- Western Naval Command set to launch 8 new drones
The Nigerian Navy has decried insufficient funding as one of the biggest challenges to its operations, lamenting that only about 10 percent of its N220billion budgetary request for 2022 was eventually disbursed.
Flag Officer Commanding (FOC), Western Naval Command, Rear Admiral Mustapha Bala Hassan revealed this while speaking at the just-concluded Nigerian International Maritime Ports and Terminal (NIMPORT) conference and exhibition in Lagos on Thursday, where he stated that the Western Navy is set to improve its maritime surveillance capabilities with 8 new drones to be launched next week.
The naval boss recalled that in 2022 despite the Nigerian Navy requesting N220billion for several capital projects and servicing/ repairs of its fleet, only N50billion was approved and the service eventually received just N20billion by the end of the fiscal year.
Noting that the Navy’s budget may seem huge at first glance, Rear Admiral Hassan explained that the Navy has over 400 crafts including 40 capital ships which is too little to police the nation’s 84,000 square nautical miles.
His words: “When people see the Navy’s budget, they wonder why it is so huge but Nigerian Navy has several vessels amounting to over 400 in total with 40 capital ships. These capital ships have to go out in shifts, so we will likely have 20 deployed at a given time. Maintenance cost for these vessels is huge.”
“The NNS CENTENARY is due for maintenance and needs about $450,000 for repairs. This cost is mostly for spare parts because the Navy will provide the manpower. NNS CENTENARY requires 20 tankers of diesel for one outing. Some other vessels require 10 or 5 tankers and this is just for one outing.”
However, he argued that when the nation considered the economic losses such as over $2billion lost to Illegal Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, it makes more economic sense to prioritize funding the Navy.
Also speaking, the Executive Director, Tantita Security Services Limited, Capt. Warredi Enisuoh observed that the Nigerian government businesses are plagued by bureaucracies and inefficiences, hence he stressed the need to create an enabling environment for private sector operators to drive the nation’s blue economy growth.
In his presentation at the conference, Capt. Warredi showed a documentary revealing the illegal activities on crude oil theft, processing and transportation with the clips showing that perpetrators of crude oil theft have armed personnel and also planted CCTV cameras in creeks to monitor their illicit activities.
Warredi explained that Tantita started its security operations by investigating perpetrators of crude oil theft and reaching out to them to get them incorporated on the right side of the law after explaining the environmental and economic implications of crude oil theft.
“We applied for 420 criminals to be given amnesty and signed a pact with the government to promise that these individuals wouldn’t return to the illicit operations. We employ youths in every community where we have found the problem of oil theft. These youths have been mostly recruited into our surveillance,” Warredi said.
He, however, suggested the federal government could consider training and empowering individuals to venture into modular refineries, stressing that some of the oil operators in the country already patronize stolen crude to augment their imported petroleum products.
Meanwhile, the Director General of National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), Prof. Aliyu Jauro expressed willingness to partner security agencies like, Tantita in a bid to curb environmental threats in the nation.
Jauro, who was represented by Mrs. Mary Eke, maintained that the agency is committed to enforcing environment safety standards for sustenance of the nation’s Blue Economy.
On his part, the convener of NIMPORT, Mr. Fortune Idu observed a dire need to build synergies across several ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) in a bid to actualize the enormous potentials of blue economy in Nigeria.
Mr. Idu described the creation of a new Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy as a good development for the nation, however, he advised advised that policy and infrastructural changes should be made and not just a new nomenclature for the same activities.
He described the 16th edition of that NIMPORT themed: “Charting the course for the Optimization of Nigeria’s Blue Economy” as a huge success, highlighting Tantita Security’s documentary as a huge revelation.
The event also featured the launch of a book titled “A-Z of Ships” by Pastor Obehi Oyakhilome-Izekor, a staff of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the book launch was graced by several NIMASA guests and Christ Embassy pastors.