The only way to rid the nation’s maritime domain of rampant cases of piracy and oil theft is for the force to maintain regular presence at sea, Flag Officer Commanding (FOC) Western Naval Command (WNC), Rear Admiral Sanmi Alade has said. He however, noted that without the right mix of platforms and money to keep them across the country’s water, the Navy cannot do much.
In an interview onboard NNS THUNDER at the Gulf of Guinea during the multinational sea-exercise Obangame Express, Alade said the Navy has over the years suffered gross underfunding, just as he praised the current administration for approving the purchase and building of some vessels to stem the tide.
Reiterating the navy’s commitment to its constitutionally assigned roles of securing the nation’s maritime space and keeping economic saboteurs at bay, Alade said illegal bunkering has reduced drastically around the command’s operational area.
On the importance of the exercise, Alade said it was essentially to practise maritime interdiction of nations including boarding, simulation, search and rescue.
‘‘As you are aware, cases of piracy is rampant these days in the Gulf of Guinea and this exercise is one of those aimed at curbing the vice. When piracy is reported, the essential thing we do is to board such vessel, search and arrest the pirates.
“Apart from the training, our being out at sea is deterrence to would-be criminals,’’ he said.
‘‘It is common knowledge that the Nigerian Navy is grossly underfunded. We have been talking about it (funding) for so many years now and today, it is not different. The Nigerian Navy requires adequate funding to enable us acquire the right mix of platforms to do our job. You can see what is happening here, without adequate platforms, we cannot do it.
‘‘Thank God we have NNS THUNDER and a couple of ships out there, but we need more. We also commend the effort of government at addressing these problems because as I speak to you, we are expecting some ships –two brand new OPVs from China and one sister ship to NNS THUNDER from USA.
Director, Navy at the Ministry of Defence, Akanmi Ola said the problem of funding was not peculiar to the navy, adding that other military forces had similar challenges.
He said the problem of attracting funds for the military to tackle insecurity has lingered within government quarters, just as he disclosed that plans were underway by the current government to boost budget for the military.
He said: “Funding the Armed Forces, particularly the navy is not only a problem peculiar to Nigeria, when I came to Lagos, there was a dinner on board the Turkish Ship and I asked the Turkish people how they are able to maintain their ship, which is of same size as NNS THUNDER and the man sighed and exclaimed that it is a challenge, as the money to maintain this ship is always a problem.
“That is to tell you that funding for the maintenance of a vessel like NNS THUNDER is not a problem peculiar to Nigeria alone, it is a general problem and I think funding will be taken seriously at the top level of government so that appropriate funding can be attracted for the services because security is very important in a nation like ours.”
Ola stressed the need for domestication of ship building but noted that all hands must be on deck to achieve it. ‘‘All tiers of government must be involved in the process. You just cannot transfer technology without inviting people to come and do it. One of the reasons I represented my Permanent Secretary and Minister onboard the Turkish vessel was to find out the possibility of transferring technology. ‘‘Germany designed the Turkish ship but it was built in Turkey. So, we can have America or any other nation design for us and come to our country to build, which will generate jobs for our people and our navy will be good for it. We just should not be buying without considering the possibility of acquiring the technology for ship building in Nigeria. ‘‘But you cannot domesticate technology for ship building without a functioning steel industry. We have to start from making our steel industry produce up to capacity such that we can produce the quantity we need. ‘‘It is part of the policy of this current government for technology to be transferred. Nigeria has built a warship, NNS ANDONI, which is evidence we have the technology. What we should be talking about now is funding-money to continue to put available platforms to sea.’’
On what the ministry was doing to ensure Nigeria’s flagship, NNS ARADU an other grounded vessels were sea-worthy, Ola disclosed that some experts were currently working on ARADU.
