On Thursday, July 25, 2019, Dakuku Peterside, director-general of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), will lead other important personalities, experts and stakeholders in the maritime industry to Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island for the 2019 edition of the ‘African Day of Seas and Oceans’ event.
Over the years, the event has occupied an important place in the calendar of NIMASA, given the importance the agency attaches to it. The Director-General looks up to the event with great expectation. This year’s edition which has as theme, ‘Harnessing Nigeria’s Marine Biodiversity’, promises to be unique following the high level of sensitisation and NIMASA’s conscious efforts at enhancing the profitability of the sector for the good of not only the government, but also operators in the industry.
NIMASA is said to be showing serious interest in anything that concerns “seas and oceans” in the country because Nigeria has more than 12. 5 million hectares of freshwater with robust diversity that needs to be harnessed, plus the fact that 50-80 percent of life on earth is found under the ocean surface.
By definition, Biodiversity “is the variability among living organisms from all sources, including terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species, and of ecosystems.”
An analyst recently said: “The concerted efforts by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency to champion effective use of the African ocean and seas for diversification will, no doubt, lead to the continent’s economic emancipation and development”.
To ensure that Nigeria takes the lead in the growing effort to make effective use of the oceans and seas resources, NIMASA has since 2017 put plans in place to work with stakeholders in the maritime sector to make the blue economy Nigeria’s economic mainstay.
To this end, the agency created massive awareness to stakeholders and the Nigerian public on the concept of blue economy by taking measures: first is supporting the Women In Maritime Africa (WIMA), the Nigerian Chapter to organise road shows aimed at sensitising the general public on how to live in harmony with seas and oceans to avoid maritime disasters such as floods. Secondly, by commemorating 2017 African Day of the Seas and Oceans in grand style by hosting stakeholders’ Conference.
Recall that Peterside, while addressing participants at the 2017 edition said: “The desire of the government is to ensure cleaner oceans and to eliminate sea piracy, armed robbery and all forms of illegalities within Nigeria’s maritime space which is in line with the 2050 African Integrated Maritime Strategy (AIMS)”.
He further observed that our Seas and Oceans are our heritage and we must do all we can to protect it; pointing out that NIMASA will continue to work together with all relevant government agencies to ensure that our maritime sector is safe, clean and secured in order to continue to attract both local and foreign investors.
The DG had also said that the decade of Africa’s Seas and Oceans declared by the African Union (AU) from 2015-2025 should be perceived as a shift in perspective that recognises the fact that our oceans and seas are economic infrastructure, necessitating the need for stakeholders in the sector to work together to realise the opportunities embedded in the sector.
Addressing the theme for that year, ‘Harnessing African Maritime potentials for sustainable development’, he said: “It is a well-known fact that Africa’s seas and oceans are usually overlooked when it comes to issues of sustainable development in Africa, to the extent that Africa is considered to be sea blind because there is low level awareness of the potentials for wealth creation which abounds in the seas and oceans. This event therefore, tends to show that our eyes are gradually being opened to the reality that our seas and oceans possess huge source of economic resources that can take the continent to the next level.”
In the 2018 edition which was held in the form of panel discussion with the theme, ‘Partnership Key to Sustainable Blue World’, Peterside, while speaking with journalists at the event had explained that the agency was addressing the issue of maritime security using the popular NIMASA total spectrum maritime strategy.
“We are addressing the issue of maritime security using the popular NIMASA total spectrum maritime strategy. We are looking at that and of course you know we have gotten approval to acquire a number of assets, we are investing in intelligence, we are looking at the laws, we are reforming the laws, we are also looking at enacting new laws to address the issue of maritime insecurity,” he said.
The African Union (AU) during its 22nd summit January has set a period from 2015 – 2025 as the ‘Decade of African Seas and Oceans’ and the date 25 July as the African Day of Seas and Oceans.
The celebration of Africa Day of Seas and Oceans is one of the recommendations of the 2050 Africa’s Integrated Maritime Strategy (AIMS). The 2050 AIM Strategy provides a broad framework for the protection and sustainable exploitation of Seas and Oceans of Africa. Protecting the ocean is everyone business – and so the responsibility of every African.
Over 80percent of today’s international goods are transported in vessels and over 90percent of Africa’s imports and exports are conducted by sea. Over the past four decades, the volume of global sea-borne trade has more than quadrupled. Ninety percent of world trade and two-thirds of energy supplies are carried by sea. The world’s oceans and seas are interlinked, and action in one sea or one policy area with a direct or indirect impact on the sea may have positive or negative effects on other seas and policy areas. Whilst over 46percent of Africans live in absolute poverty- a figure that is still rising- fish makes a vital contribution to the food and nutritional security of over 200 million Africans and provides income for over 10 million.
The coastal and marine ecosystems play a significant role in mitigating the impacts of climate change as they could serve as carbon sinks. The paradox is that the marine and coastal areas in Africa are among the most vulnerable areas to the impacts of climate change in the world, mainly attributed to the low adaptive capacity in the continent. These negative effects have also been compounded human carelessness and pollution as shown by the un-understandable pollution of our waters by human wastefulness as shown by the dumping of plastic in our water ways these have devastating consequences on marine life.
Maritime security is also one of the most significant dimensions of global and human security in general. It poses multidimensional threats to global security, and in turn has major effects on such essential issues as food, energy and economic security. For the last decade, Africa has been the epicentre of international maritime insecurity. Piracy and armed robbery at sea has re-emerged in the modern era off the east and west coasts of Africa alike, this has caused enormous human and financial damage. But we have also seen other breaches of maritime security on the rise in Africa’s seas: illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, toxic waste dumping, and human, weapons and narcotics trafficking.
Thus for Africa, the sustainable management of coastal and marine environments and resources is of utmost priority. The promotion of sustainable use of marine and coastal resources in Africa will significantly enhance food security, ensure constant economic growth and improve the quality of lives of the people in the coastal communities.
2050 AIM-Strategy and its objectives
After years of struggling with these geostrategic challenges and opportunities, in 2012 at ministerial level, the African Union (AU) adopted the 2050 Africa’s Integrated Maritime Strategy which we intentionally call 2050 “AIM”-Strategy to highlight the fact that this strategy is Result-oriented. The overarching vision of the 2050 AIM-Strategy is to “foster increased wealth creation from Africa’s oceans and seas by developing the blue economy in a secure and environmentally sustainable manner. Our plans around the decade are therefore informed by the 2050 AIM-Strategy, which is dedicated to the memory of those Africans who died at sea trying to earn a better quality life. The strategy provides an opportunity for: A comprehensive understanding of existing and potential challenges, including allocation of resources to identified priorities over a pre-determined time-frame, and a comprehensive, concerted, coherent and coordinated approach that improves maritime conditions with respect to environmental and socio-economic development as well as the capacity to generate wealth from sustainable governance of Africa’s seas and oceans.
The implementation of the strategy will also assist with, establishing a Combined Exclusive Maritime Zone for Africa (CEMZA); enhancing wealth creation through building our countries’ maritime-centric capacity and capability; ensuring security and safety in the African Maritime Domain; minimising environmental damage, and preventing hostile and criminal acts at sea, and prosecute offenders if necessary; Protecting the populations, Africa’s Maritime Domain (AMD) heritage and infrastructure in the African Maritime Domain; promoting and protecting the interests of African shippers; enhancing Africa’s competitiveness in international trade; improving and facilitating intra-African trade as well as transit transport in landly connected countries. You would recall that as affirmed in the 2050 AIM-Strategy, there is no more “landlocked country” in Africa, but all AU member states are “landly connected” to the seas and oceans.
Days to the celebration, stakeholders have taken their twitter handles to sensitise the public on the importance of the event. Below are some of such messages: “Africa is the market yet to be unveiled, the maritime sector of Africa deserves its rightful place because if you look at the cargo generated from the continent and the cargo that heads to Africa you will know that the African maritime sector has come of age.” @PetersideDakuku
“Could you believe that it is barely six days for #NIMASA to celebrate the #
“Our count down to the #AFRICANDAYOFSEASANDOCEANS2019 is still on-going, keep a date with us”. #NIMASAADSO2019
“Hadiza Usman Bala encourages the younger generation to look into the #BlueEconomy because it is static and striving, find out more as count down to the #AFRICANDAYOFSEASANDOCEANS2019 celebration continues”. #NIMASA #NIMASAADSO2019
“Find out what we do with the oceans and the many resources that Nigeria is blessed with at the 2019 #ADSO keep a date with us”
“We have to take care of our environment because what we burn out there is what we take in -Mrs Margaret Orakwusi speaking during an interview session in respect of the #AFRICANDAYOFSEASANOCEANS.” #TeamNIMASA
“However the entire #GulfofGuinea which we are also part of remains a challenge and we are working assiduously with our regional neighbors to ensure #security in the region. The fight against piracy is work in progress.”#TeamNIMASA
Thompson Onwukwe
.Onwukwe, a Maritime analyst, writes from Lagos
