Don tasks African leaders on good image

From Magnus Eze, Enugu

A Professor of Mass Communication in Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), Prof. Sunny Udeze, has advised Africa leaders to dismantle the bad image and impression already created about the continent following entrenched corrupt practices.

He also identified sycophancy as one of the greatest challenges of Africa and its leaders, explaining that this puts pressure on any person in authority.

Delivering the 39th inaugural lecture of the university on Thursday, Udeze stated that there are no better means to making good public relations than telling the truth and doing good deeds other than painting ugliness.

He cited the incredible corrupt practices of Africa leaders, which made the perception of Africa by the Western world negative to the point that the impression about the continent was that they live in caves, treetops; have tails like animals and so many other stereotypes that he said are not real images of the black race.

In his lecture entitled: “Deconstruction stereotypes and reconstructing the image of Africa in the global media: Public Relations nexus,” the erudite scholar stressed that overcoming the misconceptions and prejudices must be based on truth and good governance.

He explained that one couldn’t do good public relations except he has done the right thing, noting that most images about people are images mostly created in the mass media.

“We as a people need to rethink and that is when people can have good public relations, because it’s all about doing the right thing. We create negative images about Africa by the things we do, particularly corruption.

“News is the unusual and Africans practice the usual which makes the foreign media take it up and the creation of Africa stereotypes continues. Public relations are used in deconstructing such negative images but truth must be emphasised in public relations,” Udeze posited.