The Gulf of Guinea and West Africa: a new focal point?

[davidbfpo]

SWC have touched upon the potential for trouble in West Africa, Guinea and the waters offshore - the Gulf Of Guinea, where there is more piracy than off Somalia and oil shipments go AWOL.

Taken from a commercial offering:

Summary

The Gulf of Guinea is staring at a precipice of regional maritime insecurity. The continuing economic, social and political impact is pronounced and will continue unless there is focused investment in both manpower and resources by more capable outside nations or organisations. The loss of $2 billion US to the local annual economy - from offshore oil, fishing, and commercial shipping - is too large a price to pay for a region which is spasmodically emerging from decades of civil war and anarchy.

The region produces 5.4 million barrels of oil per day, and it contains 50.4 billion barrels of proven reserves. Nigeria now supplies 10% of US imported oil and is the world’s eighth largest oil exporter. Events in Afghanistan and Somalia illustrate the dangers that come from the nexus between organised crime, terrorism and failed/failing states. While many look to Africa for an African solution to retake control of their seas, they can’t achieve this without timely Western assistance.

Our collective inactivity is the product of a paucity of constabulary platforms and hamstrung political will which fractures any hope of a comprehensive approach to the problem. So perhaps if we were to learn a lesson or two from Somalia and Afghanistan rather than just identify them, shouldn’t our militaries provide a gentle hand on the tiller and guide the people of the Gulf of Guinea towards a more secure and stable future?

Link:http://www.defenceiq.com/naval-and-m...f-of-guinea-u/

From my armchair this is an issue far beyond the waters and yet again an implied Western naval deployment. Nor setting up local coastguard etc.

Not to overlook the impact of cocaine trafficking.

[Redactor]

"So perhaps if we were to learn a lesson or two from Somalia and Afghanistan rather than just identify them...."

Impact of cocaine trafficking might be degraded if we learned a lesson from LATAM:

http://ndupress.ndu.edu/cocaine-instability-africa.html

[bourbon]

...shouldn’t our militaries provide a gentle hand on the tiller and guide the people of the Gulf of Guinea towards a more secure and stable future?

The expression “secure and stable” is open to interpretation, and when spouted in the US it often lends itself to exporting democracy. As someone more inclined to the realist persuasion, for me “secure and stable” will translate into strongman type leaders. They are conflicting approaches and both have their flaws, but this clash is inevitable with an open-ended expression like “secure and stable”.

[Tom Odom]

Credible politicians and elections are also vital to public integrity. Accordingly, West African states should devise systems to properly restrict, audit, and, when appropriate, sanction political parties, politicians, and donors who engage in influence peddling. A critical component of implementing such a system is developing the capacity, both within government and among watchdog groups, for forensic accounting so authorities can trace the intricate money trail involved. An immediate and simple reform African states can take is to expand requirements for disclosure of political parties' and candidates' financial information such as balance sheets and cash flow statements, measures that have gained widespread support among Latin America's citizen groups and business community. This disclosure information should be updated regularly and made easily accessible so as to help expose suspicious accumulation of wealth to voters.

This author needs desperately to understand the phrase "WAWA*" in all its glory. Such a disclosure would --if it could be enforced--only make others jealous. House alarms in the Congo were the equivalent of a "blue-light" special to the locals.

You cannot safely use a credit card at the top hotel in Abuja, the capitol city of Nigeria. Good luck with financial disclosure. In any case, drug smuggling in West Africa is NOT a new development and is not limited to the western portion of the continent.

Tom

*West Africa Wins Again