PORT SECURITY THREATS AND VULNERABILITIES
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
This section of the study presents a brief outline of the research, the problem and objective of the research. It goes further to explain research questions, delimitation and structure of the study. Thomas Friedman (2007,8) described in his book entitled, “The world is Flat”, that the inter connected global economy enabled by advances in Information and Communications Technology and other factors that he terms “Flatteners”, does not only empowers the software writers and the computer geeks to collaborate on the work in the flat world, but also AL Qaeda and other terrorist networks. The playing field is not being leveled only in ways that draw in, and
super empower a whole new group of innovators, but also a whole new group of angry, frustrated, and humiliated
men and women”. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, Paris: July 2003) reported, “The
world pattern for global prosperity has been predicated on near-frictionless transport and trade.” Seaport is a crucial
component of the world economy and global transportation infrastructure, Nevertheless generally there hasn’t been a
comprehensive governmental regulation and security oversight. The terrorist attacks of 11th September 2001 that
collapsed the World Trade Centre and Pentagon in the United States, has significantly impacted multitude of sectors internationally. The tragic incident has brought radical change in the maritime industry. One of the major elements that
arose in the response to that attack was the approach to security. This change led to change in the manner in which
security is being conducted and practiced, due to the numbers security measures, rules as well as regulation to avoid
such incident in the future. International Maritime Organization (IMO) and U.S have implemented several measures
after the tragic event, for the purpose of heightening the security of maritime business. For instance, Inter national
Ships and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code, was ratified by International Maritime Organization in 2002, and called
on every member states to apply the code by 2004. The Maritime Transportation Security Act 2002(MTSA) and the
Security and Accountability for Every port Act 2006(SAFE Port 2006) by United State was designed to improve
national maritime security though, these two Act have international elements planned to strengthen security of the
facilities by which Goods destined to United State are traveled. The main focuses were on the vulnerabilities of the
ships and the port facilities, which could be exploited by the terrorist and other criminals. Though the current security
measures have enhanced some aspects of security at Nigeria port, yet some of the vulnerabilities, which are crucial,
still hang out. The current regime has made security at the port very rigorous, for instance strict measures regarding
containerized cargo. Port security measures could be infiltrated by terrorist or illic it traffickers, if appropriates
mechanism are not put in place to verify identities, credentials,
and the intention of individual, ships or cargo arriving at the port. This thesis shall define re search problem and the
objective, then the issues relating to port security threats and the vulnerabilities, including its economic impacts on the
port. Also how port security measures have been applied in Port of Nigeria shall be demonstrated. Though, current
security regime have enhance some part of the port security, nevertheless they have failed to tackle the important
vulnerabilities which terrorist and other criminals are capable of exploiting. Despite the fact that there is strong
physical security at the ports, as well as the strict inspection rules for the containerized cargo, the absence of
mechanisms to verify the identities and credentials of every individual who has access to the ports, secure non-containerized cargo, and prevent criminal from accessing and exploiting the port facilities, the whole port security measure can be undermined.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
All sections within Nigeria and international community have welcomed the breakthrough of offshore oil and gas in the
Western part of Nigeria. Nigerians have is expectation that this breakthrough will bring significant economic benefit
to Country. Nigeria Port being the main facility for receiving ships and transferring cargoes, the offshore oil and gas
exploitation and development, has brought enormous responsibilities and challenges to the port Authorities and the
users. The significant issues among, is how authority is going to manage the security, safety and environmental issues that will arise over the next decade. The challenge is that, offshore oil and gas extraction includes a complex net of ships, structures, installations and people, all interacting with each other. These activities raise concern to security, safety and environmental protection considerations at a high level of intensity, at this time that the off shore production is in full swing. Therefore there is the need to identify the related threats and vulnerability to be able to develop a comprehensive, but resilient security system to deal with the threats and vulnerabilities.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The main objective of this thesis is to identify the threats and the vulnerabilities concerning Nigeria port in Nigeria,
and finally recommend measure to overcome the identified threats and vulnerabilities.
PORT SECURITY THREATS AND VULNERABILITIES