All is set for the 2023 edition of the Association of Maritime Journalists of Nigeria (AMJON) Annual Retreat for its members, with the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Col. Hameed Ali (Rtd) billed to declare the training open.
The retreat scheduled to hold at the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON) in Topo, Badagry on Thursday, May 25, 2023, will feature 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 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 its members in line with present realities of news reportage.
He said: “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 emphasised that the 2023 AMJON training/retreat was designed as an in-house programme which was bought into by relevant agencies who sought to use the opportunity to illuminate on their services and operations.
On his part, the Chairman, Organising Committee for the retreat, Kelvin Kagbare disclosed that the event will also attract members of the Presidential Task Team (PTT) to interact with AMJON members on its operations.
While calling AMJON members to maximise the opportunity which the retreat offers, he charged them to be prepared for an intensive session with guest lecturers and presenters at the event.
Kagbare stressed 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.
