Vice Admiral Ogalla’s Commitment To Bolstering Nigerian Navy Standing Through Bilateral And Multilateral Collaboration

The Gulf of Guinea is one of the most important economic corridors in the world, given its abundance of natural and mineral resources, including oil and gas, and its status as a major maritime corridor for trade. The Gulf is a region that is vital not only to the economies of regional countries, but also other parts of the world, and every country that trades with Africa is very interested in ensuring that the area is safe and secure from all forms of criminal threat and activity. This would explain the active role that the European Union plays in supporting the Navies in the Gulf, through the EU Strategy and Action Plan for the Gulf of Guinea to Address Transnational Crime, as well as the development of the YARIS (Yaoundé Architecture Regional Information System) maritime surveillance software.

It also explains the support of the People’s Republic of China, which in December 2024 hosted the second edition of the Gulf of Guinea Security Situation Seminar, a gathering of Naval Heads and the Inter-regional Coordination Center, under the theme: “Maritime Security Situation and Cooperation in the Gulf of Guinea.” With Nigeria being the biggest economy and most formidable military in the Gulf of Guinea, it is not surprising that the country plays a leading role when it comes to the maintenance of peace and security, through the direct interventions of the Nigerian Navy, as well as through mobilizing and supporting regional and multinational cooperation. In November 2024, the Nigerian Navy hosted the 8th Symposium of Heads of Navies and Coastguards of the Gulf of Guinea Region.



That gathering, which had as its theme, “Maritime Security and Sustainable Development in the Gulf of Guinea” is one of the most important forums focused on peace and security in Gulf of Guinea and West Africa, with the 2024 edition assembling about 200 delegates from various GoG countries, as well from regional institutions, European countries and the United States. Nigeria has also led the push for the establishment of a Combined Maritime Task Force for the Gulf of Guinea, and has expressed its desire and readiness to support by hosting the headquarters of the Task Force in Lagos, a position affirmed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the 38th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union (AU) Heads of State and Government in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in February. The Nigerian Navy under Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ikechukwu Ogalla is resolute in its ambitions for continental impact, asserting its credentials and capacity well beyond the Gulf of Guinea.

It is in line with this that the Federal Government in February 2025 signed an agreement with the African Union to provide Strategic Sea Lift Services for African peacekeeping and support operations, humanitarian efforts, natural disaster assistance, and the movement of military personnel and materiel. According to the terms of that agreement, the Nigerian Navy will make a vessel available to fulfill these services on a cost-recovery basis. Vice Admiral Ogalla is indeed an unrelentingly vocal advocate of Nigeria’s central role in maintaining the Gulf of Guinea as a stable, secure and business-friendly maritime environment.

It is noteworthy that Nigeria was taken off the global list of piracy-prone countries in March 2022, and Vice Admiral Ogalla has diligently maintained this status since he assumed office in June 2023, in part through the careful nurturing of bilateral and multilateral security and defence relationships. Proof of this commitment to relationship-building abounds, looking at the Naval Chief’s various bilateral engagements in this outgoing first quarter of 2025. In January, Vice Admiral Ogalla received courtesy visits from the Bangladeshi High Commissioner to Nigeria, His Excellency Mr Masudur Rahman, and the new Ambassador of Denmark to Nigeria, His Excellency Jens Ole Bach Hansen.

Also in January, the Indian Navy Ship (INS) TUSHIL sailed to Nigeria on a Port Visit. At the beginning of March, the Director of the French Directorate for Cooperation in Security and Defence was at the Naval Headquarters in Abuja for a courtesy visit to the Naval Chief. During that meeting the French Navy outlined potential areas for deepening cooperation with their Nigerian counterparts.

Indeed, France has been a critical partner to the Nigerian Navy, playing active roles in regional maritime exercises such as Exercise GRAND AFRICAN NEMO and Exercise CROCODILE LIFT. For Vice Admiral Ogalla, thought leadership is also an important aspect of leading Africa’s most dynamic Navy, and he demonstrates this by his readiness to share insights and shape narratives in the most important intellectual spaces in the country and outside. As Guest Speaker for the Annual Faculty of the Social Sciences’ Distinguished Annual Public Lecture, at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka – his alma mater – in October 2024, spoke on the topic “Safeguarding Nigeria’s Blue Economy Potentials: The Role of the Nigerian Navy.

” In that speech he harped upon the importance of multilateralism, positing that “multinational synergies are necessary to enhance maritime security for safeguarding the enormous potentials of the nation’s Blue Economy.” Three months later, in January 2025, Vice Admiral Ogalla was at the National Defence College Abuja – Nigeria’s highest military institution for the training of senior military and police officers and high-ranking civil servants – to deliver a lecture on “Maritime Security and National Development – The Role of the Nigerian Navy” to participants of NDC Course 33, including delegates from foreign countries. Earlier, during the 14th Trans-Regional Seapower Symposium in Venice, Italy in October 2024, Vice Admiral Ogalla delivered a paper titled, “Preserving the Underwater – the Secure and Sustainable Use of the Underwater” to an audience of Naval Chiefs and maritime experts from around the world.

On the sidelines of that Symposium he held bilateral engagements with the Chief of the Italian Navy, and the American Chief of Naval Operations (CNO). Also in October 2024, he delivered an address on “Non-Traditional Maritime Security Challenges/Threats in the African Maritime Domain”, at the 5th Sea Power Symposium for Africa Symposium (SPAS) hosted by the South African Navy (SAN) in Cape Town. Under Vice Admiral Ogalla’s watch – in his words, “As someone who has dedicated a significant part of my career to safeguarding Nigeria’s maritime domain” – the Nigerian Navy continues to demonstrate its readiness not only to fulfil that constitutional mandate of maritime domain security, but also to actively engage with key partners and stakeholders, and shape strategic narratives that bolster Nigeria’s military standing.

Fadoju writes from Abuja, Nigeria.