Protocol Practitioners Aim at International Standard Practice

It was another milestone to the Association of Certified Protocol Practitioners in Nigeria (ACPPN), recently when all the big wigs in the profession came together in Lagos to discuss the way forward on steps to be taken to ensure that the ethics of the profession are duly followed in the workings within government and corporate circles.

The body played host to professionals in Lagos to a grand business networking forum at the Lily Gate hotel and it was a prelude to the upcoming inaugural ceremony with over 90 protocol practitioners and business analysts on ground at the epoch making programme.

The President of ACPPN, Hon. Patricia Kenneth-Divine, in her key note address, which centred on rebranding vision of protocol in Nigeria, described the body as the power of vision that will influence drastic change in the industry. She also commended all the practitioners who came from all part of the country for the programme.

“The purpose of this meeting is the desire to raise the standard of the profession in Nigeria. This project started in 2012 and we are looking at partnership with both local and foreign organisations. Today, we have made a remarkable achievements in that regard because we have been able to collaborate with the European School of Protocol, which to date is a land mark achievement for us to reposition the profession here in Nigeria and later ensure that we have a civil society when orientation of an average individual will till towards orderliness and not survival of the strongest,” she explained.

Hon. Divine also noted that protocol practice in the country has numerous interpretations especially within the government operation. “The job of protocol personnel does not in any way mean he must carry your bag(s) especially while on trips. The job of the protocol man is to smoothen his or her Principal’s travel plans and not baggage,” she pointed out.

She said that with the collaboration with the European Union, it has helped ACPPN in capacity building and raised the ethics and values of the profession with the training of members.

“It is time for us to be more organised in anything we do in the country. We want to create awareness at major business spots like the airports and starting with Lagos and perhaps sports arenas so that families can enjoy leisure without much stress which is a standard practice,” she pointed out.