The Role Of Domestic Politics And The Anatomy Of Piracy In The Gulf Of Guinea

The global trade,oil extraction and its investment,the safety of seafarers and the prosperity of most trading countries which are inextricably linked to the sea no doubt are threatened by the activities of pirates which constitute one of the major threats to the interests of coastal states in the Gulf of Guinea and their foreign trading partners.Nigerian pirates lured by economic gains however,target oil cargoes,steal cash and valuables of shipping crew and kidnap seafarers and oil workers for ransom by moving on speed boats from one state to another in the Gulf of Guinea.There is a consensus among analysts and policy makers that state presence at sea(coercion)is needed to ensure that piracy in the region is tackled and that regular naval training and naval patrol provide a higher cost and disincentive for pirates to plunder the sea and ensure the safety of seafarers.Paradoxically,pirates are not born on sea they are often a reflection of the societal structure and the domestic politics on land that marginalized,militarized and turned them to enemies of their own state civilization.This research is aimed at investigating how domestic politics or contestation within Nigeria influenced maritime piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.The research therefore looks at the role of politicians and the interest groups acting via the institutional mechanisms in the country on the occurrence of piracy off the coast of Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea.This study is significant as a critical analysis of how differences in views and unequal distribution of power or resources that exist in larger political society influence the external behavior of Nigeria.It is situated around the struggle or contest to gain access and control of the oil benefits which is attached to the dominant and lucrative base of the country's economy and the economic structure of the international system.The wealth is unevenly distributed based on its monopoly by a few politicians and elites at the corridor of power which create a struggle for power and economic survival where everyone seeks to have a share of the oil wealth.This research argues that the domestic competition or struggle for oil wealth and a complicated political and criminal enterprise within government institutions is crucial to explaining the spread of maritime piracy in the sub-region.The government and oil multinational neglects of the plights of oil rich Niger Delta due to corruption and mismanagement breed militancy and piracy off the coast of Nigeria that spread into the gulf of guinea.Nigeria's return to democracy leads to a widening competition for the oil wealth which had been concentrated in a few hands,state politicians aiming for power in coalition with their militant boys in the struggle for political ideology of ethnic nationalism and interest groups adopt legal and illegal means to explore the ingrained institutional mechanisms that had previously benefited the few during military rule.Piracy is just another means of taking a share of Nigeria's oil wealth for the pirates driven by inequalities,poverty,unemployment and also contracted by politicians who felt left out of the political arrangement to benefit from the inefficient and corrupt structures on land.Pirates operate a well organized and specialized system with sponsors in political power and political actors within government institutions who provide adequate information about the traffic of cargoes that move in and out Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea.The first chapter provides a background information on security and its widened scope beyond state security concerns and how piracy has emerged as a new threat to states and global norms such as free trade and energy investment.It gives a background of the occurrence of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.It introduces the main objective of the study which is to examine the role of Nigeria's domestic politics in shaping maritime piracy in the gulf of guinea in order to investigate the extent politicians and interest groups and institutional mechanisms influence piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.The next section is literature review and research methodology.The section introduces the gulf of guinea as an exemplar of reconciling conflicting and complex issues of security.It examines the previous literature on piracy in the region which leads to the research question on the study of how politicians and interest groups in Nigeria influence piracy in the gulf of guinea.The choice of Nigeria for this research is significant because Nigeria is the most populous in the region,the largest economic power with one of the strongest military and naval capability but the same has remained the center of maritime piracy in the region.Theoretical framework is explained and centered on Domestic Politics and Opposition of foreign policy analysis which can be summarized by the fact that many times the external behavior or international politics of states is a continuation of their domestic politics by other means.This is a single case study done through the use of process tracing.The second chapter first examines the historical background of Nigeria and the beginning of Nigeria's Niger Delta struggle.It shows how the political structure and political economy of oil in Nigeria generate a culture of over dependence,patronage,corruption and agreed political coalition of wealthy few which is contrasted by widespread inequalities and poverty in Nigeria and more critical for the study is the Niger Delta region.It proceeds to look at the linkage between the Niger Delta struggles or ethnic nationalism,state politicians and the emergence of militants who used piratical means to achieve a mixture of political ideology and private economic objectives for survival especially after their political allies have neglected them.It then shows how government strategy of coopting opposition from militants yields a partial result and stalemate which then spill over to the Gulf of Guinea region.The third chapter examines key institutions because institutional mechanisms provide means of effective governance of any country in relation with other actors in the International System.However,institutions may become a means of achieving political ideology and private interests to secure access to the benefits of state resources such as oil wealth.The study therefore shows how politicians use state security apparatus to smuggle arms and empower militants in order to advance their goal of controlling the state,the oil industry and other important maritime institutions.It shows what response this compromise and scandal generated despite the growing insecurity off the coast of Niger Delta where piracy has become a problem through the activities of insurgents/militants.The chapter then looks at the oil industry as a state behemoth which should function to effectively manage the most crucial but contested sector of the economy but is being undermined by structural and political arrangements which benefit a selected few politicians and oil interest groups.It shows that the industry is infiltrated by politicians and criminals who use the institutional power and access to information about the legal and illegal oil business in the region to sponsor and aid pirates who go in pursuit of oil cargoes in the gulf of guinea countries with two cases of Benin and Togo.Chapter four then explains the trends of piracy and the growing regional security efforts in the Gulf of Guinea.Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea follows three distinct but overlapping models of hijacking of oil cargo for theft,robbery and kidnapping for ransom.Piracy is however unevenly distributed but mostly concentrated off the coast of Nigeria where it spreads westward and eastward.It shows that piracy in the region is more violent and involves well organized and sophisticated but different network of pirate gangs mostly traced to Nigeria but with cross border network in terms of language and family linkage with other countries in the region.The second section shows growing regional cooperation in the ‘Operation Prosperity' cooperation between Nigeria and Benin,the Yaounde code of conduct,regional integrated mechanisms,inter-regional co-ordination centers and information sharing system in Ghana as some the efforts to repress piracy in the region.The last section looks at the Niger Delta in the quest for a lasting solution to piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.It shows that in the Niger Delta region where pirates emanate lies poor governance of self and institutions which do not allow meaningful infrastructural development to overhaul the grievance that drive piracy.Chapter five includes the summary,conclusion and policy recommendation.In summary,the chapter three founds that neglects,politics of crime and crime politics played by politicians in Niger Delta provide an army of militarized youth who depend on the use of force and violence for their economic benefits even though we cannot dismiss the fight for freeing the region from perceived marginalization.While the politics of amnesty creates fragmented groups of wealthy ex-militant lords receiving juicy contracts to secure Nigeria waters,some and new members realized the great benefits of piracy by operating on the coast of Nigeria and extending into other regions as Nigeria increased the naval security around her territorial water.Chapter four founds that government and institutions can be fragmented along segments such as ethnicity with each of these segments and their politicians attempting to control state and use the institutions and the state for their own advantages.Politicians and criminals therefore patronize and corrupt public institutions with the intention of gaining access to state oil wealth and benefits to the disadvantage of the general commonwealth.Chapter five founds that piracy may continue despite the growing regional cooperative security efforts because no significant efforts is made to deal with the problem of governance deficit,transparency and accountability in management of funds and resources which drive poverty,unemployment and inequality in the region.I conclude that instead of focusing majorly on the use of hard force or coercion to repress piracy,governments in the region should focus more on how to promote good governance,transparency and accountability in management and utilization of state resources.The study therefore recommends an inward looking solution to governance deficits in the Gulf of Guinea countries and institutions through transparency and accountability in management and allocation of state resources and wealth which is responsible for inequality,poverty and poor development in the sub region.Legal reforms and provision of national maritime laws to prosecute politicians and individuals alleged to be involved in oil thefts,smuggling of weapons and collusion with pirates irrespective of ethnic affiliation will help ensure fairness and justice.Clauses in the constitution which gives special privileges or protection from trials to public office holders when alleged of corrupt practices should be amended or removed as a path of dealing with corruption and guaranteeing transparency in government.The study equally recommends refineries construction,regional and international collaborative efforts to stop illegal refineries and the black markets where trade in stolen oil takes place within the region.