In a move that has taken many industry analysts by surprise, the Inspector-General of Police, IGP Usman Alkali Baba, is poised to unveil the Nigeria Police Public Relations School, Abuja Centre. The project which was concluded under his administration was done to deepen the public relations base of all officers, and to improve the quality of officers’ interactions with members of the public.
It is obvious that at a particular time, all officers would have to pass through the school to sharpen their human relations and PR skills to improve the public image of the Nigerian police.
The three-story School is located at the Police Force Headquarters, Abuja, and boasts renowned personas in Public Relations as tutors and visiting lecturers. However, it is not yet clear if the school was created in partnership with the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), the apex regulatory body of public relations in Nigeria.
According to a release signed by Police Force Public Relations Officer Force Headquarters, CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, mnipr, mipra, the IGP has mandated the Provost in charge of the ,Police Public Relations School, CP Emmanuel Ojukwu (Rtd.) to build up the school’s curriculum in line with the standards of international public relations practice, with special focus on behaviour management, professionalism, basic, intermediate, and advanced public relations courses, and psychological courses geared at human capacity building of members of the Force.
The Inspector-General of Police, while reiterating the commitment of the Force to training and retraining of officers and men of the Force, emphasized that officers will gain train-the-trainers experience which they will be directed to strategically and professionally pass on to the men under their command.
He equally assures that deliberate steps will be taken to boost the capacity of the school to admit members of other agencies nationally and internationally for short- and long-term courses in public relations practice.