The Nigerian Navy, first Navy in the Gulf of Guinea
The Nigerian Navy is structured into five commands, three of which are operationally oriented.
Each of these three major operational commands is headed by a Flag Officer whose responsibilities extend specifically to the limit of the exclusive economic zone. Spread over the entire coastline, they are called Naval Command:
- The Western Naval Command (WNC) is located in Apapa, Lagos.
- The Eastern Naval Command (ENC) headquarters are located in Calabar, capital of Cross River State, near the border with Cameroon.
- Finally, the Central Naval Command (CNC) is the third operational command of the Nigerian Navy. Its headquarters are located in Yenagoa, capital of Bayelsa State.
Each of these commands has ships, schools, hospitals as well as Forward Operational Bases (FOBs). Thus, the Maritime Operation Centres (MOCs) of each command, complemented by the FOBs, represent 14 monitoring and crisis management centres enabling the Nigerian Navy to ensure permanent surveillance and control of its coastal approaches.
The Nigerian Navy connected to YARIS
A GoGIN team was deployed to Lagos in March to train staff from these centres on the use of YARIS. The session took place at the WNC’s Regional Maritime Awareness Capability Centre Training School (RMACTS) and allowed 23 staff members of the Naval Command to be familiarised with the platform.
For a fortnight, four trainers from GoGIN+ and the Yaoundé Architecture delivered courses and conducted exercises based on the Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) of Nigeria
Find out more on the national YARIS training
With the acquisition of YARIS, all the Nigerian Navy centres will now be connected, enabling them to share the maritime situation and suspicious events monitored in real-time, to alert, if necessary, exchange information and give instructions. In addition to sharing the maritime situation, this tool also facilitates effective coordination, in particular through instant messaging.
The warm welcome given to the trainers, the interest aroused by the YARIS tool and the motivation of the trainees will quickly enable the Nigerian Navy to strengthen the surveillance of its maritime areas, in a significant way, while maintaining coordinated communication with the entire Yaoundé Architecture for which the platform is intended.