Anti-Piracy Law: The Task Before NIMASA

Nigeria recently sent a strong signal to both the local and international shipping community of its intention to reduce to a barest minimum piracy and other form of criminality on its waters, if not total annihilation of the scourge.

This warning was served on June 24th, 2019 when President Muhammadu Buhari signed into law the Suppression of Piracy and other Maritime Offences Bill, 2019.

The presidential assent was a watershed in the country’s long-drawn fight against piracy and other form of criminality on its waters.

Nigeria has over the years earned an unenviable status within the International shipping community as having one of the most dangerous waters , probably next in position to Somali waters.

The country’s location within the Gulf of Guinea, known for its fertility for piracy, didn’t help matter.

So, for over past decade, the country’s waters have been ravaged by dare-devil pirates and other amphibious criminals who attack sea-going vessels, vessels at anchorage, fishing trawlers and crafts.

The frequency of these attacks was so embarrassing that foreign shipping companies, in 2018, slammed war surcharge on cargo destined for the country’s sea ports.

But the end to these incessant attacks may be in sight with the coming on stream the anti-piracy law.

Nigeriamaritime360.com welcomes this development and lauds all those who made this happened.

First, we commend and congratulate the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency(NIMASA) who initiated the bill in 2012 and in whose purview is it to ensure safe and secure shipping .

We laud the eighth National Assembly which, after seven years of debate and amendments , finally recognised the need to have a stronger and more stringent body of laws to tackle this menace.

More importantly , we salute Mr President for deeming it fit to sign the bill into law and not consigning it to his shelves where scores of other maritime-related bills are currently gathering dust.

The berthing of the anti-piracy law is momentous and instructive.

As we earlier observed, it will signal the commencement of total annihilation of the menace on Nigerian waters.

The bill passed by the Eighth National Assembly gives effect to the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), 1982, and the International Convention on the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Navigation (SUA), 1988, and its Protocols.

Besides addressing maritime insecurity, the new law fulfills the international requirement for standalone legislation on piracy, as against the approach of using the Maritime Operations Coordinating Board Amendment Bill to criminalise piracy.

With the Suppression of Piracy and other Maritime Offences Act, Nigeria has officially become the first country in the West and Central African Sub-Region to promulgate a separate law against piracy, an important international requirement set by the IMO as part of measures to guarantee secure global shipping.

The law is also significant in the fight against piracy because, for the first time, the country will have a body of laws under which arrested suspects could be prosecuted.

Nigerian Navy has severally complained of its frustration at prosecuting suspected pirates arrested on the nation’s waters due to the absence of laws.

This legal lacuna has overtime emboldened the criminals to wreck more havoc because when they are arrested, they are eventually released for lack of holden charges or, in most cases, they are left off the hook with light sentences.

This has made them to become more daring and always come back.

However, the anti-piracy law, to our mind, has now placed a huge burden of responsibility on NIMASA.

The agency will no longer have any excuse not to annihilate the pirates and other criminal elements who have turned Nigerian waters into a dangerous zone.

With this potent weapon to fight the war against piracy, we urge the management of NIMASA to rally its partners in the fight such as the Nigerian
Navy and other security agencies to commence the process of routing the criminals from our waters.

The $195m security contract which the Federal Government signed in December, 2017 with an Isreali firm, Messrs HLSI Systems Technologies, couldn’t have come at a better time.

Though controversial, we believe the security contract will complement the renewed fight which NIMASA will now engage with the pirates.

We are particularly delighted about the components of the contract terms which include the provisions of hi-technology security equipment which include three helicopters,three airplanes,three big battle-ready ships, 12 vessels and 20 amphibious cars.

Rotimi Amaechi, the former minister of transportation recently disclosed that some of these equipment will soon be deployed for use on our waters while the personnel who will man them have undergone the necessary training.

With formidable arsenal backed by stringent laws to prosecute offenders, there is no longer a hiding place for pirates on Nigerian waters.

The onus is now on NIMASA to take advantage of this situation by taking the initiative, which is within its sphere of influence and authority,to decapitate the pirates on our waters.

With this scenario, Nigeria has a lot to gain from pirate-free waters as it will boost our blue economy and reposition Nigerian maritime industry for better economic dividends.

The country will also shed the unenviable toga of notoriety for piracy attacks which will also lower the cost of shipping as foreign ship owners will have enough confidence in the security on our waters that will made them to scrap some of their exploitative charges such as war surcharge.

We are as elated as other discerning stakeholders of the immense benefits which the law will directly and indirectly bring to our economy.

With safe and secured waters, our fishing industry will bounce back to life.

The industry, estimated to worth about $22.5 billion annually, went into comatose as a result of the activities of pirates.

The controversial issue of private armed guards on vessels, which the Federal Government said is illegal but which the ship owners still embrace for the safety and security of their vessels and the crew, will be sorted out.

Recently, one of the foreign shipping giants, Maersk line, claimed it spends an average of $18million to contract private security on its vessels coming to Nigeria.

To us, this extra expenses that push up cost of shipping in the country will be eliminated by the time the menace of piracy is wiped out on Nigerian waters.

We therefore wish NIMASA well in this onerous task of riding our waters of these undesirable elements.

We urge the agency to brace up for the task ahead as all eyes, in the next coming months, will be on it.

The performance and efficiency of NIMASA will now be situated in how the activities of pirates have the decimated in the coming years, given the support and encouragement of government in terms of equipment and enabling environment in which it can thrive to carry out its statutory duties.