Maritime insecurity: Regional collaboration without national collaboration a failure—Expert

a maritime security expert, Mr. Leke Gbenga Oyewole has labeled the call for regional collaboration as a failure, if collaboration among agencies in Nigeria does not improve.

Speaking exclusively to the Nigerian Tribune, Mr. Oyewole who served as a Director with the Global West Vessel Specialist Limited (GWVSL), a firm once mandated to provide platforms to enhance maritime security in Nigeria, urged agencies in the Nigerian maritime domain to collaborate more in the area of information sharing.

According to the former GWVSL Director, “We cannot continue to harp on regional collaboration in the Gulf Of Guinea (GOG) when back home, our agencies don’t collaborate with each other.

“What is happening between the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), the Nigerian Navy, the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) and other agencies?

“Now everybody is placing the responsibility of maritime security on the Navy, but the Navy is not a wizard. The Navy needs to be properly informed of when a ship should be questioned. The Navy is not a commercial agency, and does not know when an infraction has been committed against the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), or against NPA, or against NIMASA. A ship is beyond something the Navy will just approach and say, ‘please open your booth’.

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“For the GOG to actualize regional collaboration, we must enforce what is called inter-agency collaboration. The United States of America (USA) today is giving us a lead in that regard because they didn’t refocus until they suffered the September 2011 terrorist attack.

“Today, our agencies work in isolation of each other, and that is why the Federal Government policy on joint inspection of vessels has remained elusive.

“Let us go beyond the era of calling human beings to meetings, and automate the procedure and processes of all agencies involved in the maritime space, and encrypt this on a seamless electronic platform, where NIMASA will know when a vessel commits infraction against NPA, where NPA will know that a vessel has committed an infraction against the Customs, where the Customs will know that a vessel has committed infractions against the NIWA.

“Such platform can now be handed over to the Navy as the leading maritime security agency. That is when the Navy will know if a vessel has entered Nigeria illegally. That is when the Navy will know if a vessel switches off her Automatic Identification System (AIS).

“But we are calling for regional collaboration when the Navy does not have the CEMA Act, or the NPA Act, or the NIMASA Act. Information is security. It is the intelligence made available to the Navy that will ensure adequate maritime security.”