The Merchant Seafarers Association of USA Inc. and Nigeria have called for the creation of a Nigerian Coast Guard again, saying it is an essential reform to protect the country’s waterways and its maritime economy.
The Guardian says that the seamen said that the lack of a Coast Guard has made problems like oil theft, illicit bunkering, piracy, and unregulated fishing worse, even though the navy has been deployed there for years.
The seafarers, in a statement called “A Refutation to Vice Admiral Idi Abbas: A Call for Strategic Maritime Reform,” signed by President Prof. Alfred Oniye, said that these problems are still going on because they need civilian-led enforcement and community involvement, not military command structures.
Oniye criticized the recent comments made by the Naval command, which said that having a separate Coast Guard would be redundant because the Navy already does the work of both departments.
He argued that this assertion ignores decades of operational inefficiency, jurisdictional complexity, and the fact that the country has never been able to secure its inland waterways and coastal zones.
He says that the country currently has functional overlap without accountability. He argues that the current system to marine security, which puts both military and civilian enforcement roles under the Navy, is ineffectual and out of date. He said that mixing these duties has made it harder to focus, stretched naval resources too thin, and left important holes in maritime governance.
The sailors said that the country can’t depend on the Navy alone to protect its waterways and marine economy anymore. They said that a Coast Guard would make it easier to see who is responsible for what, keep everyone on the same page, and work together better.
“By design and doctrine, the Nigerian Navy is a military organization, not a civil maritime law enforcement body. He said, “A Coast Guard with a civilian mandate and clear legal authority will enforce maritime laws, conduct search and rescue, and protect Nigeria’s blue economy from non-military threats.”
The sailors pointed out that the US, India, and Brazil are just a few of the countries that have such dual organizations, with the Navy focusing on defense and the Coast Guard in charge of law enforcement and non-military maritime security.
Oniye said that the Nigerian Constitution and current maritime laws do not give the Navy the civilian police powers it needs to preserve fisheries, enforce environmental laws, enforce customs, or keep ports safe, which are all things that the Coast Guard does.
Oniye warned against seeing the creation of a Coast Guard as a political or bureaucratic burden, saying it is a strategic need.
He also said that investing only in naval technology without making changes to the way things are done is not a good idea. He said that drones and artificial intelligence can help with surveillance, but they won’t work very well without a government body to enforce maritime regulations.
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