The Nigerian Navy, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, and the Interregional Coordination Centre, ICC, have endorsed the need for continuous collaboration with regional and international stakeholders to ensure the sustainability of security in the Gulf of Guinea.
Security of the Gulf of Guinea was the thrust of presentations at the 5thplenary of the Gulf of Guinea Maritime Collaboration Forum/Shared Awareness and De-confliction meeting.
World Atlas defines the gulf as a portion of the ocean that penetrates the land. “They are formed due to plate tectonics and are often connected to the ocean by narrow water passages known as straits. Covering an area of 2.35 million km2, the Gulf of Guinea is the northeasternmost portion of the tropical Atlantic Ocean located off the western coast of the continent of Africa.”
The 16 coastal countries that are situated along the Gulf of Guinea are Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gabon, Nigeria, Ghana, São Tomé and Principe, Togo and Sierra Leone
While speaking at the recent Abuja forum, the Director-General of NIMASA, Dr Bashir Jamoh, emphasised the imperatives of collaboration and cooperation as key to attaining enhanced security in the Gulf of Guinea. He reiterated the commitment of NIMASA to providing all logistics required for members of the SHADE Forum to thrive and maintain the momentum.
“Two years ago, we connected virtually with our unhappy stakeholders, with challenges of piracy attaining its peak in the Gulf of Guinea between 2019 and 2020. But today, even the International Maritime Bureau, IMB, has admitted that piracy is at a 28-year all-time low in the region”, NIMASA boss noted.
Jamoh counselled; “The SHADE must be nurtured to remain a force for good. As members, we owe a collective duty to this forum to keep its dialogue robust and guard it against slipping into complacency so as to become a toothless bulldog. Our SHADE must be strengthened through cooperation, coordination, collaboration and communication. Security success can never be by solitary achievements.”
“There must be cooperation between regional navies like we saw recently between Nigeria and Benin. We are all contributors to the success we are currently experiencing in the area of maritime security” he added
The Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), Mr Kitack Lim, who addressed the Forum virtually, congratulated Nigeria on the efforts it has embarked on to improve security in its territorial waters and the Gulf of Guinea domain at large. He encouraged members of the SHADE FORUM to maintain the momentum in order to sustain the gains of the past year.
According to him, “Maintaining the momentum of gains made so far is the main challenge for the regional navies. To do so, you must address the root causes of piracy including the plight of coastal communities, in order to reach sustainable solutions to the issue of piracy”.
Nigeria’s Chief of naval staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo, corroborated that the successes recorded in the Gulf of Guinea were due to the collaboration, information and data sharing amongst countries in the Gulf of Guinea.
The Chief of Planning, Nigerian Navy Headquarters, Real Admiral Saidu Garba who represented the naval chief, emphasized the need to sustain the momentum through institutional capacity building for maritime governance.
“There is still room for greater collaboration in the areas of Information sharing, increased presence of naval assets and strengthened legal frameworks among the GoG nations as well as international partners, which are all key to ensuring the success of the Yaounde Architecture. The safety and security of shipping in the GoG is a vital enabler in the recovery process of global economy and trade downturn suffered due to COVID 19 pandemic”, he said.
Other stakeholders present at the 5th plenary are the Director, Interregional Coordination Centre (ICC-Yaounde), Admiral Narciso Fastudo, Co-chair, SHADE – GoG/Maritime Collaboration Forum, Rear Admiral Solomon Agada, Special Advisor to the chairs of the Gulf of Guinea Maritime Collaboration Forum, Simon Church.
The goal of the forum is to implement effective operational counter-piracy cooperation amongst regional and international Navies, as well as the shipping industry and reporting centres of the Yaounde Code of Conduct (ICC) for the Regional Strategy for Maritime Safety and Security in Central and West Africa region; with this year’s edition of the event being hosted by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) in partnership with the Interregional Coordination Centre (ICC) Yaounde, and the Nigerian Navy.
