By Sylva OBASI
It is getting interestingly embarrassing for the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), especially for its Director-General, Dr Dayo Mobereola over a one Hundred Million Naira approval granted to one hundred maritime journalists for a one million Naira each since the third quarter of 2025 of which the payment got stalled in the system.
The approval which is for special publications and advertorials for the agency in 2025 by the maritime journalists has suffered undue payment delay for no known reasons.
As bad as it gets, the Public Relations of NIMASA headed by Mr Osagie Edward seems helpless over the situation since the agency failed to make due his promise of having the payment made before the end of December 2025.
Meanwhile, as the first quarter of 2026 nears ending with no signs that the payment would be made any time soon, the affected maritime journalists are gearing up for a show down with the agency over what they describe as ‘Approvals Without Payment’ be-deviling NIMASA under the current administration of Dr Dayo Mobereola.
PLATFORM REPORTERS gathered that while some members of the affected journalists are considering sending petition to the Presidency, the National Assembly and to the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, others want to first channel their complaints to the Servicom department of the agency to ascertain what is stalling the payment since last year especially as the PR department has been unable to attribute the delay to any thing concrete.
One of the affected journalists who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity said, “The last time I asked Mr Osagie about the payment, he said ‘we are waiting for the thing to come down to us, before we ask you people to submit your account details for payment’.
“Honestly, I don’t know who to believe again in this whole thing, the aggrieved journalist lamented”.
Meanwhile, when contacted over the development, the NIMASA Head of Public Relations, Mr Edward Osagie admitted that the delayed payment has become an embarrassment as he confirmed that none of the 100 maritime journalists has received the payment since last year.
He assured that his unit is working very hard to ensure the affected journalists get paid soon, but failed to attribute reasons for the undue delays.
Industry observers are worried over several cases of ‘approval without payment’ that has become synonymous with the current NIMASA management led by Dr Dayo Mobereola, even as they want him to take charge and redeem his image.
