When Chief Executive Officers hold events, courtesy demands that they are available to welcome their guests personally and also create time to attend to journalists. The latter part was where the organizers of the recent press conference with Chief Executives of maritime agencies erred on Tuesday, last week. Journalists waited endlessly to get a short interview with the CEOs as demanded by the Public Relations team at the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).
The journalists displayed a rare degree of patience for four hours until the waiting became as unfortunate as the play ‘Waiting for Godot’, where Vladmir and Estragon (two characters) waited endlessly for the arrival of Godot in Samuel Beckett’s first professional play.
Unlike Godot, however, journalists were able to secure an engagement with the CEOs at 2pm for an event scheduled for 10am. After threatening to stage a walk-out, the NIMASA PR team was able to douse journalists’ vexation after explaining that they didn’t have prior knowledge that the CEOs closed door meeting would last hours without the press.
