Reimagining regional cooperation as a springboard for curbing piracy off the coast of Nigeria

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.47348/JCLA/v9/i2a2
• Published date: 09 March 2023
• Pages: 33-70
• Author: Anele, K.K.
• Date: 09 March 2023

33 https://doi.org/10.47348/JCLA/v9/i2a2

REIMAGINING REGIONAL COOPERATION AS

A SPRINGBOARD FOR CURBING PIRACY OFF

THE COAST OF NIGERIA

Kalu Kingsley Anele*

Abstract

Nigerian waters remain risky for navigation. Despite efforts by the Nigerian

government to suppress piracy off its coast, little progress has been made. Moreover,

Nigeria is ill-equipped, ill-prepared and lacks effective enforcement of the extant

piracy legal regime to combat piracy suo motu due to the absence of political will by

the government to curb piracy exemplified by an inefficient institutional framework.

This paper suggests the adoption of the regional cooperation mechanism to curb

piracy in Nigeria, given the number of piracy incidents off its coast and the fact

that Nigerian piracy extends to the waters of neighbouring countries. Additionally,

Nigerian piracy affects the navigational and geostrategic importance of the Gulf

of Guinea to the global energy supply and international trade, and it implicates

regional trade agreements in Africa. The research methodology is a dialectical

analysis of data, legal instruments and scholarly publications. Also, this research

uses the application of anti-piracy regional cooperation agendas in other piracy

hotspots to suggest the adoption of regional cooperation to suppress Nigerian piracy.

The results reveal that attempts to curb piracy in Nigeria have been futile because

the country lacks the political will to eliminate the causes of piracy. Since Nigerian

piracy has a regional effect, regional cooperation would be apt to suppress this

crime. Legal instruments, soft laws, regional agreements and international maritime

organisations promote regional cooperation in combating piracy. Consequently, the

paper explores factors that bolster and sustain regional cooperation as a means of

repressing piracy off the Nigerian coast.

Keywords: Piracy; Nigeria; LOSC; regional cooperation; SPOMO Act;

SUA Convention; Gulf of Guinea; Yaoundé Code of Conduct

Résumé:

Naviguer sur les eaux nigérianes est très risqué. Malgré les efforts du gouvernement

nigérian pour endiguer le piratage au large de ses côtes, peu de progrès ont été

réalisés. De plus, le Nigeria est mal équipé, mal préparé et n’implémente pas

efficacement le régime juridique existant contre le piratage en raison d’un cadre

institutionnel inefficace de lutte contre le piratage suo motu. Cet article propose

*LLB (IMSU), LLM (NIALS), (Unilag), PhD (KMOU), Lecturer, Cultural Heritage

Preservation Research Institute, Pusan National University. I would like to acknowledge and

appreciate the reviewers for their role in this paper. Their comments bolstered the quality of the

paper. Email: kalusky@pusan.ac.kr

(2022) 9(2) Journal of Comparative Law in Africa 33

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34 JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE LAW IN AFRICA VOL 9, NO 2, 2022

https://doi.org/10.47348/JCLA/v9/i2a2

l’adoption d’un mécanisme de coopération régionale pour lutter contre le piratage

au Nigeria, étant donné le nombre d’incidents de piratage au large de ses côtes et le

fait que le piratage nigérian s’étend aux eaux des pays voisins. De plus, le piratage

nigérian affecte l’importance de la navigation géostratégique du golfe de Guinée

pour l’approvisionnement énergétique mondial et le commerce international, et

il implique des accords commerciaux régionaux en Afrique. La méthodologie de

recherche est dialectique. En d’autres termes, l’article examine de manière différente

voire concurrente la question du piratage et réalise une synthèse au moyen d’une

analyse de données, d’instruments juridiques et de publications intellectuelles. En

outre, cette recherc he compare l’application de programmes de coopération régionale

contre le piratage à d’autres points chauds de piratage pour suggérer l’adoption

d’une coopération régionale pour supprimer le piratage nigérian. Les résultats

révèlent que les tentatives de lutte contre le piratage au Nigéria ont été vaines

car le pays manque de volonté politique pour éliminer les causes du piratage.

Étant donné que le piratage nigérian a un effet régional, une coopération régionale

serait susceptible d’éradiquer ce crime. Les instruments juridiques, les lois non

contraignantes, les accords régionaux et les organisations maritimes internationales

promeuvent la coopération régionale afin de lutter contre le piratage. Par conséquent,

l’article explore les facteurs qui renforcent et soutiennent la coopération comme

moyen pour éliminer le piratage au large des côtes nigérianes

Mots clés: Piratage; Nigeria; LOSC, coopération régionale; Loi SPOMO,

Conventions SUA, Golf de Guinée; Code de Conduite de Yaoundé

Introduction

The historical development of piracy is fluid because centuries ago, it

was not regarded as a crime but as an exhibition of strength over ocean

governance.1 From the era of using piratical acts to, perhaps, promote

maritime dominance over the ocean or thwart other countries’ dominance

of the sea to the period when piracy became a private enterpr ise,2 it

has continued to negatively affect the lives of seafarers, the economies

of littoral states and regional and global economies. Riparian states,

like Nigeria, have been affected economically, socially, culturally and

politically by piracy. Moreover, the security of the waters surrounding

riparian states is jeopardised by piratical acts as all types of transnational

organised crimes, such as arms smuggling, thr ive. This is demonstrated by

the fact that piracy off the coast of Nigeria initially targeted oil tankers

1 See Denemark, R.A. ‘Piracy, state-formation, and the bounding of social systems’ (2017)

8(1) Journal of Global Studies 48 at 50–6; Blakemore, R.J. ‘The politics of piracy in the British Atlantic,

c. 1640-1649’ (2013) 25 (2) International Journal of Maritime History. 159 at 159–72 and Dawdy, S.L.

& Bonni, J. ‘Towards a general theory of piracy’ (2012) 85(3) Anthropological Quarterly 673 at 678–84.

2 Denemark note 1; Blakemore note 1; Dawdy & Bonni argue that ‘raiding ships at sea is

culturally “thinkable”’. Vagg, J. ‘Rough sea? Contemporary piracy in South East Asia’ (1995) 35(1)

British Journal Criminology 63 at 67.

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REIMAGINING REGIONAL COOPERATION AS A SPRINGBOARD

FOR CURBING PIRACY OFF THE COAST OF NIGERIA 35

https://doi.org/10.47348/JCLA/v9/i2a2

carrying crude oil and other petroleum products sold on the black market

but now focuses on kidnapping and ransom.3

Typically, a pirate ship is not under the control of any country,4 coupled

with the fact that the location of the crime is not subject to state control.

This means that a state that arrests pirates’ vessels is author ised to prosecute

or extradite the pirates for prosecution in another state, thereby affirming

that piracy prosecution is subject to the concept of universal jurisdiction,

as the crime is committed outside the jurisdiction of any state. The logical

deduction is that regional cooperation is key to combating piracy in terms

of the prosecution of the arrested pirates. The arresting state can cooperate

with states whose nationals are among the kidnapped or tortured seafarers

or owners of the vessels or cargo.5 Hence, beyond a state’s propensity to

curb piracy, regional cooperation amplifies the suppression of this crime

as envisaged under the universal jurisdiction principle.6

Arguably, there are sociopolitical and economic differences in West

Africa (Gulf of Guinea), especially the ongoing maritime boundary

disputes among the countries in the region. This is instantiated by the

relatively resolved mar itime dispute between Nigeria and Cameroon

over the Bakassi Peninsula. Nevertheless, it could be argued that piracy

remains a peculiar and intractable enemy that seems to strengthen the

determination of these countries to curb the cr ime, par ticularly through

joint efforts. More so, combating piracy closely aligns with the exploitation

of the abundant natural resources in the maritime domain of the West

African countries for economic development and with their geopolitical

strategies to protect their interests from a common foe due to the

transnational organised nature of the crime.7 While the existing mar itime

boundary disputes, political subterfuges, geostrategic power manoeuvres

3 See Jacobsen, K.L. ‘Pirates of the Niger Delta: Between the brown and blue waters’ Global

Maritime Crime Programme, UNODC 2019–2021 at 7. See also Anele, K.A. ‘Harvest of arrest but

no prosecution: Ideation toward strengthening the legal regime for prosecuting pirates in Nigeria’

(2020) 46(4) Commonwealth Law Bulletin 611 at 618–19.

4 Monji, Y. ‘Regional cooperation for antipiracy measures in South East Asia: A study of the

Malacca Strait’ (unpublished masters disseration, World Maritime University, 2014) 5–6 available at

https://commons.wmu.se/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1458&context=all_dissertations [Accessed

on 9 November 2022].

5 Ahmed, M. ‘Maritime piracy operations: Some legal issues’ (2020) Journal of International

Maritime Safety, Environmental Affairs, and Shipping 1 at 1.

6 It could be infer red that the use of the universal jurisdiction principle by the international

community as means of prosecuting pirates who operate on the sea, can be effectively achieved

through the regional cooperation framework. Youngs, G.T ‘Piracy in Somalia: A legal analysis

concerning the prosecution of pirate negotiators and pirate facilitators under the current US and

international framework’ (2014) 24(3) Indiana International & Comparative Law Review 809 at 857.

7 Piracy has been linked to transnational cr ime by many researchers. Schneider, P. ‘When protest

goes to sea: Theorizing mar itime violence by applying social movement theory to terrorism and piracy

in the cases of Nigeria and Somalia’ (2020) 51(4) Ocean Development & International Law 283 at 283 and

Bueger, C. & Edmunds, T. ‘Blue Crime: Conceptualising transnational organised crime at sea’ (2020)

119 Marine Policy 1 at 5. Further, piracy and transnational organised crimes have been linked together in

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