Commission Lists Benefit Of Continental Shelf Extension

L-R: Leader of the Indian delegation on Cotton and Textiles, Mr Ravi Bangar; Minister of Commerce & Industry, Chief Jubril Martins-Kuye; Minister of State, Miss Josephine Tapgun; Manager, Il&Fs Clusters Company, Dr Milan Sharma and the Indian High Commissioner, Mr Mahesh Sachdev, after a meeting in Abuja, last Tuesday.

Nigeria will benefit economically and politically from the extension of its continental shelf from 200 to 350 nautical miles, according to Alhaji Sadiq Diggi, Director-General of the National Boundary Commission (NBC).

“Now imagine if Nigeria can now control 350 nautical miles into the sea, any shipping vessel, any foreign ship and any war ship passing through that water must consult Nigeria,” he said, yesterday, in Abuja.

“Only God knows tomorrow; maybe by the time we exhaust our oil wells here, we may move deep into the sea and then maybe this is meant for our own grandchildren,’’ Diggi said.

He said that Nigeria made its submission before the United Nations in New York on May 9, 2009, adding, “it was well celebrated.”

Diggi said that after the submission, a committee went through it to ensure that there were neither objections nor protests by other countries within three months.

“And God so kind, Ghana, Benin, Cameroon, Sao Tome and Principe, Equitorial Guinea — nobody made any protest.

“So, we are just waiting for the UN to tell us whether we have been able to succeed in getting what we want, clear 350 nautical miles; that is an additional 150 nautical miles,’’ Diggi said.

On Nigeria’s maritime border with Ghana, the director-general said that the two countries had been holding discussions and that the meetings had been lively and promising.

“We are just about to agree on the coverage of the boundaries and both countries have made their submissions known to the UN,’’ he added.

Diggi said Nigeria discovered that it had a maritime boundary with Ghana in 2000 while looking into the scope of its continental shelf.