ipr gets new council

THE Institute of Public Relations (IPR) has inducted new executives and new council members into office for a two-year term.
The new president of the institute, Mrs Vicky Wireko-Andoh, who took over from Mr Kojo Yankah, promised to lead the team to build a better image for Public Relations (PR) and the communication profession in the country.
She said it had become apparent that PR had not been properly understood and so one found employers confusing their management and stakeholders by interchanging roles and responsibilities of the PR outfit.
The president explained further that employers, particularly those in the public sector, are employing non qualified personnel to occupy PR or communication vacancies and yet it did not cross their minds to do same for functions such as finance or legal.
“It is a clear case of putting round pegs in square holes. At the end of the day what they receive on their tables are uncompleted information,” she added.
Commenting on last year’s political campaign, she said it was one of the most keenly contested elections in the history of Ghana, but added that the campaign messages lacked the proper sequence to make the messages effective.
“The meaning of the messages got affected by a host of things that watered down the impact of the messages,” she said. Though all candidates stood on the platform of building a better nation, the messages communicated to the electorate ended up creating division among Ghanaians.
According to Mrs Wireko-Andoh, rather than promoting the ideas of the political parties the campaign messages turned out to be propaganda and insults, and media management during the campaign process turned out to be “media chaos”.
She again said “there were too many spokespersons each wanting to be heard in the media. Most of the time, those engaged with the responsibility to help process and co-ordinate information, mounted the stage themselves and at the end got themselves into endless debates on air trading insults and accusations at each other”.
Mrs Wireko-Andoh said the importance of the role of PR and communications could not be underestimated by any individual or company worth its sort, and for that reason, the president pledged the readiness of IPR to put its services at the disposal of both the public and private sector to help in building a credible and respected corporate image for their organisations.
She, therefore, stressed, “We will consolidate our relationship with our existing corporate members and forge a much closer and mutually beneficial alliance with them and assist in whatever way to support their organisation’s PR and communications needs”.
The president said the immediate priority of her team would be to redefine, reconstruct and reconnect with three main pillars to drive their agenda.
She said they would connect with their regional colleagues, while extending corporate membership to establishments with head offices outside Accra and Tema.
According to her, the team would also embark on a crusade to unveil the dignity and respect of IPR as a professional body in the country, adding that “we will use every available platform to talk about the institute and its work”.
The outgoing president, Mr Kojo Yankah, thanked members for their support and advice during his tenure as president. He tasked the new administration to build on the strong foundation of IPR to make the body a respected one in the country.
Mr Yankah said Ghana’s political development depended on the professionalism exhibited by members of IPR and called on members not to fail in this regard.
The other members of the council are Major Albert Don-Chebe (retd), Emmanuel Essilfie Conduah, Mrs Adwoa Boatemaa Sono, Mrs Sylvia Annoh. The rest are Nabanyin Pratt, Perry Ofosu, Elaine Kwami, Florence Onny, Lionel Asare and Mavis Essandoh.
There were congratulatory messages from presidents of sister professional bodies like the Ghana Journalists Association, Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana, Advertising Association of Ghana and the Ghana Institution of Engineers. Present at the ceremony were, a circuit court judge, Mrs Elizabeth Ankamah, who administered the oath of office, Ms Joyce Aryee, a fellow of the institute, and some members of IPR.