NAN-H-9
Maritime
By Uche Eletuo
Lagos, Nov. 13, 2016 (NAN) Mr Sesan Onileimo, the President of African Maritime Journalists Association (AMJA), on Sunday urged African leaders to close rank on maritime security to boost the continent’s economy.
Onileimo, who was recently inaugurated as the leader of the regional association, made the plea in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
He said that there was need for the leaders to work together to check the excesses of sea pirates and secure the waterways.
The pioneer president of the association said it was not by chance that 38 out of the 54 African countries were coastal states.
“This is a calculated plan by nature to make the region a blue economy that can trigger economic advancement in other sectors.
“There is vast endowment in aquatic and non-aquatic resources, including oceans, seas, coasts, lakes and underground waters.
“The rising insecurity in the rich Gulf of Guinea is scaring and can spur investor’s boycott of the region.
“Intra sub-regional trade is doing well to drive the cost of moving goods from one country to another in the North Africa.
“It will better if such trend is broaden in other African States,’’ Onileimo said.
He said that the spirit behind the recent African Union’s Extraordinary Summit on Maritime Security, Safety and Development in Africa hosted by the government of Togo was apt.
He said that a secured waterway could give life to a myriad of productive sectors, such as fisheries, aquaculture, tourism, transport, ship building, energy, bio-prospecting and underwater mining, among others.
“If leaders can harmonise their shipping and trade-related policies to further reduce barriers to trade and free movement of goods and persons, the blue economy will sustain Africa,’’ he said. (NAN)
EUC/IKU/GOK
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Edited by Tayo Ikujuni/Olagoke Olatoye