Alima Atta Foundation Pledges Support for LASU’s PR, Advertising Dept Ahead of 10th Anniversary

Charles Ajunwa writes that the Alima Atta Foundation has pledged continued support to the Public Relations and Advertising Department of Lagos State University  

Before her demise on June 6, 2015, after a long battle with cancer-related ailment, Alima Atta, then Managing Director of Sesema Public Relations company, had set out to support, empower and educate the girl-child with her resources and expertise. It was a dream she pursued vigorously, reaching out to friendly individuals and institutions across Nigeria that shared in her dream. 

Lagos State University (LASU) is one of the institutions that had a robust relationship with her in terms of training the girl-child in Public Relations, a field she dominated for over 20 years. 

Beginning 

Alima Atta had a postgraduate diploma in Marketing from Kingston University, Surrey, and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in French and Sociology from the University of London. She had a successful public relations and marketing career for over 20 years. She worked at MMD Marketing Communications and Anderson Soames in the UK before establishing her PR agency, Sesema PR, in 2002, which was affiliated with Edelman, the world’s leading independent PR firm.

An inspiring woman who worked hard to reach the top, Alima brought Sesema PR to a leading role as PR consultancy in Nigeria, headquartered in Lagos, with a subsidiary in Accra, Ghana. Sesema’s dedication to improving PR practice in Nigeria earned her an award for her contributions to PR. She was named one of Nigeria’s ‎100 most influential women. Apart from being treasurer of the PRCAN, she was an educationist and host of TalkBiz on Smooth 98.1 FM. 

Alima Atta Foundation’s on-the-spot assessment of LASU’s PR Studio

On April 23, Alima Atta’s aged mother who is the chief promoter of her daughter’s legacy, directed some members of the Alima Atta Empowerment Foundation, a foundation founded shortly after Alima’s death by family members and friends in her honour, to visit and assess the state of facilities at the Public Relations and Advertising Department, Faculty of Communication and Media Studies, Lagos State University (LASU), to support in any way possible before Alima’s 10th anniversary which comes up on June 6. 

Representatives of the foundation, Mr. Olamide Olowole and Mrs. Sade Onyia, were received at the Alima Atta PRAD Studio by the Dean, Faculty of Communication and Media Studies (FCMS), Prof. Jide Jimoh; Sub-Dean, FCMS, Dr. Stephen Fatonji; Head, Public Relations and Advertising Department (PRAD), Dr. Julius Adeyemo; former Dean and President, ACSPN, Prof. Rotimi Williams Olatunji; Postgraduate Coordinator, Dr. Noeen Thanny; lecturers PRAD, Dr. Olatunji Andrew; Dr. Khadijah Yusuf, and Studio Manager, Mr. Giwa Olusegun. 

One of Alima’a friends, Onyia, said that they put money together to start the Alima Atta Empowerment Fund immediately after she died. 

Onyia said, “We handed N1 million, which was supposed to be given to 100,000 best graduating students for each year, based on what I understand, we’ve had five awardees so far.

“The idea is that we’ll do this for 10 years, and also the interest for me to be put back into that fund. Apart from that, we had contributed 10 laptops some years back. 

“Because it’s coming up to 10 years, we’re just thinking about what else we could do to support it. Also, Prof Olatunji had reached out to us to try and see what we could do to help upgrade your PR studio.”

On the philosophy behind the foundation, she said, “Originally, when Alima was alive, she used to support LASU. I believe she used to get female interns from here. She was very supportive towards the girl-child, as well as people who had done PR, because that’s her background. We just wanted to continue what she had started in her lifetime.”

Olowole, another friend, said, “I think one of the things Alima was committed to was improving the profession whilst she was alive. Obviously, seeing her time was cut short, I think one thing her mother has also committed to doing is making sure that she honours her daughter’s legacy in terms of trying to improve the profession in Nigeria.”

He stressed that whatever Alima’s foundation contributed to the department should go round all the students and not only be beneficial to a few.

Olowole also urged individuals and the private sector to support universities in the country instead of leaving the responsibility to the government alone. 

Echoes of commendations  

While commending the foundation for its support, the dean recalled that the first student sent on internship to the foundation, Omoye Akaba, ended up with a first class. He called for collaboration between academia and corporate organisations.

Akaba said, “At the end of the day, it is the society that will benefit from the products that we will produce and from the environment that we can create to ensure that we are able to do that. 

“Doing this with an institution like you, a public-spirited one that takes CSR very seriously. We thank you for what you have done so far. We also thank you in advance for what you will continue to do. On our own part, we are committed to raising students that we can be proud of. Market-ready students, which is the essence.”

On his part, Olatunji, who regretted Alima’s passing, said she was passionate about female professionals in public relations.

“She insisted that on an annual basis, she will be having two of our best students come for internship with her. Not only that, every holiday, she gave them employment, such that they could work during the holidays,” said Olatunji. “If they met her criteria, she retained them, such that we have had up to two of our past graduates who were working with her until her demise.”

He added that Alima used to organise global events like conferences, which she allowed students and staff of the university to attend free of charge.

“Then one day, I was just on my sabbatical at Ajayi Crowder. I received a call from Prof Aborishade. He said, ‘Oh, there is somebody who wanted to do something for a school of communication that has PR, and I remembered you’. I said, ‘Okay, I’m available’. Then he released my number to them. Then grandma Atta called me. I said, ‘Grandma, this is just divine’,” Olatunji explained.

He added, “Our sister has been very helpful to us in her lifetime. These were some of the things that she had done. Mama said, ‘Wow!’ So, she was led by God. That there are some friends who have been very close to her in her lifetime who want to continue her legacy. They have a foundation, and they want to do more just to immortalise her name. I met Shade and the interaction started. So it began with having endowments for best graduating female students in public relations. That has been consistent.”

Adeyemo mentioned that “we are here because of our obvious needs” and that “we are trying to unbundle mass communication programmes into eight programmes, of which public relations will stand on its own. Advertising also will stand on its own, but nine programmes precisely.”

He said, “So we need additional equipment, for a successful takeoff and that’s why we wrote to Alima Atta Foundation, which has actually been helping us to the extent of giving a million naira for endowment, which the best female graduate student has been receiving N100,000 each for the past five years now.

“So our request to the foundation is that we need more laptops and desktops ecause we are in a digital age and we need a digital public relations library to be able to create content. As a result, we cannot rely on the university alone. University on its own is actually trying, but it cannot bear the burden alone.”

On their goals, Adeyemo said, “What we intend to achieve, is nothing but capacity building. If we build our students, if we equip them, of course, you can be assured that they will be readily available for the world market to be relevant. Beyond theory, we’re actually going to be practical. And for them to be relevant out there to the world of work, there’s a need for us to equip them properly here to receive academic training and sufficient practical knowledge. That’s what we’re hoping to achieve in the long run.”

He added, “What can we say but extend our plethora of gratitude and appreciation to them? We cannot thank them enough. They have really helped us. Where we are today, they are actually the architect. Immediately, we moved their equipment here. There was a sporadic change. Even in student enrollment, quite a number of people want to come for mass communication now because of the nature and the state of the equipment that we have in our studio now.”

Thanny, who also commended the representatives of the foundation, said, “Alima Atta, may God bless her memories, was a very useful person. She was one of our beneficiaries in the faculty, specifically the Department of Public Relations and Advertising. She was involved in training and mentoring of female students in the area of public relations. To the extent that every year she was bringing in two interns from the Department of PR and Advertising to train or to give them opportunities in the area of public relations. Since she passed on in 2015, her family members and her friends have come together to support us in terms of giving awards to our best graduating female students in the area of public relations.

“Then, they also gifted us some furniture and some laptops for our public relations advertising studio. So, June this year will be 10 years since she passed on. So, they are willing to do more for us. They want to see the area of needs that they can come in and then give us some more support in training up, especially female students in the area of public relations advertising.”

On whether the department is achieving its purpose, he said, “To a large extent, we are achieving the purpose of the establishment. This is actually the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies. Actually, it’s the flagship media and communication studies unit in Nigeria. In the sense that we were the first to establish a School of Communication. We were the first to think of communication as more than just a department. That communication should actually be brought up to the level of a faculty. Then, we even transitioned from a school with three departments to a faculty. Now, we are moving to nine departments. 

“We are starting with the Department of Advertising, Department of Public Relations, Department of Broadcasting, Department of Information and Media Studies, Film and Multimedia Studies, Department of Journalism, Department of Development Communication, and Department of Strategic Communication.

“To a large extent, we are achieving what we set out to achieve. Our students are also influencing things outside. We’ve won awards. We were the first runner-ups at the Acorn Advertising Colloquium two years ago. Last year, we were the second also. We’ve won in the area of Public Relations and different areas. We’ve been involved in so many things, and we’ve trained graduates who are doing very well in the industry. In media, in the development of advertising agencies, in PR units. Everywhere in Nigeria, and outside of Nigeria, our students are doing well.”

He said that information management still has much to do with media literacy, a major problem in Nigeria, especially in this age of the internet, where everybody is exposed to the internet without the necessary skills. According to him, people need to understand the ethical issues of using the media before exposure. But in this case, it is the reverse because we have a lot of user-generated content on the internet. People who do not know about Mass Communication, people who do not know ethics, of the rightness and wrongness in human conduct, have access to cameras, and they think that they can take pictures of anything and put anything on the internet.

“So, we have to do a lot to bring people up to a level of media literacy. Of course, also to help people who will be managers of some of these outlets to also be able to understand some of these things that are put on the internet as there are certain things that are restricted,” he explained. “We are not advocating for a general restriction on the use of the internet. We are advocating for responsible use of the internet so that it doesn’t become injurious to people because the rights of other people are also very important as you strive to use the media in the way that you want.”

Secretary of the faculty, Yusuf thanked the foundation, saying, “I have enjoyed using some of these facilities because I am passionate about PR and advertising.”