The Correspondents Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Rivers State Council, has held their annual event, with the theme; Blue Economy: Starting Steps For Rivers State.
The sub theme was: Enhancing The Economic Welfare of Journalists in A Period Of Economic Crisis.
Prof. Silva Opuala Charles Special Guest Of Honour
According to the Chapel Chairman, Comrade Amaechi Okoronkwo in his welcome address stated that the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy was created by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in August 2023 after coming to power on May 29, 2023, stressing that the Ministry focuses on the sustainable use of the Ocean Resources for Economic growth, improved livelihoods, and job creation while preserving marine ecosystems, with the aim of positioning Nigeria as a premier Maritime nation.
Mr. Ubong Essien Guest Speaker
Declaring the Correspondents Chapel Week open, Prof. Silva Opuala Charles, the Special Guest of Honour states that the Blue Economy is all about sustainable use of ocean and marine for economic growth.
According to him, Rivers State contributes a lot to the blue economy, think of the Bonny Island, Nembe, Opobo but unfortunately the Riverine areas of the state are suffering from pollution, and environmental degradation, stressing that that is a challenge to be addressed before we talk of blue economy, stating that the country talks of strategy without structure which amounts to failure, otherwise the country could have stopped the gas flaring, what are the causes the oil spilling, there is no environmental regulations.
Amaechi Okonkwo Chairman, Correspondents Chapel, NUJ, Rivers State
Prof. Silva, we need to work on our environment, making sure the environmental failures are reversed by cleaning up the environmental pollution before we talk of blue economy.
He said that it becomes a paradox as we are on red economy and not blue economy as we speculate.
He, however said that for the Blue economy to be a viable opportunity for diversification of the economy, the government should tackle the problem of marine pollution with founded viable structure based on a good strategy, stating that structure is engine to strategy.
