Writers have been called upon to ensure they maintain professionalism, fact-check issues and always consider the social impact of their writing in the course of their writing career in order to assure maximum benefits to society and societal harmony.

This was the consensus of various speakers at the just concluded maiden edition of The Writers Summit, a one-day writers’ workshop held at the Youth Resource Centre, King Jaja Street, Bonny yesterday.

The workshop was organized by Kristina Reports in partnership with the Youth Resource Centre, Bonny, Africa Book Culture, Care Management Consulting, Bonny, Bonny Local Government Council, and Bonny Integrated Recruitment Centre for existing and young writers in the Media, Literary, Creative, and other aspects of the literary space.

According to the organizers, the workshop aims at building their capacity to become top-notch pen pushers by honing their skills, exposing them to contemporary writing tools available to writers globally, and showing them how to turn their writing into high value income earners.

The immediate past Lawmaker representing Degema/Bonny federal constituency in the House of Representatives, Randolph Brown was the Chairman of the Panel Discussion where issues germane to the linkages between writing and societal development were discussed extensively.

A former Executive Director of the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency (RSSDA), Larry Pepple, the Director of the International Institute of Journalism (IIJ), Rivers State, Ibituru Pepple, PhD, the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Kristina Reports, Godswill Jumbo, Founder/Convener of the Africa Book Culture (ABC), Bourdillon Benibo, and the Head of Graphics, Kristina Reports, Hanniel Bluejack presented papers at the workshop. 

Chairman of the occasion, Randolph Brown admonished writers to focus their writing on value addition to society, proffering solutions to societal maladies and ensuring that their writing career continues to expand the scope of knowledge in the world.

In his paper, ‘Perspectives on Impact of Writing on Human Society’, Larry Pepple, a post-conflict and development consultant, harped on the need for professionalism, fact-checking and value addition on the part of writers, noting that given the tremendous impact writing has on society, it was imperative for writers to be deliberate, diligent and decisive in their writing career, especially, with emphasis on highlighting those issues that will have positive impact on the people.

The former security top brass used the opportunity to applaud various social impact initiatives by the Adata Bristol Foundation (ABF), Care Management Consulting (CMC), Kristina Reports, Youth Resource Centre (YRC), Foundation for Widows and the Less Privileged (FOWALP), the COKE Team, Bonny Island Magazine (BIM), organizers of the Bonny Island Marathon (BIM), Bonny Kingdom Youth and Adolescent Programme, Google Developers Group (GDG), Bonny, among others.

He praised these organizations and their owners or promoters for mainstreaming issues about Bonny Kingdom on the global stage, saying their efforts have projected Bonny Kingdom as a destination of choice and investment hotspot for the global community.

“I commend this generation of innovative entrepreneurs and passionate community capacity developers for doing what we before them did not do by striving inspite of limited resources to put Bonny Kingdom on the world map for good,” he said.  

Delivering his paper, ‘New Media and Conventional Media: Intricacies of Writing’, Dr Ibituru Pepple harped on the need for social media influencers to acquire professional training in Journalism and Media Practice in order to ensure they are well equipped to make valuable contributions to the society. 

He also emphasised the importance of training and retraining of media practitioners to sustain their contributions to societal development, noting that truth, objectivity, balance, fairness and accuracy were critical to writing, especially, in the area of news reportage, urging writers to ensure they subject their writing to the four basic stages of writing namely: Preparation, Incubation, Illumination and Verification Stages.

Chief Executive Officer of Kristina Media Consult, owners of Kristina Reports, Godswill Jumbo, in his paper, ‘Gains of Structured Writing Career for Income Generation’, espoused on the need for writers to define their writing by according it a distinct style, stressing that writers need to maintain consistency, optimum delivery, and good quality in order to retain readership and continuous patronage from the paying public.

For Bourdillon Benibo, the Founder of Code Delta and Africa Book Culture (ABC), Coding was the new gig in town and the future of writing, given that coding is the new literacy. He stated that “through Code Delta, we’ll transform the Niger Delta region into a hub of tech-talents in Africa”.

He harped on the need for decision makers, especially, in the Education sector, to mainstream the study of Coding in schools and entrepreneurial training institutions in order not to be left behind in the global technological advancement unravelling at the speed of light.

Kristina Reports’ Head of Graphics, Hanniel Bluejack postulated that graphics bring life to writing and conveys the emotions that go with or respond to writing, explaining that it was imperative that writers of the unfolding literary dispensation take advantage of new developments in graphics design to add verve to their writing career in order to make indelible imprints on history and positive impact on the society and their reading audience. 

Host of the programme, Youth Resource Centre and Care Management Consulting have become household names in the areas of capacity building, business development, and youth empowerment, having jointly and separately organized and also hosted events have added colossal value to youths, individuals, and corporate entities.

The Youth Resource Centre was founded by Excel Ukpohor, who is also the Director but has Bitrus Babayo as its Centre Manager, while development activist, gender equality advocate, and doyen of the Niger Delta, Lolo Hailsham is founder and Executive Director of Care Management Consulting (CMC), which has become an emblem of consultancy and business development.

In a chat with newsmen after the event, Kristina Reports Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, Godswill Jumbo disclosed that The Writers Summit, which will be an annual event, aims at creating a Writers’ Hub in Bonny that will serve as a convergence point for the literary, digital technology, and information, communication and technology community in the Niger Delta region and beyond.