AN ASSESSMENT OF PUBLIC RELATIONS STRATEGY AS A TOOL TO PROMOTE GOVERNMENT POLICIES TO THE CITIZENRY

INTRODUCTION: The government as an institution is an organization and can only succeed when it maintains mutual lines of communication between itself and its citizenry. Public relations in government in brief, is the concerted efforts of the government officials to establish appropriate and effective communication system that enables

them to produce, project and sustain government’s goals, aspirations, programmes, activities and policies to reach the ultimate beneficiaries of the programmes, in most cases, the community. Public relations is employed in various ways to help the government to establish mutual lines of communication for faithful exchange of ideas and perspectives between it and the governed and also, to create image for the government, both locally and internationally . p.1). Nwosu (1996,p.204) says that:

Whether military or civilian, government must have the support and acceptance of the citizenry to be effective and to even survive for a reasonable period. In theory and in practice, every government derives its legitimacy or rights to govern from the people or citizens. In a true democracy, government is voted in by the people to hold  power, influence and control on behalf of the collectivity, of the masses or citizenry