As Nigerians’ celebrate another end of year in several ways, news broke out with the important announcement of the accession of United Nations to the nation’s request for the extension of the country’s Continental Shelf. Announcing the good news, Adnan Rashid Nasser Al-Azri, chairman of the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS), said that following a successful submission, “Nigeria’s continental shelf has now been extended from 200 nautical miles to 220 nautical miles”.
Welcoming the development, the Nigerian government led by President Bola Tinubu promptly acknowledged and praised the UN for acceding to the nation’s request. It is important to state that 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. In view of this strategic achievement to Nigeria, one can recall that the journey of Nigeria’s continental shelf request 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.
Former SSA on Media and Publicity to former President Muhammadu Buhari, Garba Shehu, wrote an article titled: How Nigeria added territory without war, litigation, and the unsung heroes'”. He said, “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 21 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.
Records show that from the time the submission was made in May 2009, the project virtually came to a standstill because of lack of funds, while 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 them because there were no funds to conduct the data collection surveys.
“This lull spurred the Nigerian Senate to at its sitting in February 2013, asked government to fund the project and constitute an independent technical body to manage the project and cut out bureaucracies of government.” On coming to power in 2015, President Buhari after receiving briefing from the National Boundary Commission, immediately constituted the High Powered Presidential Committee on Nigeria’s Extended Continental Shelf Project (HPPC) and named the then Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN to chair the nine-member committee and fast track the the consideration of the request..
Buhari had during the receipt of the committee’s report expressed the hope that the project was fully on course and would be achieved without ‘‘war, litigation, or purchase.’’ Underscoring his special interest in the project, PMB told the Malami-led committee: “I have always had special interest in this project right from the first day I heard of it, because this type of project where Nigeria will gain additional territory without conflict has never happened before in her lifetime”.
It was heart warming to PMB that today Nigeria had gotten an additional maritime area as ‘a bit of space that she deserves under UNCLOS’. Following a successful submission to the UN body, Nigeria’s continental shelf had now been extended from 200 nautical miles to 220 nautical miles. It is not in doubt that the territory lies within the area dubbed as ‘the Golden Triangle’ in the Gulf of Guinea, which contains unquantifiable resources some of which have not even been discovered yet.
Buhari has again scored another point with this accomplishment in his long list of strategic legacy projects he had set out to achieve. I congratulate Nigeria and Nigerians for this journey so far and express the hope that as we begin a new year, 2024, the development will bring bountiful results to the country.
Ilallah writes from Emeka Anyaoku street, Maitama, Abuja via [email protected].
