LAGOS – A maritime expert, Simeon Nwonu has called journalists reporting the maritime, Blue Economy sectors of the Nigeria’s economy to dig deep and unearth the ills in the sector through investigations, saying maritime journalists covering those area are not doing enough.
Nwonu, Deputy National President, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), made the assertion during exclusive interview with Daily Independent.
The frontline freight order lashed out on journalists when asked to give his impression or views on the maritime sector based on the Federal Government policies, vis a vis, how such policies affect the sector.
Nwonu quickly responded: “Well, you know that the press is the carrier of news, local news, national news, even international news. So, the press occupies a very vital position in the society at all levels, be it in governance, be it in business, be it in religion and so on and so forth.
“And because of the role they occupy, they directly or indirectly influence what goes on in the society. So, the impact of the press in Nigeria, the positive impact of the press in Nigeria is quite profound. In the maritime sector, the press are playing a vital role to educate people on port operations and things going on within the ports.”
The Deputy National President of NAGAFF emphasised that the Nigeria press is not doing enough to put the government and all its Agencies on their toes which would propel them to perform maximally.
He asserted: “We discovered that maybe because of the bad economy, the press is no longer as vibrant as they used to be. They seem to be taking a compromising position on matters that have to do with the government. Because, if you ask me now, in recent times or for the past one year, I have not seen any critique on the operations of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) or a body like the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).
“In fact, the press seem to be docile in recent times. Look at, for instance, the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN). What is going on there? Everything there is dormant.
And the press is not doing anything. The press are not doing anything regarding that. If you go to the office of CRFFN here in Lagos, you may see one or two people in the office.
Now you look at the people that were elected into the board of the CRFFN. You ask yourself, where are they now? Where are they? What are they doing? What are they doing? So it is a problem. So, maybe some journalist will go and interview somebody and after that, that is the end of the matter.
You hardly see any journalist that is making a critique of any of these institutions, government institutions. Even regarding the operations in this area, can I talk about the Nigeria Customs Service? The only goal to see a Customs officer at the end of the day is to see that this man is doing wonderfully well. He is coasting the government a lot of money.
“Their revenue has expanded. He is working very hard. He is checkmating importation, checkmating the inflow of banned items through the seaports or through the border.
“These are the things you can… just something that is only commending and commending and commending the operations of the officers, be it Nigerian Customs, be it NPA, be it NIMASA. So I now say, ah, how could this be? So they are not doing anything wrong. Everything they are doing is going on well.
That is bad reporting. So that is where I fault the press as far as operations within the maritime ecosystem is concerned,” Nwonu asserted.
Read more on Independent Newspapers Nigeria
