NIMASA, Airforce to save $2bn annual loss to maritime insecurity in Nigeria
Recently, the growing rate of maritime insecurity in the Gulf of Guinea including the Nigerian territorial waters has prompted huge concerns on both government and the security agencies in the country, especially those whose mandates are based on securing the maritime domain.
This has prompted international bodies such as the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) to rate the Gulf as a high risk area. The shipping liners that bring freight to countries located in this part of the world are not left out as they impose high freight rates on West African-bound cargoes.
Statistics have shown that the high security risk involved in shipping to this part of the world, tends to raise the insurance premium, which importers pay to insurance underwriters that issue covers for West African-bound cargoes. Statistically, Nigeria loses on annual basis, a total sum of $2 billion to maritime breaches that include oil theft, piracy, illegal fishing and bunkering among others.
It is in the bid to address this concern that the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), a Federal Government saddled with the responsibility of securing the entire maritime domain for safe shipping, has continued to utilized the option of inter-agency collaboration to acquire platforms capable of ensuring good measures of safety.
Mathew Egbadon, former legal adviser and secretary to the Board of NIMASA, said in recent forum organised by the agency that Nigeria loses over $2 billion (N330 billion) to oil theft, piracy and fish poaching on yearly basis.
Godfrey Onuoha who presented a paper titled ‘Piracy and maritime security in Gulf of Guinea; Nigeria as a microcosm’ in 2012, said that a breakdown of the losses shows that oil theft, illegal bunkering and pipeline vandalism accounted for $15.5 million annually; about $800 million to fish poaching and $9 million to piracy.
He added that Dieziani Alison-Madueke, minister of Petroleum Resources also confirmed that Nigeria loses an average of N1.29 trillion to maritime security breaches, which represents a quarter of the nation’s annual budget.
The regular occurrence of illegalities on Nigerian waters, according to him, prompted the need for the partnership between NIMASA and the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) to ensure safety and security on the waterways.
“A lot of illegalities are going on in our waters; in the Gulf of Guinea in particular and if the situation is not confronted, the countries in this region will be poor because of the nefarious activities that go on hence, the need for NAF to come on board to help fight illegalities on our water. If the rate of impunity that thrives in the Gulf of Guinea is not combated, countries in the Gulf of Guinea would remain poor,” he explained.
Continuing: he said: “Aside crude oil export, 65 percent of total maritime traffic in volume and value in West Africa pass through Nigeria therefore all hands must be on deck to fight this scourge.”
The partnership was owing to fact that to fight maritime insecurity, there is need to institute regular air surveillance of Nigerian maritime domain; share intelligence; carry out tactical airlift operations and enforce action against piracy and other illegalities on the waters.
These listed areas, formed the basis for the partnership based on the fact that Nigerian Airforce has the needed platforms and technical know-how to effectively executive the above-listed operations. Some of the platforms include ATR Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA); Mi-35; helicopters; Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and among others.
NIMASA recently acquired and installed a satellite surveillance facility and radar that has the capacity to trace illegal shipping activities more than 1,000 nautical miles away from the Nigerian waters. However, the collaboration with the NAF gives the agency the opportunity to develop the intelligent gathered or provided by the satellite facility.
To achieve this, NAF uses a high-tech plane operated with NIMASA, which has sensors, radar and Electro-Optic Surveillance and Tracking (EOST) equipment, cameras to monitor ships on Nigerian waters, said Sunday Olalekan Omotosho, an Airforce sergeant.
“When fully operational, no vessel can escape our coverage. The 20-seat plane can fly as low as 200 feet (60 metres) above the sea and passes on information about maritime traffic to the navy, who can intervene with fast-attack craft if necessary,” he added.
Uzoamaka Anagor