Nigeria’s League of over 250 Maritime Journalists were conspiciously absent as Governor Douye Diri made history on Tuesday , November 4, 2026,at the unveiling of an Acquaculture village in Yenegwe, near Yenagoa which also coincided with a large scale harvest of the state owned fish farm. Like in previous high profile events of the Bayelsa Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, supervised by Pharmacists Faith Zibs Godwin, there is growing concern amongst maritime stakeholders that the huge investments and interventions in the sector, especially the Agge Deep Seaport project, by Gov Diri are grossly under reported. Said an aide to Douye Diri who spoke to Shipping World on condition of anonimity. ” This is what you get when you appoint a non professional to head such a critical ministry. What business has a pharmacist got to do with a Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy? He continued, ” Can you imagine the implications of denying sports journalists an opportunity to cover such an event if was a sports facility…that is why it is important to place square peges in square holes”, the official concluded. On the contrary, Shipping World investigations revealed that all activities of the Marine and Blue Economy Minister, Dr Adegboyega Oyetola, are fully covered by maritime journalists either by their physical presence or press statements issued by the Minister’s media aide, Dr Akinola Akinola.
Unlike the media teams at the Nigeria Content Monitoring and Monitoring Board and Tantita Security Services ,for instance, which enjoys considerable media support from maritime journalists, there is no veriable evidence that Dr Faith Zib Godwin reckons with the corps of maritime journalists, Shipping World investigations further revealed. Said a maritime journalist in Lagos yesterday. ” We only see her postings on facebook when she is part of the entourage of Gov Douye Diri on a foreign trip, we have never seen a press release from her, infact we dont even know her media aide by name”, he concluded