Gboyega Oyetola’s Blue Ministry

Campaigning on the mantra of ‘renewed hope’, Bola Ahmed Tinubu emerged victorious in the keenly contested presidential election in February 2023. However, the initial appointment of 70-year-old Oyetola as Nigeria’s minister of transportation on 16 August 2023 and his subsequent redeployment on 20 August 2023 to helm the affairs of a newly established Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy sparked disparate conversations; with arguments cross-cutting the ministry’s policy direction, the minister’s capacity and Nigeria’s preparedness to swim in the global blue economy turf.

For an administration that promised to cut down on costs of governance and initiate an economic reboot, the decision to create a new ministry and appoint a long-time political loyalist as its minister requires a clearer justification. While the ministry was created with a mission to, ‘formulate and implement policies, programmes and initiatives that will facilitate the development of an inclusive maritime and blue economy assets, driven by an operating environment that meets global best standards,’ critics have argued that this decision was an unnecessary overlap, a waste of taxpayers’ money and a duplicity of ministerial portfolios. This is given the existence of a Ministry of Environment with a mission to, ‘ensure environmental protection, natural resources conservation and sustainable development.’ Additionally, this is alongside the existence of the Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation, which has a mandate to, ‘provide sustainable access to safe and sufficient water to meet the cultural, social and economic needs of all Nigerians.’

However, sustainability enthusiasts have also presumed that the new ministry will serve a specialized purpose and the creation, at the time, was welcome. Isa Olalekan Elegbede, a blue economy expert and lecturer at the Lagos State University, writing for The Conversation emphatically reckoned that, ‘the ministry will tap the country’s rich marine resources as an element of [Tinubu’s] national economic framework.’ Nigeria has a coastline that stretches about 853 kilometres facing the Atlantic Ocean and an additional 13,000 square kilometres of water covering an exclusive economic zone of 200 nautical miles. Its maritime interests even span the Gulf of Guinea, covering roughly 574,800 square nautical miles with a 2,874 nautical mile coastline. Thus, other players have backed the creation of this new ministry as one of President Tinubu’s many measures to trigger blue growth and diversify Nigeria’s economy by exploring the nation’s enormous ocean-related potential.