The choice of this write up is centered on the fact that our waterways is another environment but similar to that of the land where a lot of human activities ranging from travelling and transportation of goods amongst others. The development has therefore ignited the need for us to visualize the activities at our waterways, unlawful activities of Pirates, role of stakeholders to mitigate unlawful activities of pirates in the inland waterways.
Piracy could be explained as an act of robbing, at times kidnapping as well as exhibitions of other criminal violence by ship or boat borne attackers upon another ship or boat along our waterways or coastal areas. The goal as gathered range from stealing cargo, boat engine and leave passengers stranded on top of the waterways as well as stealing of other valuables.
Pirate activities undoubtedly has severally resulted to loss of revenue, killing of persons on board, maiming, kidnapping, stealing of goods and vandalism of some important part of the ship and boat.
The need to mitigate pirates and their activities through stakeholders’ involvement and participation cannot be overemphasized due to its unpleasant consequences on human and economy amongst others.
Action Plan: A well organized and conducted town hall meeting/regular interface with stakeholders in the Riverine communities such as NIMASA, the traditional rulers of the communities within the affected waterways/areas, youth leaders, fishermen, corporate bodies, government Representatives, owners of identified local jetties, owners of identified private jetties, government jetties, local boat owners amongst others, cannot be overemphasized. Regular carrying out of campaign messages on the need to say NO to piracy on our waterways and be a champion, Say No to violence, violence is stoppable, peace is possible, be a good citizen today. What this also entail is that the awareness, advocacy, sensitization and reorientation will have to be increased on the part of all maritime stakeholders, the media amongst others. The media need to get into the issue and help set it as an agenda so that everybody will be aware of issue of maritime security and safety of our waterways to bridge the gap of low sensitizations and awareness on the subject matter within the affected riverrine communities. The result of this awareness creation, sensitization, advocacy and reorientation is that it will help not just to mitigate the incidences of maritime insecurity but to aid in cutting the supply chains and conveyor belt of perpetration including those hatching vision to join the bandwagon of piracy in our society.
However, the following measures are also relevant in this direction such as:
A platform to encourage constant security drill at least once a month by crew members to create awareness, increase security surveilance as well as strict adherence to provided security plan of every vessel/boat. In all regular town hall meetings, sensitization will help to mitigate pirates and their activities in our waterways and thus helping to reshapen effective maritime security in our waterways as well as their channels.
The sensitization or interface should provide a platform for crew members to always know the areas they are travelling to and be able to do a thorough risk assessment before embarking on each journey and increase of look outs to aid in maritime security.
The need also to come up with a clear cut counter piracy unit which must be equipped with necessary technical aids, tools and training will also be an added advantage to help strenghten maritime security intelligence.
