Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) is a former president of the Nigerian Bar Affiliation (NBA). On this interview, he speaks on the controversy over the Nigerian Coast Guard Invoice earlier than the Senate, amongst different points ANAYO EZUGWU Writes
What’s your response to the rejection of the Nigerian Coast Guard Invoice earlier than the Senate in some quarters, particularly amongst stakeholders within the maritime sector?
My first level is that the problem of a coast guard is an especially outdated one in Nigeria. I’ve been within the business for 44 years and I’ve personally pushed for a coast guard to patrol our maritime waters. We’d like that form of safety. Maritime safety is such an important side of any nation that claims it’s a coastal nation.
Nigeria is a coastal nation however what has occurred is that we’ve had a sequence of advert hoc preparations, going again to the Nationwide Maritime Coordinating Committee within the 80s, after which to the Presidential Process Power on Safety.
The current association, which the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Security Company (NIMASA) is pushing is that the company in collaboration with the navy, supplies maritime safety for our waters, notably points round crude oil theft.
Nevertheless, my view is {that a} coast guard is an institutional requirement within the maritime sector. It’s an important level. A coast guard must be a freestanding organisation. It stands by itself. Its core operate is regulation enforcement of the maritime waters.
The issue with the navy is that it’s a preventing drive. The coast guard will not be a preventing drive though I have to admit that there’s plenty of naval presence within the structure of a coast guard. I’ve checked out six totally different international locations, South Africa, the UK, the US, Canada and Australia. All of them, simply to level out what occurred within the US.
The US Coast Guard Service was underneath the management of the Division of Transportation till 11th of September, when it was transferred to the Division of Homeland Safety, not the navy, not the defence.
The Coast Guard Service within the UK is an government company of the Division of Transportation. And that is very affordable as a result of the coast guard is actually a regulation enforcement company. It’s not a preventing drive.
The navy is a preventing drive. However what then occurs can be, as an illustration, the President of America or the Defence Secretary, is required throughout struggle, to switch the coast guard for army service. However basically what the coast guard does is shield our maritime waters.
It protects our aquatic. It protects our pure assets round Nigeria, inland waterways, and the borders. And on this approach, it brings into Nigeria plenty of income. The navy’s function as a coast guard service is peculiar to the problems of the Niger Delta. That’s why they got here in. So, you’ve got the platform offered by the navy and the funding from NIMASA. However that’s not what we would like.
We wish to have a coast guard service that’s predicated on the necessities of the Worldwide Maritime Organisation, which says the core mandate of any coast guard should be one thing that stands alone. The navy has such totally different capabilities. I don’t see how it’s best suited to carry out the capabilities of the coast guard that’s proposed.
Sure, I can see that the coast guard would have a job to play. That’s the reason while you compose the coast guard service, the navy has a job to play. But it surely’s basically a civilian regulation enforcement company. Its core operate is the implementation of maritime rules, and quite a few them are listed by the Worldwide Maritime Organisation.
So I might push for a coast guard. There’s no query that the coast guard with a core mandate of maritime safety is required. I don’t assume there’s a debate.
There generally is a debate round construction. Who can be a part of it? Will the navy play a job? Will NIMASA play a job? However the coast guard must be established. It’s far too lengthy in Nigeria with out the coast guard, and the issue has been that we’ve misplaced plenty of income.
The rationale why Nigeria has completed very badly on the IMO rankings is as a result of we don’t have important establishments like maritime safety and we’re all the time out of the white listing
As we’re speaking about performance and the totally different roles one of many factors of competition is the truth that there hasn’t been a complete evaluation that may actually differentiate the totally different roles that may be performed by the coast guard and the navy. What’s your tackle that place?
That might be a really ill-informed view. Anybody who understands what the coast guard is, I imply, even right here, I’ve no less than 10 examples of coast guard companies all over the world.
A coast guard service, let me be very clear, is a civilian regulation enforcement company that implements maritime rules.
A naval drive is a preventing drive. It’s not a civilian drive, utterly totally different companies. There’s little question that in sure circumstances, a naval drive may be required to help the coast guard.
In the US of America, the place they’ve a coast guard, it’s underneath civilian management and there’s a provision that the coast guard could also be deployed for army companies if the defence secretary makes such a prescription.
The identical provisions apply in the UK, the place the coast guard is an government company of the Division of Transportation, with the potential for being transferred, if required, to army duties.
So, basically, the coast guard is sort of a army police within the waters. That’s all it’s. So, you’ve got the Service provider Transport Act, setting out numerous stipulations for what the coast guard would do.
You’ve gotten the Cabotage Act; you’ve got all types of laws. However there isn’t any one imposing this laws at this time. That’s not the operate of the navy to implement the Cabotage Act. It’s not the operate of the navy to implement the Service provider Transport Act, and so forth.
The invoice is saying that the proposed coast guard can be within the navy; is it not simply multiplicity and creating one other arm inside one other arm?
I agree with you and let’s preserve two issues separate. The primary level I used to be making is that we want an institutional course of for the coast guard. We don’t have it in Nigeria. So, I believe that could be a given. We’d like an institutional course of. So, I prefer to name it the coast g uard as a result of that’s what the IMO stipulates in its mandate.
The rationale why Nigeria has completed very badly on the IMO rankings is as a result of we don’t have important establishments like maritime safety and we’re all the time out of the white listing.
So, there’s nothing improper with having a coast guard in precept. The difficulty actually that you’re addressing is, would there not be a duplication, a multiplicity of capabilities? That’s the second subject. That is a matter of if we agree there must be a coast guard, what can be the construction?
And I fully agree with you that while you discuss construction, the navy definitely may have a job, which is why I referred you to the follow within the US the place the Division of Homeland Safety can switch, in instances of struggle, the coast guard to the Division of Defence.
Within the UK, the identical factor occurs. However the bulk of the capabilities of the coast guard is actually civil regulation enforcement. And due to this fact, the load of labor that the coast guard would do can be to easily implement maritime rules to which the military or the navy will not be suited. That doesn’t exclude the participation of the navy.
So, what I might have anticipated on the public listening to is to say, there’s no issue {that a} maritime safety company is required.
The query now’s, how will we guarantee, precisely what you stated in regards to the Oronsaye report, how will we be certain that the structure of the coast guard doesn’t duplicate what we have already got?
However the Institution Act of the Navy already covers police operate, army operate, intelligence operate, and all of that, and the truth that this could not have come as a personal member invoice. Do you assume these factors are proper or improper?
Whether or not it comes as a personal member invoice or an government invoice will not be the problem. The difficulty is: Is the coast guard an vital nationwide establishment? I believe it’s. Ought to a coast guard service stand-alone, a freestanding establishment? I believe it ought to face alone. Ought to the navy be a part of the composition of the coast guard?
That’s open to debate. However the query is: Ought to we now have a coast guard service? I believe we must always have a coast guard service.
Not solely is it a requirement of the United Nations specialised company on maritime, the Worldwide Maritime Organisation, it’s the requirement {that a} nation will need to have a Maritime Security Company and a Maritime Safety Company, so the coast guard fulfills that operate. The navy in America is the most important on the earth.
Why have they got a coast guard? Why is the coast guard not a part of the navy? The UK additionally has an enormous navy. Why is the coast guard totally different from the navy within the UK? So, there’s a cause. The coast guard will not be a preventing drive. It’s a regulation enforcement company.
It enforces maritime rules. Now we have the Carbotage Act, which isn’t working as a result of we don’t have an establishment to take care of it. Now we have over 25,000 overseas vessels in our waters. If the navy was so efficient, what’s it doing? So, a coast guard is designated to take care of the safety of our maritime legal guidelines. A navy is a preventing drive and they’re two various things
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