A REVIEW OF THE PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER, AZEEZ HIKMOT

By Osuolale Oluwatomilayo 

The title 'Public Relations Officer' often understates the weight and responsibility that comes with being at the helm of an organization's image, disseminating information and influencing public perception. Beyond mere information dissemination, this position has the power to make or mar reputations. While the title itself may be not encompassing, the focus here is in the duties and execution of this role. Consistency and continuity have characterized the public relations in Queens hall, with this year's officer building upon the legacy of previous officers. Azeez Hikmot, popularly known as Bam Girl  outlined various plans in alignment with her duties as PRO while  paying attention to the importance of unity and inclusiveness for residents of the Hall. She campaigned on a number of promises which will be assessed to determine her achievements and otherwise.

PROMOTION OF THE HALL’S SOCIAL EVENTS.

The first plan highlighted in her manifesto is the Promotion of the Hall’s social events. The PRO promised to ensure as much attendance as possible in each event held in the hall, including fresher’s welcome, hall week and dinner by leveraging the hall’s whatsapp platforms instagram and twitter handles.

The initial statement of ensuring as much attendance as possible has been quite effective, timely, frequent and consistent as this session recorded a large number of attendees at different events held, most particularly the hall week. 

The hall’s social events were indeed promoted on the whatsapp and instagram accounts of the hall and a large number of people were seen attending events organized by the other executives as Queenites reported to have seen important messages on upcoming events on the whatsapp community. This reportedly fueled Queenites interest in various events. 

SOCIAL MEDIA UTILIZATION.

Under this plan, she promised to use the hall’s instagram, twitter page and whatsapp groups for promoting events and passing information by making e-flyers and broadcasting events on all platforms owned by the hall. This unfortunately was not completely fulfilled. While the whatsapp and instagram accounts were utilized, the last post made on the twitter accounts dates back to the 1st of July, 2021. This is a nip off her promises. Regardless, the efforts put into dissemination of information to the other social media apps are quite commendable. The sub plan to this is her promise of creating contents for hall events and then trending them. This promise has been fulfilled;  contents as well as graphics were uploaded on  both instagram and whatsapp.  Hikmot mentioned that her ability to keep up with her plans, successfully handling graphics and content was as a result of other executives' cooperation and support, most especially the Social Minister, Hall Chairperson, Finance secretary and Sports Minister. 

CONFERENCE AND SEMINAR

In her manifesto, she promised that a program will be held on telegram in the 5th week of the second semester revolving around women-in-tech and entrepreneurship themes where tech gurus and entrepreneurs in the hall will be invited live on telegram to enlighten the hall residents about their enterprise. This however, did not hold when it was stated to hold. In an interview, Hikmot stated that this program did hold, not at the stipulated time, but during the personality lecture of the hall week, physically and as a panel session program. She stated her  reason for this sudden change. In  her words,

 “I noticed the low turn up of Queenites to online programs. And due to how the session became short, activities were piled up for everyone. So, I decided to fix  the program during the personality lecture because everyone was free from the whole academic and campaign activities as at the time of the hall week.” 

This is a clever solution although it did not align with the earlier statement in her manifesto. But in the end, the goal was accomplished; Queenites gave nothing but good reviews about the personality lecture. 

ACCESSIBILITY AND EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION. 

On the plan of effective communication, Hikmot promised to fix and make use of the public address system to convey information to all blocks. Hikmot also  fulfilled this promise to resuscitate the public address system, which was operated more frequently, particularly in the late evenings when students were most active. This method of communication was used on various occasions like creating awareness about events like Jaw War and inviting residents to various events.

As part of her commitment to promoting accessibility, she promised to share her contact information with the hall's WhatsApp community to ensure that she is readily available to address any questions or concerns that may arise, and to provide timely clarification on matters that require it. She did this by sharing her contact to every block group: freshers, staylites, finalists and even off campus Queenites.

Numerous Queen Elizabeth II Hall students confirmed seeing the broadcast of her contact information, but few actually reached out to her, as there were relatively few situations that necessitated her assistance.

Azeez Hikmot demonstrated a satisfactory level in fulfilling her promises, despite a few flaws, she displayed a firm work ethic, collaborated effectively with her fellow executives, and served diligently.