Former NIMASA DG to speak at town-hall meeting on maritime potentials

Dr. Dakuku Peterside, former Director General of NIMASA

Governor of Bayelsa State, Nigeria, Duoye Diri has declared support for a town-hall meeting designed to explore maritime potentials and other natural resources of his State. The meeting is scheduled to hold in Yenogoa, the capital of the state, in November 2020.

The keynoted address at the meeting being put together by the Ijaw Media Forum (IMF) will be delivered by a former Director-General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside, as the Special Guest.

The President of IMF, Elder Asu Beks disclosed this when he led members of the Forum on a courtesy call on Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State on Monday. He said the theme of the one-day meeting is Bayelsa, Beyond Oil.

According to Asu Beks, who is a maritime journalist and Publisher of Shipping World, ‘’with the dwindling receipts from oil, the time has come for oil-producing states in the Niger Delta region to think out of the box and explore the bundles of opportunities in the region.’’

Asu Beks said Gov Diri who was elated to receive his delegation told them that the Bayelsa State Government was prepared to partner with them and other critical stakeholders to move the state forward.

The Shipping World Publisher informed that Governor Diri who announced a donation of a parcel of land for the Secretariat of the Forum said Bayelsa was in a hurry to catch up with the rest of the world.

The state governor, according to the press statement, regretted that the state had not taken advantage of the limitless opportunities by the Central Bank of Nigeria and the World in its developmental agenda in the past.

He said his administration has taken appropriate measures to ensure that the State Government took advantage of these opportunities to enable her to diversity the economy. He said Bayelsa State cannot continue to depend solely on handouts from Abuja insisting that the time has come for the state to look inwards for other options.

He commended the leadership of the Ijaw Media Forum for their bold initiative in creating the necessary awareness in this direction as exemplified in the proposed town hall meeting.