6th May, 2011
Maritime consultant, Alhaji Galtima Liman, has identified lack of political will as the reason for insecurity in the nation’s territorial waters.
Liman stated this in a chat with the P.M.Maritime said the agencies saddled with the responsibility of protecting the country’s waters are aware of happenings in the waters but lack the structure to effectively combat the activities of sea robbers.
Liman, who was the presidential candidate of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) in the 2007 election called on government to provide adequate fund for the agencies to procure the needed equipment that can match those of the sea robbers.
“It is not that they are not aware of what is happening in the maritime environment, but the issue is lack of political will on the part of the top leadership of this country, to say never again are we going to allow these things to happen.
“The second issue is that there is no way the various agencies can do anything, given their financial constraints. So, it a budgetary allocation issue,†Liman concluded.