Navy: Poor Funding Undermines Effective Sea Policing

Flag Officer Commanding the Western Naval Command, Rear Admiral Gregory Oamen, made this known on Wednesday in Lagos at the 3rd MARAN Annual Lecture (MAMAL 2025) organised by the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria. The event was themed “Addressing the Burden of War Risk Insurance on Nigeria’s Maritime Trade.”

Represented by the Commanding Officer of NNS Thunder, Captain Olanrewaju Oginni, Oamen revealed that it costs about ₦1.2 billion annually to deploy the Navy ship Thunder, which has a fuel capacity of 891,000 litres.

He explained that while the Navy possesses enough vessels for patrols, logistics remain a critical challenge. “Leaving one vessel at sea in each command is not sufficient. If there is only one ship patrolling and an incident arises elsewhere, coverage becomes inadequate,” he said. He also stressed the need for improved maritime domain awareness, noting that although drones have been procured to enhance surveillance, more funding is required to fully implement the project.

Oamen further highlighted that backwater coverage is crucial to curbing piracy resurgence, as such criminal activities often originate from those areas.

According to him, in 2022 alone, naval patrols at sea totalled 36,609 hours and 40 minutes, leading to the arrest of 191 suspects, while 80 others were apprehended in 2023 for maritime crimes. Between 2015 and 2021, the Navy also handed over 333 vessels involved in infractions to relevant authorities, achieving several successful piracy prosecutions under the SPOMO Act.

Despite these challenges, he noted improvements in maritime security, with weekly ship calls at Nigerian ports rising from 123 in 2021 to 145 in 2023, and fishing GDP growing from ₦12 billion to ₦15 billion within the same period.

Former Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Temisan Omatseye, however, pointed out that despite Nigeria’s progress in curbing piracy, the war risk premium imposed by the London-based Joint War Risk Committee still applies to tankers and vessels operating in Nigerian waters.