Profile
Dr. Ibietan, journalist, writer, scholar and instructor, is a strategic media/communication practitioner and stakeholders’ relationship management specialist with 20 years’ experience in public sector and non-profit brands. He is listed as CHANGEMAKER in the 2025 Nigeria’s PR POWER LIST comprising 50 most influential public relations practitioners and communication management professionals.
Currently the Secretary General of the African Public Relations Association (APRA), he had served as Head of Online Media and later Head of Media Relations Management at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) during which his team won consequential awards for the Commission. He is a member of faculty of Rome Business School’s DBA programme and was Special Media Advisor to Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Communication from 2005-2007, during which he popularised the use of new technology in public communication in Nigeria.
In addition to his public service experience in media relations, strategic
communication, and stakeholder management, Dr. Ibietan was the Regional Media Researcher for Freedom House Nigeria Project. Freedom House is a United States-backed organisation that champions political rights and civil liberties globally, impacting 190 countries and territories. He has also consulted for Mastercard, and MacArthur Foundations.
As a public relations professional, he is a regular anchor, emceeing seminal
programmes and he has led forward-thinking public relations initiatives, involving
multi-level stakeholder relationship management across Nigeria’s ministries,
departments and agencies to improve understanding of statutory obligations and
leverage collaborations. He was equally NCC’s frontline liaison officer with Nigeria’s bicameral federal legislature where he set standard templates in legislative relations. He has attended and overseen several conferences, symposia, and delivered lectures as well as conference papers to express public-spiritedness, non-profit social entrepreneurship, pedagogic obligations and to execute corporate communication blueprints that prioritise centrality of effective communication, ensure thematic strategy and uniformity of messaging across media systems of communication.
Author of about 20 publications – including a book titled "Social Media, Social
Demography and Voting Behaviour in Nigeria," published in 2023 by Premium Times Books, Dr. Ibietan has also published about 200 articles on social subjects and personalities through his social media accounts, in Medium and many media outlets. An IP3 certified regulation specialist, Ibietan earned a Ph.D. in Communication from North-West University, South Africa and a mini-MBA in Telecommunications from NEOTELIS, France. Earlier, he obtained MA in Communication and Language Arts from the University of Ibadan and BA in Communication Arts from University of Uyo, graduating atop his classes. He also obtained a Diploma in Journalism with distinction from the International Institute of Journalism.
He is a fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, and APRA; a member of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Nigeria Community Radio Coalition, the African Council for Communication Education, Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria, and the International Institute of Communications (IIC) – the world's only policy debating platform for the converged communications industry.
Work History
Rome Business School (Graduate School), Nigeria Campus
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)
Nigerian Communications Satellite (NIGCOMSAT) Limited
Federal Minister of Information and National Orientation (Later Information and Communications)
Association & Membership
- Fellow, Nigerian Institute of Public Relations
- Fellow, African Public Relations Association (APRA)
- African Council for Communication Education (ACCE)
- International Institute for Communications (IIC)
- Association of Communication Scholars and Professionals of Nigeria (ACSPN)
- Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ)
- Community Radio Coalition (CRC), Nigeria.
Education
- PhD in Communication | North-West University, South Africa | 2020
- Mini MBA in Telecommunication | Neotelis, Paris, France | 2022
- Human Research Ethics | Online Training and Examination for the Social Sciences and Humanities Certified | Macquarie University June 2018
- Certified Regulation Specialist | Institute for Public-Private Partnerships (IP3) USA & WEDC of Loughborough University, UK | 2014.
- M.A. Communication and Language Arts (Doctoral grade) | University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria | 2005
- B.A. Communication Arts (Second Class (Honours) Upper Division, Best Graduating Student) University of Uyo, Uyo, Nigeria |2000
- Diploma in Journalism (with Distinction) | International Institute of Journalism, Abuja, Nigeria |1996.
Student Leadership, Activism, and Detention
Omoniyi Ibietan was a student leader on campus, who sat at the Senate of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS). He was elected chairman of the National Convention of NANS in 2000 during the annual convention which took place at the University of Maiduguri. It was dubbed Unity Convention because it unified all hitherto warring factions of NANS. From that moment, NANS maintained a single organisational power structure.
He was expelled and suspended many times by educational authorities and, for this reason, his first degree took about 10 years to be completed, because he went to a few schools before graduating eventually from the University of Uyo. Omoniyi and his contemporaries were actively involved in the civil rights movements of the Nigerian military era, during which he suffered deprivation and irredeemable damages, including detentions. In the military regime of General Sani Abacha alone, he was arrested and detained 11 times. In one instance, he was charged to court for organising protests and demonstrations, but was never convicted.
He was intimately involved in the struggles that birthed Nigeria's current democracy. Eventually, he graduated atop his classes at Uyo and Ibadan, and made a distinction at the journalism school. Omoniyi and his colleagues won all cases in the courts, the most prominent being Niyi Ibietan and 44 others Vs. University of Abuja and 2 others.
Cyberpolitics: Social Media, Social Demography and Voting Behaviour in Nigeria
A book by Dr. Omoniyi P. Ibietan
