Why the Nigerian Coast Guard Bill needs to be permanently rested

Let’s begin this conversation by recalling that a bill to establish the Nigerian Coast Guard which has scaled second reading in the Nigerian Senate and sponsored as a private member bill by Senator Wasiu Eshilokun (APC- Lagos), recently led the debate at the Senate’s plenary on the general principles of the bill.

Leading the debate, Senator Eshilokun said the bill sought to establish the Nigerian Coast Guard to be charged with the responsibility of securing maritime zones within Nigeria.

First, it is a breach of due process. The Bill seeks to establish a Coast Guard as a military service and a branch of the Armed Forces of Nigeria. You cannot establish a branch of the Armed Forces through a private member’s Bill of the National Assembly. The expansion of the Armed Forces can and should be an executive function, with the consideration and approval of the Federal Executive Council. It is beyond the scope and capacity of an individual member of the National Assembly.

Second, it is a gross duplication of existing institutions and functions: The Coast Guard is a clear duplication of the functions of the Nigerian Navy as stated in Armed Forces Cap 20, which is an amplification of S217 of the Nigerian Constitution, creating the Armed Forces and outlining what their responsibilities would be. The Coast Guard seeks to duplicate the Nigerian Navy, creating a parallel agency that will dissipate energy and resources.

Coast Guard promoters argue that unlike the Nigerian Navy, which is a ‘fighting force’, the Coast Guard is meant to be a civilian law enforcement agency, implementing maritime regulations and protecting natural resources and inland waters. The fact is that the functions being proposed here are already being fully carried out between the Nigerian Navy, NIWA, NIMASA and the Marine Police. Even the Nigerian Customs Service has a Maritime Division.

An additional agency will do nothing to improve the situation; if anything, it will increase dysfunction. The Establishment Act of the Nigerian Navy already fully takes care of all the functions being claimed by the promoters of the Coast Guard. It will also duplicate and conflict with the functions of other players in the maritime sector – the Bill wants the Coast Guard to be responsible for the training of seafarers, which by the Merchant Shipping Act and NIMASA Act are clearly the job of NIMASA.

The Bill also wants it to be involved in hydrography, despite the fact that the Navy is in charge of hydrography and that there was a recent presidential approval for the conversion of the Nigerian Navy Hydrographic Office int the National Hydrographic Agency, and the designation of the Nigerian Navy Hydrographer as the Hydrographer of the Federation.

The National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) is tasked with the mandate of enforcing laws and regulations in Nigeria’s inland waters, which further renders a Coast Guard irrelevant. At this point when the Federal Government is trying to implement the spirit of the Oronsaye reforms, a Coast Guard is an unnecessary and wasteful venture.

Third, it is a recipe for chaos and confusion. A Nigerian Coast Guard will compound existing challenges being experienced in the administration of Nigeria’s maritime environment. It will complicate the coordination, heighten unnecessary competition and undermine cohesion, leading to anarchy. The implication of this will be that bad actors in Nigeria’s maritime space will gain an advantage, with possible outcomes such as Nigeria being re-listed on the Maritime Piracy Index, which it exited in 2022 thanks to the efforts of the Nigerian Navy and other stakeholders. The Bill being pushed wants the Coast Guard to be headed by a serving Naval Officer, without considering what this would mean for the standard military chain of command.

Fourth, it will inflict a significant additional fiscal burden on Nigeria’s resources. The promoters have not yet provided any cost estimates as to the full fiscal implications – establishment and operations – of yet another maritime institution. This is at a time when Nigeria is struggling to control public spending, and optimise the provision of resources to existing institutions.

Instead of a new agency, with new spending to ensure take-off, the country’s scarce resources should be invested in strengthening and bolstering the functions and capacity of the Nigerian Navy and other existing stakeholders like NIWA, NIMASA and the Marine Police. Promoters of the Coast Guard say that a Coast Guard is ‘international best practice’, because the United States and United Kingdom have Coast Guards separate from the Navy.

This ‘best practice’ claim is not correct. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) does not dictate to countries how to structure the administration and operations of their maritime environment. There are many countries in the world that do not combine a Navy and a Coast Guard.

Also, in the case of the US, there are peculiar domestic legal contexts (like the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878) that necessitate the US having a separate Coast Guard for domestic functions – a situation that is very different from Nigeria’s own. As for the UK, the HM Coastguard is purely an unarmed emergency rescue service, staffed primarily by volunteers – nine of every ten members of the HM Coastguard are volunteers.

Fifth, it is a worrying case of jumping the gun. Promoters of the Coast Guard have gone ahead to establish a website that suggests that the Guard is already in legitimate operation. This posturing of false legitimacy even when a public hearing has yet to hold suggests a desperation that is out of place, and that should provoke deep thinking from all and sundry.

The Coast Guard idea is one that needs to die once and for all. It is an idea that pops up every couple of years, and always falls apart upon scrutiny. It has now become a recurring waste of time, attention and the public resources used in resurrecting it every couple of years.

Nigeria does not need a Coast Guard Service, and hopefully this attempt will be the last wild goose chase in this regard. The proposed Coast Guard and its recurring Bill should be allowed to rest in peace.

Ilallah, a Public Affairs analyst based in Abuja can be reached at [email protected]