League of Maritime Editors
Welcome Address Delivered by the President of the League of Maritime Editors, Ovie Edomi, on the occasion of a One Day Lecture organized by the League of Maritime Editors, at Rockview Hotel, Apapa Lagos on November 24, 2016.
Protocol
Today’s gathering is a significant milestone in the life of our fatherland and the league of Maritime Editors. This is so because, it is one of the very first gatherings in a long time of Maritime Editors, Public Relations Officers of agencies of government, including customs image makers, as well as key stakeholders in the maritime and allied industries. Clearly, today will be a very brainstorming session as salient issues that touch on the life-wire of the nation would be discussed. I therefore on behalf of the League of Maritime Editors welcome everybody to this memorable day.
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, it is pertinent for me to state at this stage that as Editors and Publishers, we saw this great nation in the era of oil boom to the extent that in the 70s, the Nigerian nation was thinking of what to do with her foreign reserve. Today the situation is different; the giant of Africa is in a recession. As Editors and watchdogs of the society, we believe that there are vast opportunities/resources in the maritime industry. In fact, after oil the next highest source of generating revenue is the Maritime industry. Some people argue that if Nigeria harnesses her Maritime potentials, the country can generate three times what the country currently generate from oil. If the experts say this, as gatekeepers and agenda setters, we feel that policy makers need to take a second look at peerless editorials, as well as opinions expressed by experts on the issue.
Today we want to learn interestingly, from different experts on how we can as a people, especially as key stakeholders, think of what we can do to possibly move the nation away from the recession. We need to do this because presently Nigerian’s population is 182million people according to recent statistics. In the next 25years Nigerian’s population is likely to be bigger than that of the US. The Cabotage policy which is in practice in the United States can help to rijig the nation’s maritime sector and its allied industry. For instance, cabotage can drive manpower development. The cabotage policy is capable of making Nigeria, number one in seafarers supply in Africa and subsequently a major foreign exchange earner as it is in Philippines.
I think this forum will offer us a singular opportunity to also look at how those who handle the image of agencies of government carry out their jobs as well as help to re-shape the images of those holding public office. There is a distinct possibility that the image makers