Continental Shelf Extension Should Be Dev Driven – Expert

A professor of international law, Margaret Okorodudu-Fubara, on Friday in Lagos said that Nigeria’s quest for the extension of its continental shelf should be economic and development driven.

Reports say that the Nigerian Government recently said that it would push for the extension of the country’s continental shelf from 200 to 350 nautical miles.

Okorodudu-Fubara, in an interview with newsmen, said that the request, if granted, should be properly harnessed for the overall benefit of Nigerians.

“The planned extension should be directed at enhancing the economic wellbeing of Nigerians.

“ We need to adequately harness fishes and other marine resources in such areas,’’ she said.

Okorodudu-Fubara, a former Dean of the Faculty of Law, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, advised the Federal Government to come up with a law to regulate fishing and other human activities along the coast.

She decried the unregulated exploitation of marine resources on Nigeria’s waters and called on the government to enforce the international treaties on marine resources protection.

“We need to enforce international treaties to regulate our fishing. People need to know the implication of depleting marine resources.

“If we are not careful, generations unborn will not know there were sharks and this is what such treaties guard against.

“People should be made to comply with national and international regulatory laws,’’ Okorodudu-Fubara said.

She advised the government to blacklist any organisation and country that failed to meet with internationally accepted standards for fishing on Nigeria’s water bodies.