From left: Mr Marce Anyanwu, one of the resource persons at the workshop, Mrs. Abbey, an Assistant Director at the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency NIMASA, Commandant of NASPRI and facilitator of the training, Col Aliu Yusuf and Prof Abigail Ogwezz-Ndisika of the Mass Communications department, University of Lagos and one of the resource persons at the one-day training workshop held in Lagos, Tuesday.

The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency NIMASA in collaboration with the Nigerian Army School of Public Relations and Information NASPRI organised a one-day training workshop for maritime journalists with a view to preserving national security and enhancing Foreign Direct Investment FDI inflow.

The theme of the workshop, which held in Lagos, Tuesday was: “An assessment of the pattern of reportage among Nigerian maritime journalists: implications for national security and Foreign Direct Investments”.

Speaking as the special guest of honour at the event, Director General of the agency, Dr Bashir Jamoh, said that the agency was committed to building capacities in the maritime industry even among the media men with a view to enhancing effective coverage of the industry and writing responsible and balanced reports, which would boost the drive towards the inflow of FDI to grow the industry.

Represented by his Senior Special Assistant on strategic communications, Ubong Essien, the DG insisted that there was need to train and retrain the maritime media practitioners so as to educate both the global and Nigerian maritime community so that they would be abreast of developments and investment opportunities in the maritime industry in Nigeria.

“As a coastal nation, we must inform both the local and international maritime community to know our strength and this can only be done through equipping the maritime media. While making this kind of training a regular phenomenon for the maritime media, NIMASA is working on other capacity building initiatives to inform and educate the public”, the DG also assured.

Acting Commandant of the NASPRI, Col. Aliu Yusuf, while speaking during the event, noted that with very large expanse of coastal waters, Nigeria has all it takes to attract huge foreign and local investments to harness this potential, especially in terms of water transport.

He also noted that available facts at his disposal indicate that the maritime industry has more to offer the country in terms of FDI, creation of jobs for the country’s teeming youth population as well as earning foreign exchange that is urgently required to build and grow the economy than he oil and gas sector.

“But all these lofty ideals cannot be achieved in the face of insecurity and lack of inflow of FDI. This brings to the fore the fact that what the Nigerian media say about the maritime industry is what the international community would believe and work upon. This calls for responsible and objective reportage of the activities of the industry.

“We need to crosscheck and verify our facts before we put them out to the public because what the people read about the industry would greatly influence whether they want to invest in such an industry or not, especially given that the world has become a global village”, the commandant also said.

Some of the papers presented at the one-day training workshop include Ethics, skills and personal qualities to improve maritime reportage, presented by Prof Abigail Ogwezz-Ndisika of the Mass Communication department of the University of Lagos and Narrative and messaging presented by the commandant himself

Others include preserving national security and attraction of FDI through unbiased reportage by Marce Anyanwu, a Public Relations expert, effective use of the new media for responsive maritime reporting by Dr Suraj Olunifesi also of the University of Lagos and best practices in maritime reporting by Ray Echebiri, who edited Champion Newspaper and Financial Standard Newspapers at different times and currently the Chairman/CEO of National Institute of Financial Journalism as well as the facilitator of the Bullion lecture series.

A highpoint of the event was the presentation of a plaque to the DG NIMASA, which was received on his behalf by his representative and SA on strategic communications, Essien as well as presentation of certificates to over 50 participants drawn maritime journalists and Public Relations staffers of the agency.