….. How Nigeria added territory without war, litigation, and the unsung heroes
With the important announcement of the accession of United Nations to the nation’s request for the extension of the country’s Continnental Shelf a few days ago, no one should be in doubt any longer about the rising capacities of Nigeria in the emerging geopolitical equation, globally.
Adnan Rashid Nasser Al-Azri, chairman of the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS), who disclosed the development said following a successful submission, Nigeria’s continental shelf had now been extended from 200 nautical miles to 220 nautical miles.
The government of Nigeria under President Bola Tinubu promptly acknowledged this and praises the UN for acceding to the nation’s request.
The continental shelf of a sovereign state comprises the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas that extend beyond its land territory to the outer edge of the continental margin.
The effort to extend, as much as possible, Nigeria’s continental shelf began with a submission on 9th May, 2009 following new rules of engagement in accordance with Article 76 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) of 1982.
According to the Convention, Littoral States that pass the test of appurtenance qualify to make applications backed by geological and geophysical data to the United Nations.
On that day, Nigeria made a submission for an extended Continental shelf to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS), the UN body made up of twenty-one experts from all over the world charged with the responsibility of examining and approving all applications for an extended continental shelf. According to the country’s Ministry of Justice, Nigeria’s submission had teething problems right from the onset. The UN Subcommission appointed by the CLCS to consider Nigeria’s submission after its initial examination queried so many aspects, including the qualifier test of appurtenance and requested for more data and information in order to proceed with the consideration.
From the time the submission was made in May 2009, the project virtually came to a standstill because of lack of funds, and the UN Subcommission kept sending invitations to Nigeria to submit the data it requested, and also respond to the queries it posed, but the country could do none of these because there were no funds to conduct the data collection surveys.
This lull spurred the Nigerian Senate at its sitting on 14th February 2013, having recognized the causes of the delays, to make resolutions, asking Government to fund the project and constitute an independent technical body to manage the Extended Continental Shelf Project and to cut out bureaucracies of government.
When President Muhammadu Buhari came in 2015, the Project was at a standstill, and when he was briefed on 4th November 2015 by the National Boundary Commission, he immediately constituted the High Powered Presidential Committee on Nigeria’s Extended Continental Shelf Project (HPPC) on 5thNovember 2015.
He named the then Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami to chair the committee, with Surveyor Aliyu Omar as Member/Secretary. Other members of the Committee included Professor Lawrence Awosika (the Chairman of the UNCLCS at that time, himself a Nigerian), Mr. Lufadeju Aderinola from the Department of Petroleum Resources, Dr. Regina Folorunsho from the Nigerian Institute of Oceanography, Rear Admiral Chukwuemeka E. Okafor, the Hydrographer of the Nigerian Navy, Mr. Victor John from the Federal Ministry of Environment, Mr. Zachariah M. Ifu from the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Director General, National Boundary Commission, Dr. M. B. Ahmad.
