Stakeholders advocate trust culture for national development

Chain Reactions Nigeria, an integrated communications consulting firm, recently launched its 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer Survey Report, for the first time in Nigeria.

Eminent stakeholders across four critical institutions: government, business, media and non-governmental organisations advocated the re-awakening of the culture of integrity, goodwill and trust in all spheres of national life as a panacea to overcoming the myriad of social, political and economic challenges facing Nigeria currently.

The stakeholders decried the lack of public trust in institutions of authority, emphasizing a needed reversal in order to bring the country back on the path of sustainable development.

Speakers included Chairman, First Bank of Nigeria, Mrs. Ibukun Awosika, who identified integrity, goodwill and trust as being the same side of a coin that could not be outspent.

She commended Chain Reactions Nigeria for the launch of the study, noting that the insights contained in the survey would foster the recovery of loss of confidence in our key institutions if well applied.

“I consider the issue discussed very critical, and it is important going forward for any organisation especially for the nation. When trust is broken, when we can no longer trust institutions, there is a major problem because it becomes very difficult to communicate. People generally have low trust level; they tend to believe the accusation first before they find out what is true. You can see it play out in our polity, people no longer trust institutions,” she said.

The Managing Director, Chain Reactions Nigeria, Israel Jaiye Opeyemi, said the partnership would help Nigeria establish the Nigerian Trust Index, which is the average of a country’s trust in the four institutions.

Opeyemi said Edelman has been conducting the research for the past 17 years, and informed that the report will be publicly presented in Nigeria because of the recently consummated partnership between both organisations.

His words: “Edelman has been doing this for 17 years now but this is the first time this its being brought to Nigeria on the back of our recently consummated partnership. We intend to use this as a foundational step to help Nigeria establish the Nigerian Trust Index, which is the average of a country’s trust in the institutions of government, business, media and non-governmental organisations.”

The Managing Director of Edelman, South Africa, Jordan Rittenberry, said “The growth of populism has seen the mass population reject established authorities. The informed public consists of people who are educated and economically better while the mass population is made up of people who are illiterate or semi-literate and fall under the low-income earners strata. Currently greater influence lies with the growing mass population.

“In the case of Brexit and the last American election, we saw the media combating fake news and this was witnessed all over the world with businesses being rocked by scandal after scandal. All these factors combine to show that trust is in crisis in 2017.”

Momoh on his part said: “The media around the world has lost credibility due especially to the emergence of social media and the traditional media has its own blame as interference like politicians, editorial policy are really weighing on media responsibility. Channels TV, for instance, is a network built on trust which is why the station is where it is today.”

Consumer rights advocate, Sola Solako said consumer education is very crucial and should be seen as a tool to regain trust. “Businesses need to emphasise quality, pay tax as good corporate organisations and government needs to religiously implement what they promise the electorate”, she insisted