Cross River State Governor, Senator Bassey Otu, has said Nigeria’s hosting of the 2026 World Public Relations Forum (WPRF) will raise the bar of Public Relations practice in the country and expose practitioners to new global strategies.

Otu stated this on Saturday in Calabar during an awareness road walk organized by the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations( NIPR) Cross River State Chapter, ahead of the forum scheduled for Abuja with the theme, “Responsible Communication: The Voice of the World.”

Governor Otu who was represented by Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Pastor Ekpenyong Cobham, described Nigeria’s hosting as a major and significant milestone.

“For Nigeria to host this event is a very major and significant milestone, because the assemblage of phalanx of practitioners from all over the world would expose practitioners in Nigeria to learn new strategies and workable insights as practiced in other countries,” he said.

He noted that the institute has come of age and there is a need to raise the bar and achieve new standards in practice.

“Being an associate and having the privilege to be part of this walk today, I see that as a mark of honor,” Otu added.

The Governor announced a donation of N1 million in support of the walk and assured that the State Government and all requisite functionaries will participate fully in the forum.

“We hope and pray for it to be grand success, and then we’ll be able to take some new methodologies back to help us raise the bar of our practice,” he said.

Earlier, the State Chairman of NIPR, Pastor Augustine Mboso, said the walk was for the future of communication, public trust and responsible citizenship.

Mboso stressed that communication goes beyond exchange of information, saying it shapes opinions, influences relationships, builds trust and can shape the destiny of societies.

He warned that in the age of social media, artificial intelligence and misinformation where every citizen has become a potential communicator, what Nigerians say, share and amplify can either strengthen communities or deepen division.

He said WPRF 2026 matters because it promotes truth, professionalism, empathy and accountability at the time citizens demand greater transparency and as the nation approaches 2027 general elections.

Mboso charged PR practitioners to be voices of clarity in confusion, reason in tension and responsibility in the noisy world, noting that credibility remains the greatest currency of the profession.