“As a publicist with great panache, he is one of the outstanding media professionals to emerge from the North.”

The paper said Shuaib is a recipient of several outstanding honours, especially in Public Relations. He was PR man of the Year of NIPR Kano/Jigawa Chapter in 1995, Outstanding Digital PR Practitioner of NIPR FCT Chapter 2019 and the prestigious NIPR Presidential award also in 2019.

Through some of his initiatives, especially the PRNigeria and Economic Confidential magazine, his firm has consistently won the African PR Awards in South Africa 2016/7, Morocco 2017, Botswana 2018, Kigali 2019 and Tanzania 2020. At the global scene, his firm remains the only PR agency in Africa to have consistently won the Golden World Award of International Public Relations Association (IPRA) on Crisis Management in Qatar 2016, Bulgaria 2017, Spain 2018, Armenia 2019 and 2020. The firm was declared “the Most Creative PR Agency Worldwide 2020 by Global Creativity Index GCI and Statista, the world-renowned statistics portal.

In 2021, his firm was shortlisted among five finalists for the “African PR Agency of the Year 2021.”

So, in an ill-fated attempt to ridicule a globally acclaimed Communication expert in the mould of Yushau Shuaib, Eluemunor expressly demarketed himself as a perpetually fixated non-creative textbook copycat incapable of lateral thinking, whom beyond bootlicking and whitewashing, neither has a market value in the media arena nor is armed with the capacity to look at the dynamics of issues and come up with an innovative strategy that can stand the test of time.

Based on the foregoing, if I was a potential hirer, I’ll not take another look at his offer, if I were a potential client, I’ll put my money back into my pocket! Because the self-styled LinkedIn “media consultant” with only one connection and no post to show it, obviously has nothing to offer.

In fact, Tony Eluemunor’s incoherent and disjointed rejoinder on Yushau Shuaib’s well-intentioned article on tolerance and crisis communication is simply ‘nonsensical balderdash.’

Dahiru M Lawal is an award-winning Fact-Checker and writes from Kano

The post On Emir and Airpeace: How Eluemunor Goofed on Shuaib’s Interventions appeared first on Tech Digest News.

TECHDIGEST – The Emir of Kano, Alhaji Aminu Ado-Bayero, has presented an award of excellence in Public Relations and Digital Journalism to Yushau A. Shuaib (YAShuaib), the Chief Executive Officer of Image Merchants Promotion Limited, publishers of PRNigeria, Economic Confidential and other titles.

The Emir made the presentation as the Royal of the Day at the 40th anniversary of the Department of Mass Communication at Bayero University Kano (BUK) where he is also an alumnus of the Mass Communications class of 1984.

The award ceremony organised by the BUK Mass Communications Alumni Association (BUMCAA) also recognised other alumni who had excelled in various fields of communication as well as other organisations and public figures for their contributions to the department.

The recipients of the Awards of Excellence included Alhaji Garba Bello Kankarofi, former Registrar, APCON bagged the award of excellence in Advertising; Brig. Gen. (Rtd.) Sani Usman Kukasheka, former Army Spokesperson on Public Relations; Late Professor Balarabe Maikaba former Head of Department for Academic Excellence; Hajiya Sa’ad Ibrahim on Broadcasting and Dr. Hadiza Isah Wada on Journalism.

The recipients of Merit awards for immense contributions to the development of the Faculty of Mass Communication are Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Mc Arthur Foundation, Voice of America, British Broadcast Corporation (BBC), Dutch Welle of Germany, Prof. Umaru A. Pate, current Vice-Chancellor Federal University Kashere and Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu, former Vice-Chancellor National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).

Meanwhile, recipients of the Awards of Honour included His Highness Alhaji Aminu Ado Bayero, Sarkin Kano; Alhaji Muhammed Ibrahim Makaman Ringim, Professor Abubakar A. Rasheed, Professor Sagir Adamu Abbas VC, Vice-Chancellor Bayero University Kano, Hon. Alhasan Ado Doguwa, Majority Leader House of Representatives and Hon. Sha’aban Ibrahim Sharada, Chairman House Committee of Security.

Speaking during a public lecture of the event, Emir Aminu Ado Bayero urged alumni associations to intensify efforts in assisting to bolster the development of their alma maters.

“It is good for us to see how we can continue assisting our alma mater, based on our ability. We should also assist those who are less privileged in the society and continue to be good ambassadors of the institution wherever they find themselves.”

In his remarks, the University’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Sagir Adamu-Abbas, congratulated the department for the successes recorded.

Represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Management Services, Prof. Mahmud Sani, the VC said that the alumni have great roles to play in the development of the institution.
He said that the management is ready to collaborate with them to continue moving the institution forward.

“They have invaluable roles to play in infrastructure development, mentoring of younger ones and giving us feedback,” he said.

In her vote of thank, the first female professor of communication at the university, Professor Hajara Sanda, a 1992 graduate of the department commended the old students for their encouragement and supports to their alma mater.

“We express our deep appreciation and gratitude to our old students for the generous contributions they are making to now Faculty of Communication that has departments of Mass Communication, Information and Media Studies as Theatre and Performing Arts.”

The Majority Leader, House of Representatives, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, an alumnus of 1990, donated N10 million to the faculty and the department while the Member representing Kano Municipal, Sha’aban Sharada, an alumnus of 2011, secured approval for the establishment of a computer laboratory for the Department of Public Relations in the Faculty of Communication.

Source : PR Nigeria

The post Kano Emir Presents Award to YAShuaib of PRNigeria, 19 Others at 40th Anniversary of BUK Mass Communication appeared first on Tech Digest News.