Victor Eyo Assi

Local Content Development Programme as an Alternative Approach to Enhancing Maritime Security in the Gulf of Guinea Region

David Nanor, Victor Eyo Assi

The corpus of studies has established that maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea (GoG) is a complicated issue that involves several political unrests, corruption, and youth unemployment. The mismatch between the fundamental problems driving maritime insecurity in the GoG region and the solutions created by regional organisations has received much concern from contemporary literature analysis. Working in the emerging oil and gas sector, especially for the youth in the GoG, is a dream that must come true at all costs. To these teeming youth, such professions come with much prestige and all the noble rewards applicable to other economic sectors. Failure by policymakers to integrate these teeming youth into the oil and gas industry by state and non-state actors is causing a social problem, eventually leading to piracy and armed robbery activities on the region’s waterways. This paper makes a case for the need to abandon the current approaches that merely seek to address the symptoms of maritime insecurity in the area in favour of a more comprehensive youth intervention program that will address the high percentage of youth unemployment in the region. Reviewing literature aligned with the stated objectives, the study adopted narrative and expository methods using secondary data. The study’s findings revealed, among others, the grave and ongoing threat of piracy, armed robbery, and transnational organised crime in the region, where current approaches cannot adequately address policy outcomes. The study recommends, among others, that it is pertinent to adopt a comprehensive strategy to better integrate young people into the various economic sectors, particularly the oil and gas industry, with an extensive local content development programme to reduce the high unemployment rate, youth restiveness and deter people from engaging in piracy and related maritime crimes.