Lagos – The 2023 edition of the Association of Maritime Journalists of Nigeria (AMJON) Annual Training Retreat for its members will kick off today in Lagos State, the nation’s commercial capital.
The annual programme is expected to be declared open by the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Col Hameed Ali (rtd) at the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria, ASCON, Topo-Badagry on Thursday May 25 2023.
The 2023 retreat has the theme *Enhancing Capacity/Efficiency in Modern News Reportage” and will also feature presentations by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) on salient operational issues affecting the maritime sector.
AMJON seeks to hone the reportorial skills of its members in this new era of multiplicity of news outlets and the changing dynamics of news reportage.
According to the President of AMJON, Paul Ogbuokiri, the 2023 training is expected to sharpen the skills and intellect of AMJON members in line with present realities of news reportage.
The Chairman Organizing Committee for the Conference, Kelvin Kagbare disclosed that the event will also have in attendance a member of the Presidential Standing Task Team (PSTT), who shall participate and interact with AMJON members on their operations.
The National Inland Waterways Authority is also featuring at the AMJON Retreat to speak on the body’s new autonomy status and how it affects its national mandate.
While calling AMJON members to maximise the opportunity which the retreat offers, he also charged them to be prepared for an intensive session with the guest lecturer and presenters at the event.
“There is a lot that is happening in the maritime industry that is either under reported, ignored or reported wrongly. Often times, 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” Ogbuokiri said.
The president of AMJON, Paul Ogbuokiri emphasised 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.
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 a smuggler), among others.
