APRA at 50: Kenya is magical but Nigeria will rule the world, by Omoniyi Ibietan

The other day at the ongoing 36th Annual Conference and 50th Anniversary Celebration of APRA taking place in Mombasa, Kenya, the women in PR rose to the occasion and took the space by storm.

Two sessions held concurrently in two different venues under the same roof. One focused on women in PR, the other on men in PR. I was in the latter. The sessions were so defining of the future of PR.

Then, came today. After the session, Regine le Roux, my very good friend, CEO of the South Africa-based Reputation Matters, a great partner of APRA which annually conduct the study on PR ethics in Africa, “arrested” me after the last panel session. We haven’t had a photoshot, she said non-verbally as she grabbed my hand. So, as we prepared for the selfie, Winnie Gor, CEO of Winnie Gor Communications based in Nairobi, joined us.Then I got my colleague and brother, Azeez Olakunle Yunus to take the shots.

When we finished, Winnie grabbed me by the arm. “This is a great jacket”, she said with all her loveliness, ready for an interlocution. “Thank you”, I responded with the humility of an Ogidi boy. “What brand?”, Winnie asked. She thought I was going to say Versace or Gucci. Intrapersonally, I already told myself, “kilo kan mi pelu Versace ati Gucci” (wetin concern me with Versace and Gucci).

“Baldon!” I said with all my strength. Of course, she’s never heard of that brand before. I told my interlocutor (who said her parents were intentional in naming her after the inimitable South Africa woman), that both the maker of the fabric, Adegoke Adekemi and the man who converted the fabric into a world class concept worthy of admiration are Nigerians and are based in Nigeria. By the way, Adekemi trained as ADIRE and BATIK specialist under the tutelage of that amazingly creative and industrious culture architect, Chief Nike Okundaye from Ogidi, Ijumu.

Three months ago when Adekemi and I agreed on the concept and I approved that she should proceed to make the fabric, she didn’t know what I wanted to do with it. The moment I took delivery, I threw it to Baldon. “Make me a bum jacket”, I said to him. He picked the fabric and was imagining. I told him I knew how it’s going to look like. “Just do it”, I pleaded because I knew he could do it. Now, the concept has come out even better than I had thought. Indeed, if I had come to Kenya with a hundred units of this jacket, I would have sold all of them today.

I am loving Kenya. It’s really magical. But you see fashion, music, entertainment, and others, you can’t beat Naija. That’s the truth.

Today, by the grace of God, my friend and classmate at two different schools, Lanre Issa-Onilu, the Director General of the our reinvigorated National Orientation Agency (NOA), who represents the Honourable Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris at the ongoing APRA conference, will receive the flag on behalf of Nigeria as Kenya transfers the hosting rights of APRA 2026 to Nigeria.

Let it be known now that in the third week of November 2026, Nigeria will rally at least 130 countries and territories to Abuja as we host the World Public Relations Forum 2026 and the 2026 APRA Annual Conference and AGM. Africa is hosting WPRF the second time, almost 20 years after South Africa hosted it first. But when the world gathers in Nigeria next year for WPRF and APRA conferences, our country will make many histories, including the inauguration of the first Public Relations and Leadership University in the world.

-Ibietan is General Secretary Africa Public Relations Association