Public Relations Strategies and Harmful Cultural Practices against Widows among the Igbos in Nigeria

This study was conducted to assess the impact and potential of public relations strategies on tackling the issues of harmful cultural and traditional widowhood practices among the Igbo in Nigeria. Particular emphasis was on mediation, negotiation and community practices as the PR strategies. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to achieve the objectives and answer the research questions. The study generated primary data from a sample of 400 selected respondents representing the five states of core Igboland. The sample was selected using multi-staged sampling techniques. Results from the use of descriptive statistics and inferential statistics of logistic regression show that public relations strategies have made a significant impact on fighting harmful widowhood practices, yet the potential has not been significantly harnessed. The odd ratios of the variables are large at 10.703 for mediation, 8.967 for negotiation, and 13.736 for community practices, showing that any unit increase will create about 11, 9, and 14 more likelihoods for reduction in harmful widowhood practices among the Igbos. The study, therefore, concluded that public relations strategies have the capacity to change people’s attitudes, especially women who are at the forefront of enforcing the harmful widowhood practices. Hence, the study recommended that every effort should be made to encourage and sensitize women with the best of PR strategies by experts, targeting mostly women.