The ocean is a world of freedom. That is my personal view. But I must quickly admit that the freedom at sea is cleverly wrapped in crime and chaos. Expressing that freedom are over 50,000 merchant ships, 1.5 million seafarers in over 150 nations, and 11 billion tons of cargo which ply the sea for commercial purposes. Merchant ships of different shapes and sizes wander the open ocean among countless number of smaller craft that are engaged in one form of trade or the other with little or no regulation. These ships often referred to as “steel behemoths” carry almost all the raw materials and finished products required by those who live on land.
As COVID – 19 mutates, and hundreds of thousands of empty shipping containers lying fallow in many seaports around the world, crimes are committed at sea daily. Sea robbery, piracy, pollution, illegal fishing, illegal bunkering, illegal trafficking of drugs, weapons and humans among other crimes are committed concurrently. As sea robbers are arrested, smugglers captured, stowaway immigrants are apprehended in Nigerian waters. With these crimes however, the ocean is not free after all. I watched a video recently showing how five stowaways were caught hiding on the ship’s rudder of MV JANE MAJURO, a vessel bound for Europe from Apapa Port in Lagos. This was apparent suicide as the young men were about to embark on a desperate journey to Europe. I saw ignorance on the part of the stowaways. Or, could it be as a result of unemployment? Who knows?
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The use of merchant vessels to convey both legal and illegal goods is becoming rampant globally. The use of fishing vessels by drug traffickers to transport drugs in global hotspots such as the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean for cocaine; East Africa for heroine; the sea between Morocco and Spain for marijuana; and the South China Sea for methamphetamines. On return journeys after delivering drugs and other legal cargoes, fishing vessels in particular, might occupy themselves with illegal fishing on their return journeys from smuggling operations. This is not to say that fishermen are inherent criminals but some of them have no choice as they find smuggling very lucrative. Some maritime scholars have observed an overlap in West African waters between drug trafficking and fishing crimes. That is, within the Gulf of Guinea, trawlers are used to transport drugs, but they engage in illegal fishing. So, criminals smuggle anything from crude oil to rice and vegetable oil. Small arms, drugs and humans are being smuggled across the sea. All these happen at sea because it is a world of freedom, chaos and crime.
A few hours before writing, there were headline reports that the Nigerian Navy (NN) arrested 22 Thai nationals for “trafficking cocaine” to Nigeria. The cargo ship was reported to have sailed from Brazil in September but was intercepted by one of the NN ships. Intelligence gathering, inter- service cooperation and the use of the maritime domain awareness equipment – the FALCON EYE- were at work. When one observes the crime rate at sea daily, one may be tempted to conclude that naval patrol is not effective at all. Not really! Naval patrol is good and it should continue forever because it is a national tool that can be applied against criminals at sea. Whether it is very effective against criminal gangs at sea or not is a point for further study.
Anyway, challenges within Africa’s maritime space are very daunting. And unless one goes to sea, these problems may not be readily noticed. In order to tackle growing and complex challenges to their maritime domain, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) comprising 15 states with a coastline of 2,868 nautical miles along the Atlantic Ocean has an Integrated Maritime Strategy (EIMS).
The EIMS is to enable maritime nations within the ECOWAS sub region set out common standards to regulate and streamline related activities within the sub region. Essentially, the EIMS is designed to complement all efforts within the African continent and to enhance synergy with all stakeholders. It is long overdue for Nigeria with a population of over 200 million people to have its own maritime strategy. It would not take any pain to formulate our Nigeria’s maritime strategy because the African Union (AU) also, has articulated its own maritime strategy.
Under the African Union’s auspices, the 2050 Africa’s Integrated Maritime (AIM) Strategy was established, which is a broad structure for preserving and maintaining the African maritime domain to generate income. Nigeria needs to articulate a maritime strategy that would enable all stakeholders to influence events in the littoral with traditional blue water maritime concepts of sea denial and sea control.
Nigeria needs to articulate a maritime strategy that would enable all stakeholders to influence events in the littoral with traditional blue water maritime concepts of sea denial and sea control.
It must be stressed that maritime strategy is not only about naval forces. The maritime strategy of a nation is to address contending, emerging and future maritime challenges and opportunities within its maritime domain and areas of contiguity. A maritime strategy needs to consider landlocked neighbours with a clear focus on wealth creation arising from sustainable governance of Nigeria’s inland waters, oceans, and seas.
Nigeria does not need foreigners to articulate a workable maritime strategy for the country. There are many Nigerians who are eminently qualified to produce a national maritime strategy for Nigeria. In formulating a workable national maritime strategy, technocrats and bureaucrats working at the ministerial level, the ministries of transport, justice and defence, and legislatures at the National Assembly must work together with the Nigerian Navy, marine police, and the Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research (NIOMR). Others at the agency level are the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), the Nigeria Customs Service, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), and the Shippers’ Council. The Nigerian Ship-owners Association will lend their voices at the industry level. Experience in the global maritime domain shows that all stakeholders must work together to formulate a workable maritime strategy for the nation.
