Emmanuel Oladesu examines the challenges confronting the Nigerian Navy and what can be done to make the national institution live up to expectation.
THE Nigerian Navy is 60 years old. But, has it lived up to expectation? Many believe that it has a success story to tell, despite its constraints. Other stakeholders believe that it could have performed better, if its potentials have been fully explored. To mark the Diamond Jubilee, a Ceremonial Sunset, which is an age old naval custom that points to the end of an era and the beginning of another era, was held at the NNS BEECROFT Parade Ground, Apapa, Lagos. During the celebrations, stakeholders brainstormed over the NN’s constitutional role and how it could remain the pride of the nation during the annual marital conference.
Founded on June 1, 1956, as the Nigerian Naval Defence Force (NNDF), it took off with eleven ships. According to the Act of Parliament, it was designated as the Royal Nigerian Navy. When Nigeria became a republic in 1963, it was renamed the Nigerian Navy. The NN’s major test came during the civil war. It mounted the coastal blockade that cut off the ill-fated Biafran regime from getting international support through the seas. Besides, it was also involved in the amphibious landings on the coast, including the Bonny landing in July 1967, the first ever by a third world country. The successful operation underscored the country’s devotion to coastal security.
However, it has not always been a smooth sail for the NN. Service chiefs have always called for improved budgetary allocation to enable it perform creditably. Also, in six decades, it has produced 20 naval chiefs. Apart from checking external invasion through the territorial waters, the Navy has also tried to calm the restive creeks. Under the leadership of the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ekwe Ibas, the NN has launched the Choke Point Control Regime. The goal is to mobilise naval patrols to mount surveillance and ensure that all vessels passing through the creeks and channels within the territorial borders are interrogated. The result is that crude oil theft and bunkering have reduced drastically.
Two houseboats have been deployed at Akassa and Ezeotu Long Num and Pennington Rivers while plans are underway to deploy another four. In the last one year, 42 vessels involved in suspicious activities were arrested. Sixteen piracy attempts were foiled. No fewer than 221 illegal refineries were destroyed. Reflecting on these feats, Admiral Ibas said the NN has resolved to demonstrate a zero tolerance for illegallity within the territorial waters.
The resurgence of military has been a challenge to the NN. To curtail it, there is an increasing siege on the Niger Delta. The Navy is also deploying its platform and Special Forces in the fight against insurgency in the Northeast. The exercise is aimed to complementing the military operation codenamed “Operation Lafia Dole,” whereby troops and equipment will be sent to Tongeji Island along the Nigeria-Benin maritime boarder.
The NN is looking inward nowadays by building and refitting its platforms at home, thereby saving foreign exchange for the country and providing invaluable experience for local military and other maritime experts. The evidence of local efforts in ship building is the tugboat, which was commissioned during the Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Under Admiral Ibas, the NN has been involved in the renewal of its fleet, following the launching of 30 riverine warfare boats deployed to fight crude oil theft in the Niger Delta creeks. Another 50 boats, also manufactured locally, were commissioned recently.
Two mine sweepers, NNS Ohue and NNS Barama, which have been dormant for about 20 years, are currently undergoing trials before being re-launched into service. Besides the Navy has enhanced effective maintenance activities, leading to the availability of ships, boats and helicopters to confront threats to maritime security. The ships include NNS Centenary, NNS Okpabana, NNS Prosperity, NNS Andoni and NNS Obula while helicopters NN08, NN09 and NN10 are operational.
The NN is upgrading Naval Shipyard Limited at Port Harcourt, which is a strategic asset and force multiplier. It has also achieved success in manpower development and personnel motivation through officers’ training in higher defence and strategic management, the commissioning of Special Duty officers into the NN officers’ cadre, foreign professional training, the employment of retired personnel to augment the critical shortfall in the available teaching staff in the NN training schools, and the procurement and allocation of new staff cars and utility vehicles to senior officers and Navy Warrant officers respectively to motivate them for improved output and productivity.
The NN hosted the second edition of the Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPV) Africa Conference in Lagos from 24 – 26 August 24 to 25 last year as part of the measures to facilitate international and regional cooperation to enhance maritime security. The conference was also aimed at sustaining efforts towards the attainment of Africa’s Integrated Maritime Strategy 2050. The Conference attracted heads and chiefs of African navies/coastguard as well as global maritime experts from the US, UK, EU, AU, IMO and ECOWAS.
Despite these achievements, there is still a gap in role fulfillment. Many challenges are confronting the NN. They include the shortage of platforms, the degraded operational support infrastructure, the low level of research and development (R&D) efforts and the low industrial capacity. Others include the poor maritime culture, the inadequate Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) infrastructure, the inadequate facilities for operational training, personnel welfare and inadequate funding. Also, naval dockyards and Forward Operating Bases (FOBs), which were established to help local service of platforms, have not always been in operational service.
Inadequate platforms. The available ships and helicopters in the NN inventory are inadequate to effectively prosecute the maritime security operations due to the vastness of Nigeria’s maritime space. A number of the ships are also old and have had no major refit or upgrade. Some are Beyond Economic Repairs (BER) and had been scrapped or earmarked for decommissioning. Thus, it is desirable for the NN to be provided with a mix of modern ships with capability for sustained patrols.
Degraded Operational Support Infrastructure. The naval dockyards were conceptualised and envisioned to ensure force regeneration and ship maintenance. However, due to aging and degraded infrastructure and facilities, they have not been able to meet the desired objectives of their establishment. Additionally, existing Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) meant to render operational support to ships and helicopters are under developed. Consequently, ships and helicopters on maritime security operations are compelled to return to bases in harbour, losing substantial operational time in the process. To this end, more need to be done to upgrade the Dockyard and develop the FOBs.
Inadequate Research and Development efforts. The Navy as a highly technical force needs to constantly adapt to global changes in technology and bring same to bear on countering challenges in the nation’s maritime environment. However, poor R&D is a major challenge that has affected development and discovery of new technologies. This has led to poor adaptation of NN sensors for group integration initiatives.
Low national industrial capacity. Globally, developed navies attained their heights through mutual cooperation with their national technological sectors. Thus, the low NN maintenance and infrastructural attainment is analogous to the nation’s low industrial and scientific capacity. Hence, a major constraint to the NN is the low level technology, most especially in terms of maintenance of equipment, fabrication of spares for own platforms and ships’ building efforts.
Poor maritime culture. While Nigeria is a well-endowed maritime nation, there is a pervasive poor maritime culture. This tends to undermine every effort of both the government and private practitioners to fully develop the potentials of the nation’s maritime sector. Also, despite the tremendous dependence of the strategic sectors of the national economy on the maritime environment, Nigerians remain largely unaware of the full potentials and benefits of the sea. This general lack of interest about the sea particularly by all and sundry has adversely affected the funding and NN capacity building.
Inadequate Maritime Domain Awareness Infrastructure. Currently, apart from the use of patrol vessels, Regional Maritime Awareness Capability (RMAC) sensors and FALCON EYE facilities in Abuja, Lagos, Bonny, Ibaka and Badagry provide awareness on activities in Nigeria’s territorial waters and beyond. There is need to achieve comprehensive coastal MDA coverage with the installation of additional RMAC and FALCON EYE facilities at Brass, Escravos and Igbokoda. Furthermore, it is desirable for the country to adequately emplace a national maritime awareness architecture for coverage of the nation’s maritime domain.
Inadequate facilities for operational training. The NN professional schools were established to cater for the rising need for specialist and operational training of NN personnel. However, inadequate funding has made it difficult to maintain and upgrade many of the training aids and facilities. There is therefore a need to provide funds to enable procurement of training aids and upgrading of facilities.
Gap in personnel welfare: In addition to improving the standard of training, there is a need to also condition personnel mindset and attitude to work through enhanced welfare by provision of accommodation, transportation and medical care amongst others.
Inadequate funding: These constraints have persisted because of inadequate funding of the NN over the years. The NN proposed overhead, amount appropriated and released have grossly been inadequate in relations to her needs. In the last 4 years, the NN had not received up to 25 per cent of her budgetary proposals for overhead. The capital vote has been far worse, where the Service has not got up to 2 per cent.
