The Nigerian Navy has spotlighted poor funding as a major hindrance to effective sea policing by the Navy.
The Flag Officer Commanding Western Naval Command, Rear Admiral Gregory Oamen, disclosed this on Wednesday in Lagos while speaking at the 3rd MARAN Annual Lecture MAMAL 2025.
The event organised by the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria was themed, ‘Addressing the burden of war risk insurance on Nigeria’s maritime trade’.
Oamen, who was represented at the event by the Commanding Officer, NS Thunder, Captain Olanrewaju Oginni, added that the Navy spends N1.2bn annually to put one of its warships, NNS Thunder, at sea.
“For instance, the Nigerian Navy ship Thunder – the floor capacity of that ship is 891,000 litres. And so, to put that ship to sea, it would cost the Navy about N1.2bn to do so just once a year,” Oamen said.
Oamen lamented that though the Navy has enough vessels to patrol the sea, logistics have been a major issue.
“So, logistics are the major issue. The Nigerian Navy has enough vessels to put to sea. But leaving one vessel at sea in each of the commands is not enough. Imagine if you have one ship at sea, maybe in a patrolling area, and then you have an incident on the other side; it is not enough. So, logistics are the major issue. The coverage of the water quarters about the maritime domain awareness is another issue,” he stressed.
According to him, though the Nigerian Navy is making efforts to improve on this through the acquisition of drones, “Some of these drones have already been procured, but we still need some funding to completely execute the project. So, why it is important to have coverage of the backwaters is if there is going to be a resurgence in piracy issues, the pirates naturally would originate from the backwaters.”
Oamen disclosed that in 2022 alone, naval patrols at sea totalled 36,609 hours and 40 minutes, leading to the arrest of 191 suspects in 2022 and 80 in 2023 for maritime crimes. He noted that between 2015 and 2021, the Navy also handed over 333 vessels involved in infractions to relevant authorities, with several successful piracy prosecutions achieved under the SPOMO Act.
However, he said, with improved maritime security, weekly ship calls at Nigerian ports have increased from 123 in 2021 to 145 in 2023, while fishing gross domestic product rose from N12bn to N15bn in the same period.
A former Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Temisan Omatseye, explained that despite the successes recorded in keeping the country piracy-free, the war risk premium, imposed by the London-based Joint War Risk Committee, applies to tankers and ships operating in Nigerian waters.
