Victor Ezeja- … Says Lagos Govt Lacks Coordination, Clear Crisis Management Plan
RENOWNED communication expert, Obi Emekekwue has faulted the manner in which the company handling the 21-storey building that collapsed recently in Lagos State, managed information about the disaster.
Emekekwue who is the President, DelReeve Konsult Limited and the former Director and Global Head of Communications and Events Management at Afreximbank, said the practice of keeping members of the public in the dark by an organization at the moment of crisis, is highly uncalled for, strange and unprofessional.
The veteran corporate communications professional, who spoke at the 2nd Jacksonites Professional Development Series (JPDS) seminar, stated that the level of crisis management response of the company purported to be in charge of developing the 21-storey building was very poor, jolting the public into wide speculations over what happened and unfortunately fuelling the crisis.
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The quarterly seminar, now in its second edition, was moderated by Dr Marcel Mbamalu, a veteran journalist and the Editor-in-Chief/Publisher of Prime Business Africa.
Delivering the lecture titled, “Crisis Survival in Today’s Viral World: The Communications Conundrum,” Emekekwue averred that information not made available on such a “huge” crisis situation was not a good way to manage crisis that borders on public safety.
He said, “It is really very strange that the company has not been in the limelight to at least provide information on their role in the building.”
He noted that the Lagos State government also has the responsibility to provide accurate information on the situation since it gave license to the company to construct the high-rise building. But so far, Emekekwue said, the situation is confusing as little has been done to furnish the public with accurate information about what led to the incident, especially to families of the victims.
He explained that during crisis or emergency situations, crisis communication should come from every party affected by the incident based on their role.
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He hinted that the best strategy the company should have devised to effectively manage the crisis was to provide essential details of their role in the building project and what they were doing to manage the crisis.
“At some points, it was said the building was approved for 15 floors and then it went up to 21 floors and then the same government turned around and said it was approved for 21 floors. At this point, from what I have read so far, there is nothing so definitive in terms of what was actually approved. It seems to be a bit confusing,” Emekekwue stated.
Describing the manifestation of crisis, he pointed out that an issue becomes a crisis when it is severe enough to affect a large number of an organization’s key stakeholders and has the potential to negatively impact on its brand reputation, operations and the bottom line of business.
“A crisis situation can disrupt corporations, damage reputations, destroy shareholder value and trigger other threats. A crisis is a situation that every organization and every communications team must be prepared to handle at any moment. It requires rapid, carefully thought out, and consistent response across channels,” he explained, stressing that“a corporate crisis can be one of the most difficult situations to navigate.”
Emekekwue, who graduated from the Department of Mass Communication, UNN in 1982, and has over three decades of professional experience spanning across corporate strategic communications, media, public relations, and international civil service, urged organizations to invest in crisis response and management programs so as to help surmount every emergency crisis, adding that, “information and communication are important before, during and after a crisis.”
The Moderator of the seminar said the series was delivered at a time the role of communication to organizations prove difficult to clearly express as the traditional system of sharing information has changed.
“The evolution appears to be too open-ended to allow for a true definition of social communication.
“Facebook wants to answer meta, a kind of melting of social media platforms that are much the same in technology & modus of operations.
“The role of communication to corporate bodies & to society is hard to articulate because source, receiver & platform no longer differ. The high fluidity in the device for receiving messages has removed the differences in style of message packaging and the attendant medium-specific requirements such as column planning for newspapers, relaxed style for broadcast media.
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“What is the difference between Prime Business online and a TV station in terms of running text & video,” Mbamalu stated.
The moderator who is a former News Editor at The Guardian noted that it has become difficult to execute a “Targeted corporate campaign” due to distraction caused by the popular means of receiving messages.
He also pointed out that due to emergence of various sources of information leading to dissemination of fake news, it has become difficult to decipher what is true.
He further stated that, “The fusing of duty-induced freedom of communication with technology-afforded freedom of access to media has affected the sense of communication responsibility, creating chaos & loss of credibility in communication as a tool of image marketing, information dissemination, socialisation & communal galvanisation.”
The Jacksonite Professional Development Series Steering Committee Chairman, Prof. Chinedu Mba of Algonquin College, Ottawa, Canada, stated that the seminar is a capacity building initiative of the Jacksonite Worldwide, an alumni association of UNN Mass Communication graduates.
Mbah noted that the lecture is relevant and that the committee members involved in planning the the series are intentional in choosing themes for each session.
“Communication is the critical aspect of relationship management. And crisis, like change, is an intrinsic part of life. Everyone faces crisis at some point or the other,” she added.
READ ALSO:Structural Engineer Blames Building Collapse On Substandard Materials, Corruption
Top industry experts, media managers and communication scholars attended the event including Barrister Kingsley Osodalor, renowned media expert and member, Nigerian Guild of Editors; Dr. Chidiebere Nwachukwu and Dr. Ijeoma Ajaero, lecturers, department of Mass Communication, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
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