Minister Urges Synergy On Environmental Protection

The Minister of Defence, Dr Bello Mohammed, in Calabar on Thursday called for synergy among maritime nations to protect the maritime environment.

Mohammed made the call at the closing ceremony of a joint sea exercise “code-named “OBAGAME EXPRESS 2012”.

The event is a multinational maritime interdiction exercise, designed to update countries in the Gulf of Guinea on the fundamentals of conducting policing operations at sea.

Mohammed, who was represented by the Minister of State, Defence, Mrs Olusola Obada, said that Nigeria like any other maritime nation, relied on the sea for economic, commercial and socio-cultural activities.

“It is quite true that no nation can effectively confront these challenges all alone because of their transnational nature.”

Mohammed said the situation called for synergy of efforts among maritime nations to protect their common heritage, the maritime environment.

He said it was in recognition of the fact that the idea must be commended.

According, to him, the exercise will further help to boost ongoing efforts to promote collaboration, cooperation between Economic Community of Central States (ECCAS) and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

“Nigeria will, therefore, continue to support any project that would help to combat the security challenges that are prevalent in our contemporary maritime environment.’’

The Chief of Naval Staff, Vice-Admiral Ola Ibrahim, said it was common knowledge that the maritime environment was increasingly threatened by security challenges, such as piracy, poaching, smuggling, illegal bunkering, crude oil theft and other transnational crimes.

Ibrahim explained that the exercise was aimed at assisting West and Central African countries to build capacity to combat the challenges.

“To this end, from participating in the exercise, Nigeria stands to benefit, particularly in the area of combating challenges in our maritime domain, thus paving the way for economic and social–cultural activities to strive.

“I believe the same benefits are applicable to all participating countries.”

Mr Joseph Stafford, the U.S,. Consular-General to Nigeria, said the exercise was very important as it brought together countries of the Gulf of Guinea and the U.S.