ENFORCEMENT FRAMEWORK FOR MARITIME REGULATIONS: PENALTIES AND COMPLIANCE IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The Nigerian government is desirous of developing its maritime sector. The promotion and development of indigenous tonnage is at the core of the cabotage policy of restriction of the use of foreign vessels, construction of foreign vessels and man power involvement in cabotage trade in Nigeria. Maritime regulations and a penalty regime are therefore structured towards the attainment of the cabotage policy goals. However, the enforcement mechanism and in particular, the instrumentality of the judicial system has not contributed in actualising the much-anticipated policy objectives. This paper therefore calls on the legal enforcement parameters to act in synergy and apply policy realisation symmetry. Without the necessary collaboration, legislative stipulations may suffer setback on the altar of legal technicalities. There is now a move from technical justice to the realisation of substantive justice in Nigeria, the paper however, recommends the training and retraining of enforcement stakeholders, especially judicial officers entrusted with cabotage/maritime justice dispensation responsibilities amongst other things.