Okonmah, McMedal battle to lead Lagos State Chapter of NIPR

Over 7 months ago, an election that returned the incumbent, Joseph Okonmah as the chairman of the Lagos Chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations was annulled in a rather bizarre fashion by the national body led by Dr. Rotimi Oladele.
After the election members described as free, fair and credible was cancelled, the national body set up a caretaker committee led by Rev Olushola Niyi to conduct a fresh election.
Therefore after 7 months the national body has fixed the Lagos Chapter election for this week, Thursday 25 February in an unnamed venue.
According to sources, the election would be witnessed by the President of NIPR, Dr. Oladele.
Those contesting for the top job include the last substantive chairman of the chapter, Joseph Okonmah, the 2015 Chairman of the Annual General Meeting of the chapter/ Chief Reputation Strategist of Upticomm Marketing Company Limited, Olusegun McMedal and the immediate past caretaker chairman, Rev Olushola Niyi.
However, observers believe that the contest is between Okonmah and McMedal, who incidentally are best friends. Niyi was said to have been encouraged to enter the fray having enjoyed some spoil of office in his 7 months leadership of the chapter.
Okonmah, a managing director of Jasek Communications Limited, an integrated marketing communication firm has promised to consolidate on his fist term achievements if re-elected.

The immediate past chairman while speaking with 789MARKETING on his campaign objectives said that if voted the Institute in Lagos will experience increased relevance, robust engagement of corporate PR practitioners, increased capacity of the members, aggressive financial capacity enhancement and ensure the chapter has its own secretariat.”
Okonmah said some of these things have already been started in his first term but most of them would be completed and PR regain it lost glory, he affirmed
Okonmah who is a lawyer had worked in Dangote Group as the head of communication before he veered into private PR practice.
McMedal, a man whose industry practitioners believe is capable of ruffling Okonmah’s feather dangled 7 points agenda on the members.
While speaking with the media on his plan, the Chief Reputation Strategist of Upticomm said “this 7 point manifesto sets out my plan to move the Lagos State Chapter of NIPR forward.”
McMedal, who spoke about his passion for the profession stated that he has the passion, inspiration and experience to reposition the institute.

“I have been playing active role in Committees since I joined the Chapter. Last year, I had the honour of heading the 26th AGM/PR Week Planning Committee. The work of my group has been widely applauded for moving the Chapter forward by stakeholders. This was made possible largely by the generous donations and support from sponsors and partners. There is need to consolidate on the gains of that AGM and I am ready to lead the Chapter to vibrancy once again,” McMedal said.
The 2015 AGM chairman while highlighting his goals said part of the things I plan to do is to evolve mechanics to reconcile members, develop initiatives to reposition the Chapter’s image and reputation, mobilise stakeholders to raise funds to buy property in a commercial area that will house the Chapter Secretariat and develop love affairs with stakeholders by encouraging dialogue between the Chapter and corporate bodies to facilitate internship for members to hone their skills and equip them to compete favorably with others in the job market
The other three are to hire a relationship lead to constantly coordinate stakeholders’ affairs in order to foster active membership and grow revenue, to complete Face lift of the Secretariat and assemble a Faculty made up of reputable members drawn from relevant sectors of the economy for continuous capacity building of our members,” McMedal assured members.
He however said that the journey may not a smooth one but appeal to the members to vote for him and support the executive committee afterwards.
“No doubt the journey will be tough but it can be done. When the time comes, I urge members to vote for action, not politics as usual. And together with their help and God’s grace we will continue our journey forward and remind others that the Chapter is the flagship of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations,” he said
Senior practitioner, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that this should be the last annual election from the national office. Chapters should be allowed to run their affairs not tele-guided by the national body,
“Lagos chapter has remained comatose for 7 months and the current president is from Lagos chapter. This is a lesson for of all us. We should behave like image launderers,” he advised.