The Presidency on Tuesday said Nigeria has gained additional territory five times the size of its commercial city Lagos State.
Ajuri Ngelale, a spokesman for President Bola Tinubu, said this in a statement after Tinubu received the report of a presidential committee on the Extended Continental Shelf Project.
The committee was led by Professor Larry Awosika, a marine scientist with Surveyor Aliyu Omar, who served as secretary.
Ngelale said the advance project aims to extend Nigeria’s maritime boundaries by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
The president’s spokesman said the team has been involved in the project since Nigeria’s initial submission to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) in 2009.
“They informed the President that the UN has approved Nigeria’s submission, granting sovereignty over additional square kilometres of maritime territory,” Ngelale said.
“When the HPPC briefed former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2022 on the status of the project, the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) was still considering Nigeria’s submission and having technical interactions with the HPPC.”
Ngelale noted that these interactions and considerations have now culminated in the approval for Nigeria to extend its continental shelf beyond 200M (200 nautical miles).
“As it stands now, the area approved for Nigeria is about 16,300 square kilometres, which is about five times the size of Lagos State,’’ Surveyor Omar told the President.
He added that the official notification of the decision was conveyed to Nigeria by the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) in August 2023, shortly after President Tinubu assumed office.
Omar outlined the available options for Nigeria following the approval.
“The first option is to take the area gained, finalise the registration with the UN Secretary-General and close everything, meaning that we are satisfied with what we got. This will take at least one year,” Omar said.
“The second option is to take what we have right now, acquire more data, do a support write-up, and make a revised submission as recommended by CLCS for further consideration. This will take another four years.
“Either way (options), Nigeria will keep what has been approved.”
