Take a fresh look at your lifestyle.

NIMASA, NASPRI Hold Workshop On Developmental Journalism To Attract Foreign Direct Investment

NIMASA, The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency and the Nigerian Army School of Public Relations and Information (NASPRI) on Tuesday held a workshop to train forty maritime journalists on the need to adopt developmental journalism to preserve national security and consequently attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

The one-day workshop themed: “An Assessment of the Pattern of Reportage among Nigerian Maritime Journalists: Implications for Preservation of National Security and Foreign Direct Investment’’ took place at the NASPRI’s Auditorium, Bonny Cantonment, Lagos.

Delivering the opening address, Col. Aliyu Yusuf, Acting Commandant NASPRI reiterated the importance of training, hence the collaboration with NIMASA to train maritime journalists.

“Learning is a process that requires training and retraining. It is due to this that NASPRI deemed it necessary to synergize with NIMASA to organize the training workshop for maritime reporters”, he said.

On his part, Director-General of NIMASA, Bashir Jamoh, said there is a need to train media practitioners to educate the local and international community on developments and opportunities that abound in the sector with a view to attracting foreign and local investments, which would, in turn, boost the industry.

Jamoh, who was represented by his Special Assistant on Communications and Strategy, Ubong Essien while commending journalists for helping in nation’s building through robust reportage of activities in the maritime sector assured of the agency’s commitment to building capacities of media practitioners in the industry.

 “Whatever needs to be done to support our friends in the media, I want you to know that you have an ally in the agency that will lend its voice as best as possible to support this sort of initiative and you can expect that there will be more of this to come so that we can build capacity and let Nigerians know that maritime is an important sector of the economy.

 As a coastal nation, we should be aware of our maritime strength and for that to happen, the media hold the key to realizing this. So, we count on you to do your best as we also strive to do ours and keep supporting you,” he said.

 Prof. Abigail Ogwezz-Ndisika, a lecturer from the Mass Communication Department, University of Lagos, called on the organizers to draw a rule of engagement for practitioners while also tasking journalists to always be guided by rules of engagement while reporting.

Speaking on Ethics, Skills and Personal Qualities to improve Maritime Reportage, Ogwezz-Ndisika urged journalists to always be guided by ethics of what is right while reporting to grow the maritime sector.

 “Media personnel have a duty to protect and secure the industry, they should ask themselves if what they are doing is right or wrong and in so doing ensure that they understand the rules of engagement.

 They should be diligent to ascertain the truth in their publications and ensure that whatever they are championing was responsible,” she said.

In his lecture, Col. Yusuf, said with a large expanse of coastal waters, the maritime sector has what it takes to attract local and foreign direct investments and generate trillions of Naira for the country than the oil and gas industry but that, he noted, also depend largely on responsible and objective reportage of activities in the sector.

“The maritime industry is a key sector of the Nigerian economy. The sector has been estimated to be bigger in size than the oil and gas but I don’t think we have explored that so far. If properly harnessed, the industry experts say the sector has the potential to realize more than trillions of naira for this country.

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

Participants were also taken through other topics ranging from preserving national security and attraction of FDI through unbiased reportage, effective use of new media for responsive maritime reporting as well as best practices in maritime reporting tasked the participants to ensure that no matter the challenges faced, it should not be an impulsion for them to undermine the countries security and thus drive away investors.

Dr Suraj Olunifesi of the department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos, said that public expectation regarding news was changing while urging participants to make use of social media as that is the most trending and go-to for people these days. He also said it is the new media.

Speaking on the Effective use of New Media for responsive maritime reporting, Olunifesi noted that in putting up the maritime economy to be very attractive, journalists should consider the pecking (PEC) order of People, Environment And Company.

“Social media is a way to go and there is a need to position the country’s blue economy to attract investment,’ he said.

According to Olunifesi, journalists see national interest as a selfish interest and so report narrow-minded news.

A Public Relations expert, Mr.Marce Anyanwu also took participants through the topic; Preserving National Security and Attraction of FDI Through Unbiased Reportage while seasoned Financial Journalist Mr Ray Echebiri took journalists at the event through Best Practices In Maritime Reporting.

READ ALSO: NIMASA paid N8.6m for an unexecuted contract –Senate

In his closing remark, Col. Aliyu Yusuf, Acting Commandant NASPRI thanked NIMASA for their support. While urging participants to put into practice all that they learned in their reports as maritime is part of the progress of Nigerians economy.

Recall that the agency and the Nigerian Army had earlier announced plans to cooperate on the training and retraining of journalists and other public communication practitioners in the country’s security sector.

This was the culmination of an earlier meeting between the management of NIMASA, led by Dr. Jamoh, and a team from the Nigerian Army School of Public Relations and Information (NASPRI), led by the Acting Commandant, Col. Aliyu Yusuf, during a meeting at the agency’s headquarters.

Comments
Loading...