The new General Manager, Public Affairs of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Captain Iheanacho Ebubueogu, formally assumed duties last Friday after a brief handover ceremony from his predecessor, Chief Michael Ajayi.
Ebubuegbu, who was until last week the General Manager, Marine, was redeployed to the Public Affairs Department, while Ajayi was moved to the Administration Department in a disposition that affected all NPA General Managers and five Port Managers.
The new NPA spokesman promised to improve on the public image and perception of the Authority and take the Public Affairs Department to a new height.
He expressed confidence that he will succeed especially with his past knowledge of the workings of the media, having served for eight years as the Publicity Secretary of the Nigerian Association of Master Mariners (NAMM).
He also disclosed that he is no stranger to many of the maritime media practitioners, whom he described as his friends.
While acknowledging that Ajayi had raised the bar in NPA public relations, he promised to “leave the department better than I met it.”
Speaking earlier, Ajayi said he was posted to the NPA Public Affairs Department in 2010 to salvage the image of the organisation, which, according to him, had nose-dived.
He said he was able to reinvigorate the department, revive and repackage the NPA in-house journal and acquired modern working tools including cameras, recorders, laptops and ipads for the staff.
“We also embarked on training and today every one of them can write press releases unlike in the past when only one person was depended upon to write press releases,” he stated.
The outgoing NPA spokesman solicited the cooperation of journalists covering the maritime beat for his successor.
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