“Maritime Domain Awareness is where it all begins. We cannot conduct the operation that we must if we don’t have a good sense of what’s out there, moving on, above or under the sea.” – Admiral Gary Roughead, U.S Navy, in Rhumb Lines, 20 August, 2007.
In today’s economy, the oceans have increased its economic importance allowing all countries to participate in global market. As long as nations make use of the seas for economic purposes there could be conflict, cooperation, diplomatic and military disputes between states. An example of diplomatic and military disputes arising from the use of the sea was seen in the recent incident involving HMS DEFENDER of the Royal Navy and Russian military forces off the coast of the Crimea Peninsula.
Russia reacted swiftly to the “innocent passage” which reportedly occurred on 23 June 2021, when it became known that the Destroyer HMS DEFENDER was being detached from the Royal Navy’s Carrier Strike Group in the Mediterranean Sea in order to conduct “its own set of missions” in the Black Sea.
The strategic importance of secured territorial waters to the wellbeing of almost 200 million people, places vast responsibility on the Nigerian government, the Navy and other maritime stakeholders
But besides conflict, disputes and cooperation between or among maritime nations, we know that shipping is at the heart of global economy with its vulnerability in two major areas: Firstly, about three-quarters of world maritime trade and half of its daily oil consumption passes through a handful of international straits and canals. This places international commerce at risks in major trading hubs at a few strategic chokepoints. Secondly, the infrastructure and systems that span the maritime domain have increasingly become targets of and conveyances for dangerous and illicit activities. Illegal exploitation of living marine resources has increased, competition over non–living marine resources, maritime boundary disputes, resource degradation, and maritime crimes are potential areas justifying information compilation and analysis of illegalities at sea.
At this juncture, please permit me to step aside to state that the Federal Government has taken a bold step towards putting an “end to crimes” within the Nigeria’s maritime space with the launch of the Falcon Eye. The Falcon Eye is an electronic devise, which will further enhance the Nigerian Navy’s capability to spot, chase and interdict maritime criminals in an efficient manner at sea. Essentially, the electronic devise is to provide maritime domain awareness.
Maritime domain awareness (MDA) is defined by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) as the effective understanding of anything associated with the maritime domain that would impact the security, economy, and environment. The IMO further defines maritime domain as all areas and things of, in, under, relating to, adjacent to, or bordering on a sea, ocean, or other navigable waterway, including all maritime- related activities, infrastructure, people, cargo, ships, and other conveyances.
But one may wonder why it is important to have maritime domain awareness. It is important for the country to know who and where the enemy is at sea. It may be a terrorist, a sea pirate or a criminal dressed as a sailor or fisherman. It could be a ship engaged in either legal or illegal activities at sea. We require an MDA equipment to track movements at sea and to have real time report of all events occurring in our territorial waters up to the Exclusive Economic Zone. We need a functional MDA and we have got it. We got it because it is necessary. According to reports, most incidents of maritime crime occur in coastal waters with nearly 80 percent of all reported piracy cases occurring in territorial waters. Piracy, as expressed by maritime scholars, depletes some African nations of potential revenue for economic growth.
In contemporary times, maritime terrorism is a growing business globally. In order to combat maritime crimes, naval operations begin with the MDA as reflected in the above quotation. Most maritime nations have MDA capacity to gather information about the maritime environment and analyze them in order to have intelligence necessary for various missions. For most nations, the MDA became imperative after the 9/11 terror attack and attack on the Destroyer USS COLE in Yemen and the French Supertanker LIMBURGE.
Almost two decades ago, maritime scholars predicted that in the future, terrorist groups may rise in number based on nationalism, ethnicity and religion causing an increase in the number of terrorists incidents and casualties inflicted. We need to take this prediction seriously. In addition, the economic shock wreaked by the COVID–19 Virus has led to inexorable rise in poverty, unemployment and inflation globally.
With poverty, banditry, kidnapping, terrorism, religious intolerance, unemployment and inflation, we must be careful not to allow these problems on land have a spillover effect in the maritime domain. These problems must be resolved through good governance. The strategic importance of secured territorial waters to the wellbeing of almost 200 million people, places vast responsibility on the Nigerian government, the Navy and other maritime stakeholders to defeat the array of threats, which could emanate from the maritime domain.
Beyond the provision of the new MDA technology, the Navy must be able to deploy surface vessels and air assets with fighting capabilities to engage the enemy within the shortest time. I sincerely hope that the MDA will be a key component of the nation’s maritime security strategy, which the minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, promised, will be released in June 2021. It is imperative to state that when it comes to national maritime security strategy, the minister of transportation needs to collaborate with his counterparts at the ministries of defence and interior as well as other stakeholders.
On that score, I join numerous Nigerians of goodwill to wish NN officers and ratings fair wind and following sea in their efforts to provide maritime security along the nation’s coastal waters. Onward Together! Thank you.
