Strengthening Nigeria's Sea Power
Chiemelie Ezeobi writes that with the recent acquisition and commissioning of four naval warships by the Nigerian Navy, Nigeria’s rising sea power will help ward off pirates from its waters
n February 4, when gunmen boarded a Greek-owned tanker anchored near a Nigerian port, killing one crew member and taking three others hostage, everyone was alarmed. According to reports, the ship was attacked while it was waiting to load at Qua Iboe, an oil terminal in south-eastern Nigeria.
Now, the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa is regarded as a new centre of piracy and Nigeria coastal waters has become a critical part of the area.
Indeed, the International Maritime Bureau recorded 33 incidents of piracy and armed robbery in the area between January and September last year, according to the AFP news agency, making it a dreaded area for sailors.
Yes, 70 per cent of Nigeria's economic growth lies on the waterways, but the maritime domain is often fraught with the challenges of maritime illegalities ranging from piracy, sea robbery, smuggling, illegal fishing to crude oil theft and others.
To tackle this, the Nigerian Navy has had to patrol the endless miles of waterways despite some major challenges like shortage of offshore patrol vessels (OPV), budget constraints, inadequate local ship building capacity for construction of naval vessels and inadequate surveillance.
Asides protecting Nigeria's territorial integrity, the NN also contributes its quota at the regional level, by patrolling the waters of the Gulf of Guinea, which is a vast expanse of water stretching almost 6,000km from Senegal to Angola.
But today, some of these challenges are gradually becoming a thing of the past especially when it comes to fleet acquisition, surveillance and ship building capacity.
This is because for the first time since the regime of President Shehu Shagari, the Nigerian Navy (NN) fleet received a major boost with four warships at the same time. Shagari's regime had commissioned three.
This is not to say that since inception in 1956, the NN has not witnessed tremendous development by past administrations aimed at making it a formidable naval force despite daunting operational challenges.
Although these challenges have always been in existence, it is today heightened by global changes, especially with regards to security, which is characterised by diverse threats such as terrorism, transnational organised crimes, trafficking and illicit economic activities enhanced by the interconnectedness of the maritime domain.
Accordingly, strategies to achieve the objec- tives of repositioning the navy for an enhanced operational capacity and transformation into an efficient naval force in line with 21st century realities, was resolved after deliberations.
But prior to the acquisition and commissioning, a lot of ground work was put in and one certain Thursday, the four warships were commissioned for deployment to patrol the waterways.
The vessels would mainly be used for maritime surveillance, patrol and response tasks, as well as the protection of offshore assets, Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) patrol and surveillance, search and rescue and oil spill control.
Before the warships sailed into Nigeria from the United States, China, and Iceland, personnel of the NN were trained at the Naval Training Command (NAVTRAC), Apapa, Lagos to man the ships.
The warships are United States Coast Guard Ships, GALLATINE now renamed NNS Okpabana; NNS Centenary gotten from China; NNS PROSPERITY, formerly an Irish Navy vessel and NNS SAGBAMA, also from China.
The warships are expected to be deployed at sea to tackle the menace of piracy and armed robbery in Nigeria’s maritime domain.
Undoubtedly, as a major maritime nation, it would be stating the obvious to note that there should be adequate measures to provide the much needed capacity to harness our vast maritime potentials towards nation building.
And one of such measures are by emplacing a robust maritime security arrangement to protect our maritime interests, thus there is the need for concerted efforts both by the government and other stakeholders to secure our maritime space.
It is therefore within this context that the NN is expected to maintain a robust and combat-ready fleet capable of sustaining the required presence in our maritime environment and performing the full spectrum of military, policing and diplomatic functions that would ensure adequate protection of our sea lanes of commerce and communication, which are vital to our survival.
New Arrivals
On a recent Tuesday, the vessel from United States arrived in Nigeria and it was received by the Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral Usman Jibrin, who said the addition to the fleet would boost the navy's war against maritime crimes within the maritime domain like illegal fishing, arms proliferation, crude oil theft, smuggling and piracy.
He said: "It is worthy of note to state that the successes recorded by NNS THUNDER in curtailing threats in our maritime domain