The appointment of the media-savvy Ms. Hadiza Bala Usman as the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) may yet instigate a rejig of the Public Affairs Department in content and character, in order to align it with her ideals of the media, according to investigations.
Notably, Usman, it was learnt, is an aficionado of new media, bearing in mind that online publications are the global favourites for real time news and other information.
However, it was gathered that the NPA boss was dismayed, on assumption of office, to discover the NPA’s backwardness concerning the adoption and deployment of new media.
It was learnt that she was sorely distressed to sight an NPA Website lacking real time updates in an era that conscientious adoption and deployment of information and communications technology (ICT) determine the levels of successes of business entities.
It was further learnt that Usman has issues with the facts that the NPA Public Affairs Department is purportedly overbloated, and that non-media personnel dominate the department, contributing to what industry watchers have described as its lacksture performance and resultant uncomplimentary image of the NPA in the eyes of its publics.
Consequently, according to sources, the Public Affairs Department, as directed by the Managing Director, on Thursday, August 25, 2016, commenced a three-day retreat that aims to review the department’s current operational procedures, with a view to effecting whatever needed changes in order to enthrone much-needed dynamism and efficency in the system.
It was gathered that the theme of the retreat is hinged on “embracing the new vista” offered by new media.
The retreat gathered a number of the department’s personnel from all over Nigeria to the Bon Voyage Hotel in Victoria Island, Lagos State, South-West Nigeria, away from the potential distractions in all the facilities of the NPA, including the Corporate Headquarters, the NPA House, Marina, Lagos Island, Lagos State.
Industry watchers posit that only time will tell if the retreat was a mere exercise that only took the participants away from routine of work for a few days, or one that rouses them to align the NPA to prevailing trends driven by new media.
These analysts noted that whatever is the dynamism in reportage of the industry owes so much to the emergence of online publications, that have in a relatively short period become leading sources of real time information for stakeholders, including the traditional media.
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