A new book, Beacons of the Nigerian Maritime Industry, published by two journalists, Mrs. Hope Afoke Ovriri and Mr. Obiajulu Agwu was launched last week at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Victoria Island, Lagos.
According to the authors, the book tells the success stories of the biographical narrations of 50 personalities in the specialised industry. Afoke and Agwu embarked on a journey to establish that it takes an enduring process to build value shaken by the things people do over time. Presented in a story form, the writers made the book an easy and interesting one to read by telling each person’s story in segments.
Mrs. Ovriri, co-author of the book, mentioned in her opening speech what stirred her into writing the book.
She said: “As a reporter something stirred up this interest. We hear stories, we observe things around us and we write stories daily. This very one is a unique story of people who have experienced a lot, told by people who are putting so much to shape the Maritime industry in Nigeria.
“It’s a great thing to talk to people and they share with you the building blocks of their life, to share with you their hard times and yet they were able to pull through. It is established today that these men and women are great people because they’ve not kept their experiences to themselves. They have been able to capture every moment of the building blocks of the issues of things, times, that made them who they are today. I thank every one of them today. This is first in the volume of the book, we are going to feature more people we can have access to.”
In a review of the book, Prof Abigail Ogwezzy-Ndisika, a Mass Communication lecturer at the University of Lagos said that the book is designed to pay attention to the maritime industry, while in a part shows the biographical narration of 50 personalities in the industry.
The authors, Hope Afoke Ovriri and Obiajulu Agwu embarked on a journey and established the fact that it takes enduring process to build values shaken by the things people do over times. Presented in a story form, the authors have made the book an easy and interesting one to read, telling each person’s stories in segments. In the introduction, it gives the reader who the personality is and tells the reader to search for more. The other segments of each story contain full memories, spectacular experiences, challenges, career part and early life that give the readers the full picture of personality life.
“Interestingly, you can decide which person’s story you want to read because they are quite segmented and to come back to over and over again. Photographs have been well used to tell parts of the stories.
The book mirrors life experiences, exposing the truth about life from different people. The story tells us that there is no shortcut to success,” she said.
Mrs. Magrette Orakusi, a Maritime Lawyer and Entrepreneur said that the book serves as a model to what success is all about. She said “The book is a model to what success is all about and it’s highly recommended for everyone particularly the young ones.
“It’s highly recommended for all schools and institutions of learning because our kids today celebrate money, it doesn’t matter where that money is coming from. These are people who have laid solid foundation for their success and they are imparting positively to the society and offering employment and all that goes with that” she said.