Bolaji Akinola

Bolaji Akinola is a Nigerian maritime and corporate communication expert. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Media and Communication from the Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos and a Masters in Business Administration he obtained from Lagos Business School.

He is an advocate for the rights of seafarers and dockworkers whom he described as the under-recognized, under-publicized and unsung economic heroes of Nigeria.

On February 8, 2021, Akinola called on the Nigerian government to give priority access to coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines to seafarers and dockworkers in order to minimise disruption to the country's supply and logistics chain.

He is the author of three books namely Career and Investment Opportunities in the Maritime Sector; Arrested Development and Authority Stealing.

Akinola has been a strong advocate of Public-Private Partnership for the development of the maritime sector.

In addition to his advocacy role, Akinola serves as the chief executive officer of Ships and Ports Communication Company and Spokesman of the Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN).

He has published more than 100 articles, including “Nigeria @ 64: A Lament for Lost Opportunities, Collapse of Indigenous Shipping”; “Drowning in Negligence: The Perilous State of Nigeria's Waterways and the Urgent Call for Accountability” and “Cronyism, Nepotism as the Bane of Nigeria’s Maritime Development”.

In March 2023, he called on the incoming government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to sack all the chief executive officers of maritime agencies in Nigeria for underperformance.

In May 2023, he published an article pointing out 99 errors in a book titled “STEPPING ON TOES: My Odyssey at the Nigerian Ports Authority” written by former managing director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman.

In the article titled “Hadiza Bala Usman’s book of 99 errors”, Dr Akinola argued that the book was replete with errors including faulty sentence structures, sentence fragment, wrong nomenclatures, improper use of punctuation marks, poorly integrated quotations, unnecessary capitalization, wrong use of apostrophe, tautology as well as repetition of sentences and paragraphs.

Education

Akinola holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism from the Times Journalism Institute, Lagos. He obtained a Master of Transport Management degree from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Oyo State, and a Master of Business Administration from Lagos Business School. In December 2020, he received a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Media and Communication from the Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos. His PhD thesis, titled Millennials, Digital Natives and the Future of Print Newspapers, found that Nigeria's millennials prefer consuming news on digital platforms over printed newspapers, with cost, location and inconvenience identified as key barriers to print readership.

Career

Akinola serves as chief executive officer of Ships and Ports Communication Company and as spokesman of the Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN). He is the president of the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN) and a member of the governing council of the Lagos Business School Alumni Association.

He has published over 100 articles on maritime policy and development in Nigeria, including commentary on the collapse of indigenous shipping, the perilous state of Nigeria's waterways, and the role of cronyism and nepotism in stifling maritime sector growth.

Publications

Akinola is the author of three books: Career and Investment Opportunities in the Maritime Sector, Arrested Development, and Authority Stealing.