Customs
generally play a private role in the economic life of any county. There is
hardly any sector of the economy that is not directly or indirectly by the
activities of customs. The functions of the Nigeria customs service include,
but not limited to the following:
-
Collection
of revenue (import/excise duties & other taxes (levies ) and accounting of same:
-
Anti
–smuggling activities
-
Security
functions
-
Generating
statistics for planning and budgetary
purposes,
-
Monitoring
foreign exchange utilization etc
-
Engaging in research planning and enforcement of fiscal
polices of government
-
Manifest
processing
-
Licensing
and registration of customs agents
-
Registration
and designation of collecting banks and
working in collaboration with other government agencies in all approved ports and border station
CHAPTER THREE
ROLE OF
PUBLIC RELATIONS
The most
important requirement for a public relations
practitioner is to be is to be
aware of the political, social and
economic environment in which he
operator. He should equally considered the conflicts of interest
which the majority of his publics
suffer
the conflicting interests are those of the
family, the community, government and company. But more often than not, the average Nigerian is
a viction of divided loyalty and lacks identification with the
government private employer using
his services . those
responsibilities vary in degree in
different organizations as follows:
a.
The
public relations man helps
the management to evaluat and
interpret the opinions, attitude andaspirations of the various publics and the
internal and external actitives
of the organization
b.
The
manage crisis and issues
c.
To
organize a programme of action where the public express views on important new projects
before final decision is reached.
d.
To
inform the populace of government policies and day to day
activities
e.
Reputation
or image management : the planning
and implementing of policies, procedures and strategies that
demonstrate an organizations commitment
to public and social responsibilities
ethical behavior, corporate
identity and reputation with key
public
f.
Issues
management : This involves indentifying
and then developing and executing a program to deal with them. Included is the study of public policy matters of concern to an organization
CHAPTER FOUR
IMAGE PROBLEM
From the
research embacked on as a public
relations student, statistics have shown have in a
panoramic view that the Nigeria
customs have image problem.
No doubt
about that, the information and view of people
randomly , uniformly or in the same manner have clearly without any
form of bias shown or indicated that Nigeria customs have lapses in the cause of discharging their duty or in their
operation.
As a matter of
fact, there is every tendency for image repairing in Nigeria customs which pave
a great way for reputation, where
by reverse of image problem will be
corrected for the betterment of the organization
THE WAY OUT
Now,
knowing full well that public relations is every good tools for
image repairing as a public
relations student I adverse
that Nigeria customs should allow public relation as a
matter of urgency to work into
Nigeria customs very well for
them to bring out the good or the best in them for
the betterment of organization
and for the entire citizen of Nigeria.
Since we all
know that public relation can make or mar the organization, Nigeria customs should
allow public relations to have
they full role of reputation or image management ; the planning and implementing of polices,
procedures and strategies that demonstrate an organizations commitment
to public and social responsibilities ethical behavior, Cooperate identify
and reputation with key public.
CONCLUSION
Public relations
as a management philosophy should be understood to include all effort towards achieving organization goals and
objectives as a means of ensuring that all the department of other
organization are made to understand that
their actions are what other public will
use in rating the organization
Whatever polices
or rules, the institution has regarding
promotion, discipline, dismissal
and transfer should be followed
strictly and accordingly to avoid lapses.
The organization
should seek to operate in time or
provide better motivational facilities than other similar organization. It is the
researcher belief that public relations is a potent tool for marketing of goods
and services for good reputation of any organization in the country.
REFERENCES
Benson Eluwa (1999)
Public Relation: A Practical
Approach
Published by Virgin
Creation 4 Accra Street Uwani – Enugu, Chapter
1:3, 3:111=112
Nweke Okey F.F
(2001) Public Relations Practice, Published,
(A
Division of
Hamson PAL AGNC LTD BOX 2223, Enugu) Chapter 1:1