PUBLIC RELATIONS TECHNIQUES: TOOLS FOR INFLUENCING PUBLIC OPINION* AND BEHAVIOUR

Using the crisis and controversy that attended the divestiture of federal government's 35% equity ownership in the Benue Cement Company, this paper identifies the Public Relations (PR) techniques employed, discusses the media propaganda involved and then examines, from the perspectives of literature and human psychology, some of the complex variables at play in man's interaction with his environment. On the whole, it highlights and draws attention to the importance of adopting PR principles in daily interactional relationships, private or public.