By Uzor Odigbo
Excitements reigned among maritime stakeholders following the acceptance of the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Col Hameed Ali (Rtd) to declare open the 2023 edition of the Association of Maritime Journalists of Nigeria (AMJON) Annual Training Retreat for its members.
The retreat scheduled to hold at the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria, ASCON on Thursday, May 25 2023, features presentations by the NCS and other Agencies of the Federal government.
With the theme Enhancing Capacity/Efficiency in Modern News Reportage, AMJON seeks to hone the reportorial skills of its members in this new era of a multiplicity of news outlets and the changing dynamics of news reportage.
According to the President of AMJON, Mr Paul Ogbuokiri, the 2023 training is expected to sharpen the skills and intellect of its members in line with the present realities of news reportage.
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Chairman Organizing Committee for the Conference, Mr. Kelvin Kagbare disclosed that the event will also attract members of the Presidential Task Team to interact with AMJON members on its operations.
While calling AMJON members to maximize the opportunity which the retreat offers, he as well charged them to be prepared for an intensive session with guest lecturers and presenters at the event.
“There is a lot that is happening in the Maritime industry that is either underreported, ignored or reported wrongly. Oftentimes, you see terms and terminologies applied wrongly or misused thereby causing confusion among stakeholders”
“While it is convenient and easy to blame the Journalists for such errors, heads of agencies have not helped matters by sidelining the media from several of their activities,” Mr. Ogbuokiri said.
The president of AMJON, Mr. Paul Ogbuokiri emphasized that the 2023 AMJON training/retreat was designed as an in-house program which was bought into by relevant agencies who sought to use the opportunity to illuminate on their services and operations.
Specifically, the Chairman planning committee was emphatic that Customs interventions at the ports and border posts demand clarity of purpose such as Duty Paid Value, Debit Note, Import/Export Prohibition Lists, Trade Facilitation, Revenue drive, Anti- Smuggling (who is smuggler, among others
