Yushau Abdulhameed Shuaib, the award-winning and widely travelled Public Relations (PR) practitioner, must have disappointed his detractors by being so astute enough to get out of their morass when he proves so doggedly to them that PR is his God-given profession and writing his hobby. In this interview with IBRAHIM RAMALAN, Shuaib relays how his PR journey started, the much-touted controversy over his premature retirement from the federal civil service and the current state of the media in Nigeria.
Shuaib is a full-blown PR consultant, online blogger and publisher of the Economic Confidential, Emergency Manager’s Digest, Spokesperson’s Digest, and the new entrant The Lawyer’s Digest. He is also author of four published books on Mass Communication.
Shuaib enjoys a membership of Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), British Institute of Public Relations (IPR), Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and International Public Relations Association (IPRA). As an Emergency and Crisis Manager, Shuaib also belongs to the International Emergency Management Society (TIEMS), International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) and the Institute of Civil Protection and Emergency Management (ICPEM).
Sir, you are regarded as a PR guru. However, one cannot see in your track records where you engage actively in reportage, apart from the ones you did during your school days and the stint you had with Pen and Al-Kalami newspapers in Kano. How did you acquire the expertise to practise PR?
While I was in the university I engaged very actively in campus journalism. I was the editorial member of The Beacon, the official newspaper of BUK Mass Communication Department. I was also the production editor of Bayero Literary Society’s publication known as The Parakeet. At that time, I realised that there was need to provide information to enlighten the student community on the activities happening in and around the campus. It was against such backdrop I initiated and funded Campus Voice magazine and Campus Express newsletter. While the Campus Voice magazine was published monthly, the Campus Express newsletter was published weekly. There was also a sort of competition among students then in the department when it comes to syndicated write-ups. Then we did not have money to fax these write-ups and there wasn’t internet to send them by email or other means of social media. We could only send by physical visits to office of the media houses or by mail through Post Office. So we always counted among ourselves how many newspapers carried or published our articles. The competition on number of published articles was so tense that every week, articles from students were published in the national dailies. The popular papers then were Concord, Democrat, New Nigerian, Daily Times, Tribune, Triumph, Reporter, Punch, Herald and Vanguard. Some of the most prominent and prolific writers during our period then were Saka Raji Audu, Salisu Suleman, Murtala MaiKaba, myself, Habeeb A. T. Yacoob and few others. So there was a lot of competition. Nobody was paying us. Our joy then was to get published and to be read by a large number of people. So as I said there was that competition among ourselves.
Apart from writing those articles what did you engage in?
Apart from writing on topical, local and international issues and to increase the frequency of my articles against others, I developed passion for literary works. I contributed poems and short stories to the literary pages in Sunday Triumph and the New Nigerian. I was indeed encouraged by their respective literary page editors Josephine Lohor and Ibrahim Sheme.
How did you find yourself in Public Relations rather than journalism?
It was during my studies in the university that I realised that in Mass Communication, there are many fields one can practice. I developed a strong interest in Public Relations through the tutelage and influence of one of my lecturers, Dr Bashir Ali, a very wonderful lecturer who was also once the head of Mass Communication Department in BUK. He told me that with public relations one can work virtually in anywhere where information is valued. Ever since then, I have developed interest in Public Relations. So when you have the passion to practice PR then you need to polish it by training and belonging to relevant professional bodies for updates and latest thinking in the field.
You were Public Relations Officer of the Mass Communication Students Association (MACOSA) and recipient of the Alhaji Sabo Mohammed Prize for the Best Student in Public Relations. How did you distinguish journalism and PR practice?
Presently I practice the two because writing is my hobby while PR is my profession. So as far as I am concerned, PR practice and media practice are one and the same, because they share similar features. Journalists and PR Practitioners seek, process and produce information for their targets, the public. The bottom line is that they want the public to be adequately and timely informed on issues. Nevertheless the messages could be from different perspectives of the ownership, clients or induced by the public. One thing for sure is that the information has to be thorough, objective, fair and just. In fact there is nothing like positive news in journalism when reporting because the elements of newsworthiness are basically on bizarre, conflict and those issues that create curiosity. In PR practice the message largely centre on positivity, confidence building, words of reassurance and fairness. A PR person must make sure that every story is good, but never negative unless he or she wants to engage in propaganda defending the indefensible and to undermine the opponents. PR is all about establishing mutual relationship between your organisation and the entire public.
It is in your record that you never applied or sat for a job interview after winning several awards including automatic employments in the Delta state civil service and the federal civil service after your outstanding performance as youth corps member in the early 90s. This is very rare especially in this country where unemployment is glaringly obvious. Sir can you share with us these exceptional qualities of yours that stand you in good stead?
Well, I consider myself lucky to have been recognised for such honours. Sometimes you develop a passion for what you like doing without expecting any reward. One interesting thing in the field of mass communication, sports and entertainment is that your activities are visible which could be assessed by anyone without your knowledge. That is why you see many talents are hunted and engaged for their skills and competence. I believe strongly in power of prayers as well as working hard towards attaining successes. That is also possible only by commitment, focus, perseverance and improvement. That is why you see in the case of footballers, you will be there playing your best while somebody will just come and pick the best to play at high level. So that is how talents are hunted. So for me writing is actually the hobby I have developed overtime. But I also believe strongly that apart from the passion you have to be very, very committed, focused and responsible in how you treat others and be a believer in God. Because you have to also add these efforts with prayers. I believe that with prayer and hard work success is within your reach.
After writing a controversial article on the Finance Minister, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, sometime last year you were forced into retirement by the government. Did you see that as one of the ways government unleashes its powers to gag individuals or the media that do not favour them?
Well, the matter is still in the court and I don’t want to talk about any person. I don’t want to talk about those who influenced my disengagement from the civil service prematurely. I thank God for making me realise what life is all about. I spent the 20 good years in the public service without receiving a single warning or a query at various ministries and agencies of government I had served. Rather I only received a shower of commendations and certificates of honours. Imaging just one day in 20 years somebody would just come and target you for destruction. After they did what they did and then… I don’t want to go into such details any more please. By and large, I have no single regret for what I have done. I am happy with what I have done. In fact if I have another opportunity I will still do the same. I will continue to write and nobody can stop me. Like I said, I have been writing since from the university. I have never stopped writing and I will continue to write. Then in the case of the court I will stand by my position. The joy I am having now is that am at liberty to write the way I want to write. Because when you are in the civil service you have limitations. That is why when one compares my writing one will discover that at all times I try to promote the government as an institution, not some charlatan within the system whose behaviour are unethical, immoral and unbecoming of public officers. When it comes to constructive criticism, I try to look at it from the perspective of fairness and objectivity. There is no way in my argument you will find me being prejudicial. Don’t forget the fact that you can’t be a good writer when you write to yourself or write to your wife. No! you write for public consumption. I would not have found myself in all the places I had worked if not for my writing. All the awards and automatic employments I was offered stemmed from my writing and by virtue of being a writer.
Do you believe the Nigerian media is being gagged?
I don’t see the media being gagged in this country. If it is being gagged I think the government would not have passed the Freedom of Information Bill. Take it or leave it, Nigerian media has been one of the most liberalised, neutralised with ample freedom. If you ask yourself when last a journalist was been arrested in this country, you will only see a few chunk of cases of libels and slanders. By and large, we have in this country a very liberal media to some extent. In fact with the proliferation of online media and blogs many things are going on to depict total freedom of the press. The problem is that we have to differentiate ourselves from individual in government or outside government from the institution. The government as an institution is very perfect. It is just some people in the government that gives the government bad names and shapes. There is nothing wrong with the system.
Do you see the Nigerian media being patriotic in turn, especially in this time of insurgency?
Patriotism is about defending your own country. To a very large extent the media is very patriotic. In fact if they are not patriotic, they could have made the nation ungovernable by speculative and sensational journalism that would have shaken the nation to its foundation. They are patriotic that is why they know that it is not every information that is meant for publication. Some issues are so sensitive that you can’t just publish them. Look at the issue of the recent beheading of an American journalism, most of the responsible media refused to broadcast it. Others published but did not give it much prominence. Because the sensitivity attached to such a news is so enormous that you can’t let loose.
