Maritime journalists were lavishly dished a tasty soup of disregard by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) on Thursday, last week.
After inviting pressmen for the launch of the Deep Blue Project by President Muhammadu Buhari, several journalists were cajoled to step down as the number of press delegates was trimmed down by the Presidential protocol, and some those who eventually got to the venue also found themselves screened out.
Some journalists who had left their houses before 6am to keep the NIMASA appointment by 8:30am were left astonished with news that they wouldn’t be attending the programme.
It was also disheartening that journalists were kept in the most horrendous aspect of the event without access to speakers or good view of the podium.
Bashir Jamoh’s led management moderated the wild ostentation associated with NIMASA’s events in recent times at the last week event but the presence of two MCs-Cyril Stober and Eugenia Abu for such short event left some doubt of repentance from the usual wastage in the system. What was in Buhari’s visit that NIMASA’s local content could not handle? At worst, pair one with a “local breed” and feed the needy with one! In a season Presidents get hot slap, a NIMASA hen was clucking Sai baba at a corporate event on seeing Buhari walking down the red carpet to locate his seat. Angry faces who could not give Baba a Macron’s treatment almost ate her raw. Somebody quipped, “She must be one of those idle staff in there”.
