Nigerian Navy Seeks More US Support To Sustain Fight Against Piracy,
The Nigerian Navy (NN) has restated commitment towards sustaining fight against piracy and other criminal activities in the country’s maritime domain and the Gulf of Guinea (GoG).
Rear Admiral Joseph Akpan, Flag Officer Commanding (FOC) Western Naval Command, stated this when a five-man delegation from the United States Congress led by Joe Foltz, subcommittee Staff Director, House Foreign Affairs Majority, visited the command in Lagos, over the weekend.
The purpose of the visit was to discuss the need to enhance navy-to-navy cooperation, and further strengthen relationship between the two maritime nations.
The FOC, noted that the US and Nigeria had come a long way in terms of collaboration in different areas, including military, and called for more support and cooperation.
He explained that the presence of the US Navy in the Gulf of Guinea would serve as encouragement for the efforts of the Nigerian Navy and what it was pushing to achieve.
According to him, “The developing countries, which Nigeria is one of, is disproportionately affected by piracy because the country has more dependence on sea, with 90% of ifs trade using water transport.
Rear Admiral Akpan further noted that developed countries have other alternatives to reduce that figure, but for developing countries, it is just the sea, so piracy creates so much negative effect.
“The multiplying effect of insurance premium on goods coming and so many unwanted, undesired offence also affect our economy. So anything to do with providing more security at sea, to deal with illegal activities in our waters is a welcomed development.
“One of the things that can foster cooperation is the issue of sea riders, we haven’t had that with the United States warships in recent time. We have had that with French and Spanish sea riders. There has to be cooperation, where we get our men posted onboard US Naval warships and vice versa, maybe during an important exercise. It’s also something that widens our scope and bridges the gap that might be existing.”
Rear Admiral Akpan pointed out that beyond piracy, which had always been the topical issue, illegal and unregulated fishing was also a problem affecting Nigerian economy.
According to him, “It’s a big issue for countries in the Gulf of Guinea; I think it’s only Nigeria that is actually trying to get to the fringes of 350 nautical miles and beyond where most of these things take place. Other countries or Navies are too small to deal with that. So it’s another issue that has to do with food security in countries.”
On the efforts and successes achieved so far, Akpan listed the ECOWAS Integrated Maritime strategy which has been domesticated by the sub regional bodies; the Yauonde accord which deals with piracy and other related threat in the GoG, and the soon to be launched combined Maritime Task Force sponsored by Nigeria.
He also mentioned the Suppression of Piracy and Other Maritime Offences (SPOMO) Act signed into law in 2019, leading to the first conviction of pirates in the GoG in 2020.
Speaking on maritime domain awareness, he disclosed that the NN now has a dedicated department at the headquarters, while also collaborating with other countries to mitigate maritime threats in the region.
“So, what this means is that maritime domain awareness is going to be driven even more seriously because it is now becoming a department for the whole Navy. More people will be recruited just to do maritime domain awareness, so that’s good news”.
“Also, we have a bilateral agreement with Equitorial Guinea to be able to do hot pursuit into their waters, we are trying to extend that to the whole of the Gulf of Guinea; that has been accepted and approved in principle, and I think we have tested that through Lome. So the border that has for sometime proved to be more of a challenge is actually breaking down, and that is
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