Economic, Political, and Social Implications of Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea: Nigeria as a Case Study
Piracy, although an age-old phenomenon that has posed challenges for Mariners has until recently been a phenomenon in decline. Although in the twenty-first century, piracy became a major issue in the South China Sea and in the Malacca Straits. But by 2007
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1 Introduction Piracy, although an age-old phenomenon that has posed challenges for Mariners has until recently been a phenomenon in decline. Although in the twenty-first century, piracy became a major issue in the South China Sea and in the Malacca Straits. But by 2007, the number of pirate attacks in Africa surpassed those in Asian waters, thus the shift of attention to African waters. Maritime pirate attacks in Africa, while concentrated in Nigeria and Somalia, are by no means limited to these countries. Because of the 33 littoral countries in Africa, 24 experienced pirate attacks during 2001–2008.1 Even though shipping in the GOG is threatened, attacks are not as frequent as those off Somalia. Nevertheless, it still remains and is still seen as a hub of threats to shipping.2
2 Piracy in Gulf of Guinea and Nigeria The Gulf of Guinea is defined as the 11 coastal countries along the West and Central African sub regions, which is between Ghana and Angola with a coastline of some 5,500 km,3 and it is increasingly been viewed as part of a solution to the ever increasing needs of the world as regards energy, population, food and territory.4
1
Nincic (2009a). Vrey¨ (2009), pp. 17–30. 3 Gilpin (2009). 4 Murphy (2007), pp. 23–35. 2
Y.M. Bala (*) Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Maritime House, #4, Burma Road, Apapa, Nigeria e-mail: [email protected] M.Q. Mejia, Jr. et al. (eds.), Piracy at Sea, WMU Studies in Maritime Affairs 2, DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-39620-5_13, © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
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These potentials have seen increased activities in the region which incidentally draws in other competitions (on national boundaries, resources etc.) and crime increasingly entering the fold.5 But unlike the Gulf of Aden and the Somali waters, virtually all pirates attack in the GOG occur very close to shore and within the port areas while ships are anchored or berthed. Nevertheless, recent developments have indicated increasing capacity by pirates to operate farther offshore.6 While piracy is an issue for the entire GOG and threatens their dependency on the resources and commerce originating from the Gulf,7 it is more an issue for Nigeria which experienced its first case with the attack on the Danish cargo ship MV Lindinga Ivory in 1979.8 As is always expressed in different forums, it’s virtually impossible to accurately gauge the amount of pirate activity due to insufficient reporting from the region, and the Safety4Sea magazine9 did quote a security analyst telling Reuters that, “In Nigeria it is estimated that approximately 60 percent of pirate attacks go unreported.” The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) went on to estimate that the majority of incidents of piracy (54 percent) in West Africa between 2001 and 2008 occurred in Nigeria.10 While the pirate activities in Nigeria has been receiving considerable attention, there has been other positions (though not mainstream) who have consistently argued that Piracy attacks mostly in Nigeria, are usually carried out to fund i
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