Steve Agbota, [email protected]
Nigeria’s current classification as a hotspot for piracy incidents and sea robbery is indeed taking a negative toll on its International image and affecting the opportunity to attract quality investment from across the globe.
According to some observers, Nigerian waters are now rated even worse than Somalia territorial waters.
The reason is that Nigeria is one of the eight countries whose coastal waters form the Gulf of Guinea (GoG) which is home to two regional economic blocks: the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). It holds a significant percentage of the world’s total oil and gas reserves as well as a large deposit of natural resources. The region’s potential as a resource wise and tactical contributor to national growth cannot be overemphasized.
However, Nigeria accounts for around 70 per cent of the maritime economic activities that occur in the region (GoG) having the highest number of port calls in the region and over 5,000 ship calls comprising of Product tankers, crude oil tankers, LNG carriers and general cargo vessels and tankers operating in its Exclusive Economic Zone annually.
In recent times, the Gulf of Guinea has become a source of concern to the international business community due to the high levels of insecurity plaguing the region, with the Nigerian maritime domain having the highest numbers of security incidents in the region.
Being the biggest country around the Gulf of Guinea, maritime security experts believe most attacks and robbery carried out around the region are wrongly sometimes reported and transferred to Nigeria.
With over 20 countries within the Gulf of Guinea, anything can happen in any of the countries within the region.
Regrettably, Nigeria is sometimes charged for incidents that happen in Benin Republic, Ghana or part of other of the Gulf of Guinea, thereby sending the wrong signals to international communities.
These security issues have been a major concern for stakeholders in the industry especially for those in the shipping sector. They believe that insecurity is a major deterrent to existing and prospective businesses.
Available data has it that over $15 billion goods are transported through the Nigerian waterways annually, with the Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi recently disclosed that Nigeria was losing about $25 billion annually to illegal blue economic activities on Nigerian waters.
He therefore advocated that combative efforts must taken to tackle the issues of piracy attacks, banditry, robbery and other related maritime crimes in the nation’s maritime domain.
As part of commitment in ensuring safety in the Nigerian maritime domain and to tackle insecurity on Nigerian waters, the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) commissioned the C4i Operational Centre for integrated maritime surveillance and security infrastructure in Lagos.
The security mechanism otherwise known as the Deep Blue Project of the Federal Government was made possible through the bi-ministerial collaboration of the Federal Ministries of Defense and the Federal Ministry of Transportation under the supervision of the Office of the National Security Adviser to the President. The C4i Operation Center, which is an acronym for Command Control Computer Communication Information System is a central nerve.
However, the Director-General of NIMASA, Dr. Peterside said with the commissioning, Nigeria was now ready to tackle the illegalities in the waterways, saying that C4i is the beginning of the project while there is an ongoing acquisition of assets such as intervention vessels and helicopters to compliment the project.
He added that the centre would serve as the base for situational intelligence for the Deep Blue Project with 40 personnel broken down into operators, intelligence officers and shift supervisors manning it.
According to him, in recent times, the Gulf of Guinea has been plagued with piracy attacks and all sort of sea robberies. And the international community regards the Nigerian maritime domain as having the highest insecurity records in the region.
However, Dakuku who spoke through the Executive Director of Maritime Labour and Cabotage Services; Mr. Gambo Ahmed, is optimistic that the centre would meet the safety aspiration of the Nigerian maritime industry.
His words: “You would agree that surveillance and intelligence gathering are critical components in the drive to improve maritime safety and security. The Deep Blue Project was designed as an early detection coastal security system with the aim of preventing illegal activities by identifying and analysing suspicious activity at the earliest possible moment. The system does this by using a wide range of sophisticated air, marine and land assets.
Meanwhile, Head, Maritime Safety of NIMASA, Captain Sunday Umoren, said the Deep Blue Project is a welcome development. He noted that it will make the Gulf of Guinea an unsafe place for bad guys that carry-out nefarious activities in the Nigerian waterways.
“It is a welcome development that will remove Nigeria from the list of high risk areas. The project will manage the security of the Gulf of Guinea. Illegal fishery and bunkering will be apprehended,” he said.
Mr. Micky Gnash of Homeland Security International (HLSI), who are consultants to the project, said that 110 officers and men of the Nigerian Army and 198 officers and men of the Nigerian Navy have been trained and graduated.
“They were trained on combat related courses, ranging from physical training, sharp shooting techniques and ability to use the arm from a range, bare hands fighting in open terrain, built up areas and in the bush”.
He also added that the training was tailored towards empowering them for the enormous task of safeguarding the Nigerian territorial waterways.