The Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to Bayelsa State Governor on Tourism and publisher of the Blue Economy Online Magazine, Dr. Piriye Kiyaramo has tasked the new Minister of Marine and Blue Economy to commence the process of evolving a National Blue Economy Roadmap with a view to providing a comprehensive blue growth strategy to achieve ocean-based sustainable development in the litorial states.
Speaking with newsmen in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Wednesday on prospects and opportunities that the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy could provide, Dr. Kiyaramo explained that the Blue Economy also covers sectors like offshore wind energy, tourism, marine biotechnology, fishing, agriculture, and marine transport.
He noted that the oceans and seas which cover more than 70% of the Earth’s surface, provide food, medicines, renewable energy, and natural resources to billions of people around the globe, reiterating that the massive underutilised blue economy potential in Nigeria, present enormous prospects for blue growth and development in the litorial states.
While commending President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for his foresight in creating the new Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, Dr. Kiyaramo maintained that Nigeria, with a coastline, measuring about 853km, running through Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Rivers, Ondo and Lagos, bordering the Atlantic ocean, with Bayelsa State having the longest coastline and strategically located in the Gulf of Guinea, provides a unique opportunity to harness the potential of blue growth.
The publisher reiterated that Nigeria was rightly positioned to harness her marine resources with a view to developing all other related sectors such as fisheries and coastal aquaculture, which offer huge potential for job creation, food and livelihoods.
Dr. Kiyaramo however, expressed concern that the lack of a strong marine policy, coupled with the seeming weak ocean governance, and unsustainable use of marine resources, resulting in illegal unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU), marine pollution, haphazard blue tourism development, and unplanned coastal development could constitute huge risk factors for the effective execution of the blue economy.
The Facilitator of South-South Tourism Roundtable Initiative, noted that the blue economy should be seen as a policy tool that acts like a sustainable marine economic development model which drives economic growth along side job and wealth creation for coastal communities.
He pointed out that human civilization has been indebted to the oceans from decade to decade, being a vital source of food, energy and minerals, saying that the oceans also act as primary media upon which global trade such as seaborne international trade takes place.
“Being an ocean-based country, Nigeria has immense potential to become an advanced country by all standards. The shift to a blue economy will require profound and structural changes in the regulatory-management-governance policy process, using the ecosystem-based Marine Spatial Planning method as is being done in other maritime countries across the globe.
“Blue economy development process should be eco-friendly with special focus on the conservation of the marine ecosystem. For us to have a sustainable blue development, we need to evolve a strong ocean policy and ocean governance system in place that would involve a strategic framework or roadmap, “Dr. Kiyaramo maintained.
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