The National President of the Mangrove Forest Conservation Society of Nigeria, Dr Akie Hart says the sustained promotion of Bonny Kingdom by Kristina Reports, a virtual news medium cum online newsmagazine, is worthy of commendation and support.

Dr. Hart said this on Saturday, November 16, 2024 when he visited Kristina Reports office in Bonny, Rivers State, wherein he donated four books authored by him to the Publisher of Kristina Reports, Godswill Jumbo.

The books include “Traditional Institutions, Multinational Corporations and Community Development in Bonny Local Government Area (1996-2018)”, “My Sermon Notes”, “Regulatory Agencies and Environmental Degradation in the Niger Delta (1982-2018)”, and “A Compendium of Akie Opuene Hart’s Social Sciences Essays”.

“I have come to see things for myself, to give honour to whom honour is due and also to commend this laudable effort in not only marketing, publicizing and advancing the interest of Bonny Kingdom beyond Bonny Kingdom to the state, to the national and to the international level.”

“Our people now have a feel as if they at home by getting regular updates of what is happening in this great Kingdom. So, it is commendable.”

“So, I said let me come and see from the area where this great news is coming from and what I’ve seen is so tremendous, so commendable; in fact, it’s outstanding.”

“From what I’ve seen; the complex on ground and what has been put in place in terms of the studio, in terms of the conference room, in terms of the offices, this is a worthy effort that we all need to commend.”

He praised Kristina Reports for projecting the laudable efforts of the Amanyanabo and Natural Ruler of Bonny Kingdom, His Majesty, King Edward Asimini William Dappa Pepple III, CON, DSSRS, JP, Edward I, Perekule XI, in the development of Bonny LGA, mainstreaming peace in the land and making the island a haven for business and tourism.

“We are aware that the King is doing so many good things but the challenge we have is that people are not aware of what he is doing enough but that gap is being bridged by the establishment of Kristina Reports so that people will see and appreciate and even copy and emulate the good example that is coming from Bonny Kingdom that has been the pacesetter, the cradle of deltaic civilization.”

He stated that the donation of the books was in appreciation of the efforts of the news medium in projecting Bonny Island to the global media space, calling on Bonny indigenes in Nigeria and the Diaspora to support Kristina Reports as a way of encouraging the media organization to do more.

“So, in appreciation of this effort of our brother to project the image of Bonny Kingdom positively, I have come to donate these books to his library and this is a starting point.”

“Having seen the need, now I will also be coming from time to time to give my support. They say little drops of water can make a mighty ocean.”

“So, I’m calling on all Bonny indigenes both at home and abroad to support this laudable effort at projecting the kingdom positively.”

“So, I want to commend Kristina Reports for this trailblazing effort to publicize Bonny Kingdom positively. So, that is why I’ve come to donate these books.”    

Responding, the Publisher of Kristina Reports, Godswill Jumbo expressed the gratitude of the organization to Dr. Akie Hart and the Mangrove Forest Conservation Society of Nigeria for the donation, saying that the donated books would scale up the intellectual repertoire of the news medium, thus enhancing its reportage of issues affecting the society.   

“First of all, let me thank Dr. Akie Opuene Hart for the donation of these books. This donation is significant in the sense that what we do here at Kristina Reports is intellectually driven. At the foundation, at the core of what we do here is the heavy amount of scholarship.”

“We have about 80% of the staff as graduates, some are Master’s degree holders, and there are some who are already doing their doctoral programmes. So, donating books to a media house, we can imagine what such a contribution would do to the amplification of scholarship within such an organization.”

He attributed the visibility Kristina Reports has over the years given to issues across communities, unhushing hushed voices, attracting interventions and mainstreaming positivity at the grassroots to the organization’s knowledge economy, due diligence capabilities and dexterity in scholarship.

“When we look at what Kristina Reports has been doing over the years in terms of unearthing issues that have for long been overlooked, giving voice to the voiceless, playing up issues for the government and other organizations to look at and bring interventions, it is because we have been reporting from that standpoint of knowledge, that standpoint of due diligence, that standpoint of background checking things and making sure that all our boxes checked out.”

He averred that the books donated would deepen the news medium’s capacity to understand issues in the society, adding that the organization, in terms reporting the grassroots, will continue to deliver on what he referred to as “the Kristina Reports’ promise”.  

“Now, if we do not have that foundation of academic excellence, you can be sure we would not be able to achieve that. So, this contribution will actually help us in the direction we are going. We really appreciate you, Sir, for this donation once again.”

“We will continue to reemphasize, reiterate the Kristina Reports’ pledge that we will report better, we will report greater, we will report deeper and we will report the grassroots, we will report the rural areas, we will report the communities. We will continue to globalize local issues and localize global issues. That is the Kristina Reports promise and we will do it from the point of knowledge.”  

Kristina Reports is a virtual news medium based in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, with an operational office in Bonny Island, also in Rivers State, which has as its core focus community reportage and development journalism, serving as an equal opportunity ventilation point for every member of the society in line with is mantra of “…a voice for everyone”.