TECHDIGEST – He is 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. While pursuing Islamic studies in the university, he took Mass Communication as an optional course – a decision that would later become pivotal to his career trajectory. Behind him are years of shining brilliantly as a public servant. The public relations expert and Chief Executive Officer of Image Merchants Promotion, Yushau Shuaib, tells Funke Olaode what spurred his interest in building a career as a publicist with a great panache.

He is one of the outstanding media professionals to emerge from the North. Through public service, he had distinguished himself and left with his head high. Yushau Shuaib, Chief Executive Officer of Image Merchants Promotions is renowned for his unique ability in his trade. Humble, quiet and unassuming, he has continued to be a shining light in his field.

Shuaib is a graduate of Mass-Communication from Bayero University Kano with a master’s degree in Public Relations from the University of Westminster, United Kingdom.

His foray into image making began in his university days, serving as the spokesperson of Mass Communication Students Association (MACOSA) and winning the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations Prize for the Best Student in PR 1992. From Bayero University where he had distinguished himself, Shuaib repeated the same feat in Asaba, Delta State where he did his mandatory youth service. Here, he won local, state and presidential NYSC awards with automatic employment as one of the most outstanding corps members of that period. He served as PRO Delta State Government House, Asaba and later became Press Secretary in various Federal Ministries including Information, Finance; Health; Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

Outside the public service, several organisations have benefitted from his fountain of knowledge. He has provided advisory services to corporate organisations and consulted for critical institutions in the military, security, intelligence and response agencies, including the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), providing crisis communication services.

An author of repute, in the course of his career as a PR person and writer, he has published over 300 media articles and written books including `A Dozen Tips for Media Relations,’ ‘Financial Public Relations,’ ‘An Encounter with Spymaster and Award-Winning Crisis Communication strategies’ among others.

“Publishing has always been part of our business though we have different media platforms for different sectors e.g. PRNigeria, Economic Confidential, Emergency Digest, Techdigest, Politics Digest and Spokespersons Digest. After realising that our correspondents and desk officers cover specific sectors and projects, we find it necessary for the purpose of documentation and records to introduce the book project. Every book for the project is thematic on a central topic, subject, or message within a narrative. My recent books are also thematic especially, “An Encounter with Spymasters, Crisis Communication Strategies” and also the recent ones by our staff members, “Digital Innovation for Economic Prosperity in Nigeria” by Inyene Ibanga and “101 Fake News on EndSARS” by Dahiru M. Lawal. We currently have at least six books in the pipeline for presentation next year, God willing,” he said.

He 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.

A spokesperson with tentacles across the globe, his crafts, creativity and ingenuity have been recognised globally. For instance, 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.

Shuaib and his outfit have continued to blaze the trail. In 2021, his firm was on a shortlist of five finalists for the “African PR Agency of the Year 2021.”

From public service to the private sector, Shuaib has remained true to himself to dealing with and solving image crises. Why did he choose this path you may ask? And why Marketing Communication? His response: “I come from a family of preachers who are advocates of moral conduct and good causes where communication is the vital weapon of persuasion through convincing narratives. Therefore, I have always admired public communicators who handle tough situations and solve problems.”

His father, an Islamic scholar and a PhD in Arabic Linguistics wanted him to study Arabic and Islamic studies so that he could also become an Imam like his grandfather. While pursuing Islamic studies in the university, he took Mass Communication as a subsidiary, optional course because of his love for writing and speaking at events on campus.

“In the process, I developed an interest in reading newspapers which my father bought every day. I later started admiring the writing styles. Even before I took Mass Communication as a subsidiary course. I was contributing articles to campus magazine before I later established Campus Voice Magazine monthly and Campus Express which came fortnightly whenever there are activities like politics, sports and events on the campus. So, I never had interest in Law, Accounting or any of the so-called lucrative professional courses because every organisation or profession needs a communicator. So to me, communication was, and is still, everything and I went for it,” he recounted.

Shuaib was in the civil service where he made remarkable success and at a time was referred to as a star boy, he quit to pursue his ambition. Restless and ambitious with a purpose, he admitted he had always wanted to be his own boss.

“I thank the Almighty for his abundant blessing on my career path,” he continued. I never thought of working in the civil service. I wanted to practice journalism and public relations. The NYSC honours including the Presidential award that offered me an automatic appointment in the public service changed my orientation. From 1993 when I was offered the initial appointment in Delta State Civil Service, I promised myself to spend only a few years and quit to pursue my passion.”

In 1996, when he became a press secretary at the Federal Ministry of Finance, he was egged on by his friend at FAAC News magazine, where he began contributing regular articles. “Similarly, after I left the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) in 2016, I supported my family in establishing another magazine known as Economic Confidential. I also established an online forum for Public Relations practitioners in Nigeria through a Yahoo Group known as PRNigeria,” he recalled.

Shuaib has a clear cut area of operation – reputation and crisis management services to corporate organisations and critical institutions in the military, security, intelligence and response agencies. His background in the civil service became an asset.

“Actually, the first set of clients that requested my services were in the security and intelligence sector. I am glad that I served them to the best of my ability. The contributions we made in that sector remain unprecedented till today,” he said.

A man of vision who is constantly on a mission, one of his initiatives, PRNigeria and Economic Confidential magazine, have consistently won the African PR Awards across Africa including the Most Creative PR Agency Worldwide. For him, the secret to those successes lies in the ability to face challenges and his approaches to solve crises.

“You want me to divulge the secret of the trade in crisis communication and reputation management. Pay the fees and I will do so (Laughs). The truth is that at Image Merchants Promotion Limited (IMPR), we like to take on bigger challenges. In fact we enjoy being approached to resolve crises through strategic communication. Most of the international awards are largely interested in problem solving case studies. For a crisis management outfit, it is easier to list the problems from the crisis situations that were presented to us and how we managed them. Our activities are not the routine event coverages, press release distributions etc. In strategic communication, for every event we organise and every statement we issue, there are a lot of factors and processes that must be considered before the communication campaigns.

“We were declared as the Most Creative PR Agency World in 2020 for the various campaigns we undertook that year with minimum budgets but with maximum result. Our campaigns have different objectives. Meanwhile, each of our campaigns followed the same templates from the summary on the challenges before we define the problem and list the Campaign Objectives. We have to identify the geographic location and target audiences which would guide on the tools to be deployed to achieve the best results.”

Marketing Communication in a digital world needs brilliant and talented individuals for it to survive. Shuaib is of the view that even with social media and digital innovation, organisations should ensure they have incentives that could attract and retain the best hands.

His company is huge. It has made a name for itself. To onlookers, having affiliations with foreign partners won’t be a bad idea. “We are very mindful of the potential benefits of affiliation in the PR industry. We may consider such in future. Currently we observe and operate the concept of globalisation by localising global best practices in our business that makes us compete favourably with the international PR firms and Global brands.”

Shuaib is a workaholic and he is still excited with many of the company’s recent campaigns.

“Our clients are out there. I find it difficult to pick any above others because they all have a common goal for success in their various and diverse campaigns we executed. Meanwhile, I must admit that our crisis communication campaigns are the most successful going by the dozens of awards we bagged at events hosted by the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), African Public Relations Association (APRA) and International Public Relations Association (IPRA),” he said.

In recognising role models and aspiring public relations experts, Shuaib and his team recently established award presentations.

The award presentation is a component of Public Relations, especially event management strategies.

“Having covered some of the sectors with constructive editorial and in most cases with criticisms in ensuring that best practices are observed, the other ways of acknowledging and recognising role models for emulation are mostly through awards of recognition. We started with the Campus Journalism Award which is now more popular among student writers in Nigeria. Two years later, we introduced Security and Emergency Management Awards (SAEMA) for that sector and this year we launched the inaugural Spokespersons Awards for PR practitioners and strategic communications in various categories.”

No doubt, Shuaib eats, sleeps and breathes PR through writing and speaking. “It has always been my desire to excel in every branch of Public Relations practice.”

For him, his life is not defined solely by the career path he chose. Away from practicing PR, managing crises, he still enjoys playing badminton and savouring some mouth-watering noodles at his leisure.

Source : Thisdaylive.com

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TECH DIGEST – “Eh… My Oga!”, he exclaimed, with surprise written on his fac quickly glanced backward to see who the call was meant for.

Surprisingly, other guests, mostly editors and online publishers, were smiling and laughing.

“Alhaji Yushau Shuaib… very long time!” The unmistakable voice of Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State rang out again.

Through my face mask, I returned a smile and exchanged a COVID-19 greeting of an elbow bump, rather than a handshake or an embrace.

A week prior to the face-to-face encounter with the governor, I had had an extensive conversation with the Auditor General for Local Governments in Kogi State, Mr. Usman Ododo Ahmed, who had highly extolled the success of Governor Yahaya Bello in securing and stabilising the State. Predictably, my guest had no prior inkling that I have known the governor since he was a National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member with the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation And Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) in the early 2000s, where I was then the Head of Media and Public Relations.

The Chairman of RMAFC at the time, the now late Engineer Hamman Tukur had sought the posting of young, vibrant and knowledgeable graduates who could assist the Commission in its constitutional mandate, especially in terms of data analyses on economic issues.

A renowned North-Central politician and industrialist, Dr. Faruk Abdul-Aziz, who was a board member of the Commission, was the one who had recommended Yahaya Bello, among the corps members who were selected to serve in RMFAC.

For those conversant with the Nigerian economy during that period, RMAFC, through its PR Division that I directed, had created massive awareness campaigns that equally encouraged public participation on issues bordering on public finance, such as the monetisation policy of government, revenue generation, federal allocations, and the general fiscal efficiency of the country.

As an Accountancy graduate of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Yahaya Bello was among the Youth Corps members whose contributions in analysing financial data and other statistics, were invaluable in informing the public about fiscal issues properly. In fact, most times then, we worked till late into the night with the Chairman on sensitive assignments.

At that time, the Commission was central to the execution of the monetisation policy of government, pertaining to the remuneration of public officers; resolution of the crises over disputed oil wells among States in the Niger Delta; proposition of a fair and just revenue allocation formula across government; recommendation of economic diversification policies to the federal authorities; and reconciliation of the external debts of the federal and state governments, while equally suggesting better measures of managing those debts. It also served as a forerunner in the campaigns for financial independence of the tiers and arms of government, whilst creating awareness on the need for transparency in public finance.

Because of the open-door policy of the Tukur era, young staff members had opportunities to engage members of the board and management of RMFAC in vigorous and cordial debates on public issues, on one-on-one basis. Meetings at the Commission were the reflection of a market place of ideas, where the intellectual climate was such that it even encouraged National Youth Corp members to make contributions to issues, which they took up through factual analyses, employing historical perspectives, alongside appeals to legal and constitutional provisions, devoid of political undertones and counterfactual anecdotes. My office, then, was one of the vibrant hubs for the youth corp members, including Yahaya Bello.

It was therefore not surprising that outstanding corps members, who excelled in their contributions to the Commission’s mandate, were offered automatic employments at the end of their mandatory one-year service to the country. In this regard, some like Husseini Sani Kagara and Hawwah Dahiru, who served in my office, and Yahaya Bello, who served in the Allocation Department, were among those offered automatic employment.

While Kagara later transferred to the Central Bank of Nigeria and Hawwah (who won the NYSC Award) went into private business, Yahaya Bello stayed on and received rapid promotions for his efforts, which saw him serve in different capacities in the Commission, before also leaving the public service for other private endeavours.

I recall the media intervention that I had spearheaded in opposition to Dr. Dora Akunyili’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) over the closure of Biomedical Services, a pharmaceutical company owned Dr. Faruk Abdulazeez, due to its production of certain Travenous Fluids in 2002. At that time, some media specialists, including the former Chairman of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Smart Adeyemi, had pointedly advised Dr. Abdulazeez not to engage Dr. Akunyili and NAFDAC in a media war because of her tremendous goodwill with the press. Yet, Yahaya Bello and one Abdul Bello (the Personal Assistant to Dr. Faruk then), who is now the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kogi State, were highly concerned about the plight of their benefactor and urged me to continue with and give greater momentum to the campaign. A press conference was eventually held to appeal to NAFDAC to reassess its clamp down on the products of Biomedical Services. The case was thereafter revisited, and in finding out that it had acted unfairly towards the company, NAFDAC subsequently reopened Biomedical Services.

I had never met Yahaya Bello since I left RMAFC in 2005, even though I also read about him, like most people do since he set out on his political path and finally became a governor. However, the opportunity of engaging with his political trajectory, and particularly at this juncture when there is a movement towards his run for the Nigerian presidency, came when I received an invitation to join some editors for a media chat.

I had intended to bombard him with a lot of questions, but he disarmed me by referring to me as ‘Oga’ and jokingly reminded me of ‘imported biscuits’ I had shared with them in my office. I was not his ‘Oga’ but only his colleague at RMAFC, where I was just another senior civil servant.

However, during the ensuing question-and-answer session, he was able to address some of the issues I had intended to engage him on. The session was moderated by the Secretary to the State Government, Mrs. Dr. Ayoade Folashade Arike, who was recommended for the position by Governor Bello’s now political arc-rival, Senator Dino Melayo, in 2015

On the COVID-19 vaccine, the governor pointed out that he did not need to take the vaccine because he is fully healthy and not in the danger of any health concern. He added that Kogi State, which he governs, is faced with several other health challenges that are more serious than COVID-19, which are being successfully tackled and resolved, including outbreaks of Lassa Fever and Yellow Fever, without any noise being made about these, unlike the hysteria surrounding COVID-19, which is considered as largely contrived.

Pertaining to his relationship with former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, who is a controversial politician, Yahaya Bello explained that he and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain are brothers who are mainly interested in the peace and progress of Nigeria, despite what might be their political divides.

He noted that Fani-Kayode had joined him in brokering peace between the Amalgamated Union of Traders and our other aggrieved persons, which led to the aversion of a North/South ‘war’ during the recent food blockade that threatened peaceful and progressive co-existence in the country.

In terms of the 2023 presidential primaries, Governor Yahaya Bello dispelled rumours about the existence of a zoning clause in the constitution of the All Progressives Congress (APC), while pleading with leaders of the party to allow for unrestricted contest during the primaries, which should be open to all eligible party members nationwide.

He nevertheless, expressed confidence that he would defeat any APC presidential aspirant if there is a level playing field at the primaries.

While calling on politicians to think of the survival of Nigeria first in all they do, he pointed out that if it is the will of God, he would surely become the president of Nigeria in 2023.

Could there be the possibility of a repeat of the Kogi gubernatorial victory of 2015 in the forthcoming presidential election in 2023? As much as it is emergent upon time to reveal what it has in stock for all, yet the future lies in wait only for the brave and undeterred.

Yushau A. Shuaib
www.YAShuaib.com

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