The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC in Enugu has trained its staff on public relations strategies in combating corruption.
According to EFCC, the training was part of measures geared towards equipping the officers with the skills to identify and address misinformation, communicate effectively in their roles and build positive relationships with stakeholders.
The weekly capacity building training was initiated by the EFCC Enugu Acting Zonal Director, Assistant Commander of the EFCC, ACE I Aisha Abubakar.
Abubakar urged the officers to optimize the exposure that the training offers.
It aims to ensure that the staff of the Agency gained more skills for improved and effective communication with stakeholders towards increasing transparency and accountability.
Speaking on the topic “The Role of Public Relations in the Fight against Corruption”, Assistant Commander of the EFCC, ACE I Chris Oluka, Head, Creative Communications Unit of the Public Affairs Department, described the role of Public Relations in creating awareness and managing reputation.
“A planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain a goodwill and mutual understanding between an organization and its various publics. It involves communication management, creation of awareness and reputation management,” he explained.
Oluka stressed that perception is a key issue in public relations, even in relation to the two classes of public including internal and external publics.
“We want to know how people perceive us. Any organization that doesn’t want to know how people perceive it usually goes down. The way you are is different from the way you think you are. The way you think you are is different from the way you want other people to see you. You are a combination of who truly you are, what you think you are, what people think you are and indeed what you want people to think you are”, he said.
While describing effective communication as very key in the fight against corruption, Oluka highlighted the importance of public relations in the fight against corruption.
He enjoined the officers to build a healthy relationship with suspects and stakeholders, adding that these sets of people form opinions for or against the Commission.
“Public Relations is a very serious aid to any organization as it manages and builds image, especially during crises.
“We should not only focus on our relation with the suspects, there are stakeholders like the Non-Governmental Organizations, Civil Society Organizations and journalists. These are people you must know how to deal with on their merit because they are the ones that form opinions and carry opinions all about,” Oluka said.
