The NIPR has, over the decades, built an enviable reputation as Nigeria’s foremost professional body for strategic communication, stakeholder engagement, reputation management and relationship building. Precisely because of that reputation, the circumstances described in this memoir invite reflection on whether greater dialogue, mediation and internal engagement might have produced a less divisive outcome.
Public relations professionals are often the first to counsel organisations on crisis communication, stakeholder engagement, reputation management and conflict resolution. They advocate dialogue before confrontation, mediation before litigation, and empathy before escalation.
But what happens when a veteran public relations practitioner believes those very principles were denied to him by the institutions that profess them?
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That is the central question explored in MNI Versus MNIPR in NIPSS: Tackling Institutional Bullying, the newly released 205-page memoir by Yushau A. Shuaib, veteran public relations practitioner and Chief Executive Officer of Image Merchants Promotion Limited (IMPR), the publishers of PRNigeria and Spokespersons Digest.
Although public discourse surrounding the book has largely focused on the author’s legal and institutional dispute with the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), the memoir presents a far more layered narrative. Beyond recounting a personal conflict, it examines the complex intersection of institutional discipline, professional loyalty, constitutional rights and the human cost of organisational disputes.
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Perhaps the most emotionally compelling section of the memoir is the chapter titled “The NIPR Betrayal.” Here, the narrative shifts from Shuaib’s disagreements with NIPSS to what he describes as the more painful experience of feeling abandoned by his own professional body, the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) under its current President, Dr Ike Neliaku.
According to the author, while the disciplinary proceedings at NIPSS were professionally challenging, the reaction of an institution to which he had devoted more than three decades proved even more emotionally difficult to bear.
“If the episode with NIPSS was turbulent, what followed with my own professional body was even more emotionally complex,” he writes.
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Shuaib recalls that despite personally funding his participation in the Senior Executive Course at NIPSS to the tune of ₦18.5 million, following his nomination by the NIPR without financial sponsorship, he expected moral support from the Institute during one of the most difficult periods of his professional life.
Instead, he recounts receiving an invitation to appear before an NIPR Investigating Panel shortly after his withdrawal from the NIPSS programme.
To understand why this episode resonates so deeply throughout the memoir, one must appreciate the author’s longstanding relationship with the Institute.
His professional journey mirrors the growth of public relations practice in Nigeria. He was the inaugural recipient of the NIPR President’s Prize for the Best Graduating Public Relations Student at Bayero University, Kano, in 1992, before emerging as the Kano/Jigawa Chapter’s Public Relations Person of the Year in 1995. Over the following decades, he expanded his career beyond traditional consultancy into media entrepreneurship, publishing, international professional engagement and strategic communication.
The memoir recounts seemingly minor incidents that assumed symbolic significance in the author’s mind. One involved an invitation letter that reportedly addressed him as ANIPR instead of MNIPR, despite his membership dating back to 1995. Although another letter was later issued after his protest, without any membership designation, Shuaib writes that the incident reinforced his growing perception that decades of professional service were gradually being overlooked.
Initially reluctant to honour the panel’s invitation because it conflicted with a medical appointment, he eventually appeared before the committee accompanied by his eldest son and members of his management team.
In a detailed written memorandum, he defended his conduct, maintaining that he neither authored nor edited the PRNigeria news report that triggered the first disciplinary query at NIPSS. He further alleged that the second query over a professional article that didn’t mention NIPSS arose from what he describes as the unlawful interception of a restricted editorial email belonging to his media organisation, akin to cybercrime.
Throughout the memoir, Shuaib consistently argues that his petition and his subsequent legal action were undertaken strictly in his personal capacity, as constitutional remedies, and were never intended to implicate or embarrass the NIPR.
More fundamentally, he contends that the Institute devoted greater attention to investigating his pursuit of legal redress than to examining his allegations of digital privacy violations, procedural irregularities, and reputational injury.
Another episode highlighted in the memoir illustrates what the author regards as one of the ironies of the entire saga.
While making it clear that he harbours no resentment towards the Director-General of NIPSS, Professor Ayo Omotayo, over his conferment as an Honorary Fellow of the NIPR a few month later, Shuaib observes that the honour came at a time when he himself felt increasingly isolated within the profession.
“I do not begrudge Professor Omotayo the recognition,” he writes. “Still, I could not ignore the irony of the moment. I leave it to history—and to the reader—to judge.”
The memoir also revisits the National Spokespersons Awards, an initiative pioneered by Image Merchants Promotion Limited before entering into a three-year Memorandum of Understanding with the NIPR in November 2023 for its joint organisation.
According to Shuaib, IMPR remained responsible for the conceptualisation, funding, publicity, logistics and overall management of the awards, under an agreement expected to run until November 2026. However, he alleges that the partnership was terminated in 2025, well before its expiration, without prior consultation or any allegation of contractual breach.
To the author, the timing of that decision appeared inseparable from the wider controversy surrounding his NIPSS experience. Shuaib therefore viewed the NIPR’s action not merely as an administrative process but as a profound personal disappointment.
Rather than simply documenting personal grievances, it raises important questions about institutional culture, professional ethics and organisational leadership.
How should professional associations respond when one of their members becomes embroiled in public controversy?
Should preserving institutional relationships take precedence over standing with members until facts are fully established?
Can disciplinary processes coexist with empathy, mediation and meaningful dialogue?
Where should the delicate balance between institutional reputation and individual rights be drawn?
These are questions that extend beyond one individual or one organisation.
As an Associate Member of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (ANIPR), I recognise that every institution has both the authority and responsibility to uphold its rules, protect its reputation and preserve strategic relationships. Equally, every member deserves procedural fairness, respectful engagement and an opportunity to be heard without prejudice.
That is why the issues raised in this memoir deserve thoughtful reflection rather than emotional reaction.
The NIPR has, over the decades, built an enviable reputation as Nigeria’s foremost professional body for strategic communication, stakeholder engagement, reputation management and relationship building. Precisely because of that reputation, the circumstances described in this memoir invite reflection on whether greater dialogue, mediation and internal engagement might have produced a less divisive outcome.
Whether readers ultimately agree with Shuaib’s interpretation of events or not, MNI Versus MNIPR in NIPSS: Tackling Institutional Bullying succeeds in doing what every worthwhile memoir should do: it provokes reflection.
It challenges readers to think about the obligations that institutions owe their members, the responsibilities members owe their institutions, and the delicate balance between discipline, loyalty and justice.
Haroon Aremu Abiodun is an associate member of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations and wrote in via [email protected]
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