The International Public Relations Association (IPRA) has admitted award-winning public relations practitioner Yushau A. Shuaib as a Fellow conferring the prestigious post-nominal FIPRA designation.
IPRA President Esther Cobbah signed Shuaib’s Fellowship certificate recognising his more than six years of professional membership of the major global network founded in May 1955.
IPRA Secretary-General Philip Sheppard said the Fellow status is conferred on associates who have maintained a long-term affiliation and demonstrated commitment to global public relations standards and ethical practice.
The foremost organisation has members in up to 95 countries and has held consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council and UNESCO since 1984 and 1983 respectively.
Shuaib is the CEO of Image Merchants Promotion Limited (IMPR)-publishers of PRNigeria Economic Confidential and Spokespersons Digest-which has earned numerous honours from the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) African Public Relations Association (APRA) SABRE Awards Africa and IPRA’s Golden World Awards (GWA).
The Fellowship comes weeks after IMPR recorded its biggest international achievement at the 2026 IPRA Golden World Awards in Athens Greece where it won multiple prizes including the coveted Grand Prix for its work on ‘AI in Crisis Communication: From Study to Strategy.’
Led by Shuaib the campaign evolved from a 107-page empirical study on the application of artificial intelligence in crisis communication in Nigeria and was supported by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) Centre for Crisis Communication (CCC) Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and other stakeholders.
The win in the historic city where IPRA adopted its Code of Athens in 1965 followed a decade of IMPR’s participation in the GWA. In 2016 in Doha Qatar Shuaib received a Golden World Award for Crisis Management while IMPR was ranked the most creative PR agency worldwide in the 2020 PRovoke Media Global Creative Index.
Shuaib graduated in Mass Communication from Bayero University Kano in 1992 winning the NIPR President’s Prize as the Best Graduating Student in Public Relations. He was named PR Person of the Year for Kano and Jigawa States in 1995 and obtained a Master’s degree in Public Relations from the University of Westminster London in 2010.
Prior to private practice Shuaib built an extensive career in government communication. He served as Public Relations Officer at Government House Asaba Delta State and in communication roles at the Federal Ministries of Information Finance and Health.
The expert subsequently headed the public relations departments at the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) before retiring from public service.
Shuaib convenes the annual National Spokespersons Awards (NS-Awards) and the PRNigeria Young Communication Fellowship (PYCF) initiatives that recognise excellence in strategic communication and mentor emerging journalists and communication professionals.
He has authored several books on media public relations and crisis communication including A Dozen Tips for Media Relations Financial Public Relations in Nigeria Strictly Personal: Writings for the Media Award-Winning Crisis Communication Strategies and MNI versus MNIPR in NIPSS.