Blue Economy
The King of the Waterfront: Why Oba Oniru’s Presence at WISTA’S Lagos Conference is More Than a Royal Courtesy Call
THE KING OF THE WATERFRONT: WHY OBA ONIRU’S PRESENCE AT WISTA’S LAGOS CONFERENCE IS MORE THAN A ROYAL COURTESY CALL
When Africa’s premier women-in-maritime conference convenes on Victoria Island on June 25, the monarch whose ancestors owned the land will be in the room — and that changes the conversation
By Oghenewoke Osaweren | Waterways News
There is a detail buried beneath the diplomatic language of conference announcements that, once seen, cannot be unseen.
The 8th WISTA Africa Regional Conference is scheduled for June 25 and 26, 2026, at the prestigious Eko Hotels and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos. The Oniru of Iruland, Oba Abdulwasiu Omogbolahan Lawal, has confirmed his attendance and royal backing for the event. And in that confirmation lies a story of extraordinary circularity — because a substantial portion of Victoria Island was formerly under the control of the Oniru chieftaincy family of Lagos. In 1948, the Lagos Executive Development Board paid 250,000 pounds in compensation for the land acquired from the Oniru family, with an additional 150,000 pounds paid for the inhabitants and shrines destroyed.
The monarch whose forebears were displaced from the very ground on which Eko Hotels stands — who now reigns over the kingdom of Iru, bounded on all sides by water — is walking into Africa’s foremost gathering of women maritime professionals on ancestral waterfront soil. His is not a ceremonial endorsement. It is a homecoming of historical weight.
The Conference: What WISTA Is Bringing to Lagos
The 8th WISTA Africa Regional Conference, organised under the umbrella of WISTA International, will bring together an influential gathering of maritime leaders, policymakers, regulators, investors, energy experts, legal practitioners, logistics professionals, and business executives from across Africa and around the world for two days of strategic dialogue, networking, and collaboration.
The conference comes at a pivotal time for Africa’s maritime and blue economy sectors, as stakeholders navigate emerging global trends surrounding energy transition, sustainability, digital transformation, trade competitiveness, taxation, and inclusive economic development.
For WISTA Nigeria, the stakes are personal as much as professional. The hosting carries historic significance as the association celebrates thirty-two years of impact and leadership, having been established as the first National WISTA Association in Africa. Under President Dr. Odunayo Ani — who also serves as Director of Finance at NIMASA — WISTA Nigeria has reaffirmed its position as a leading voice for women in maritime, anchored on strong leadership, accountability, and a clear strategic vision for the future.
Conference sessions will focus on a broad range of critical themes including Africa’s Blue Economy, Energy Transition and Sustainability, Maritime Trade and Investment Opportunities, Taxation, Innovation and Digital Transformation, Leadership, Diversity and Inclusion, and Shipping, Logistics and Supply Chain Resilience. Participation is expected from several countries across Africa, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and the Americas.
Confirmed keynote speakers include prominent figures drawing the industry’s attention. Dr. Dakuku Peterside — management turnaround expert, former NIMASA Director-General, and one of the continent’s foremost maritime thought leaders — has been confirmed as a keynote speaker, marking his first keynote appearance at a maritime event on Nigerian soil in five years.
The King and His Waters
To understand why Oba Oniru’s attendance matters to the maritime community specifically, one must understand the geography of Iruland — not as it appears on modern Lagos maps, but as it was constituted long before colonial reorganisation.
The Iru-Victoria Island Local Government is described by its people as the “Foreshore” council because of the various waters surrounding it. To the south, the Atlantic Ocean. To the north, Lagos Lagoon and the Five Cowrie Creek. To the south-east are the Kuramo and Okunde waters. To the west, the Macgregor Canal. The kingdom of Iruland is, by its very geography, a maritime kingdom. It is enclosed by water. It has always been defined by water.
Victoria Island was initially surrounded completely by water — the Atlantic Ocean to the south, Five Cowrie Creek to the north, Lagos Lagoon to the west, and swamps to the east. The Eko Hotels and Suites, where the WISTA conference will be hosted, sits within this historically waterbound terrain.
Since ascending the throne in 2020, Oba Abdulwasiu Omogbolahan Lawal has governed with an unusually modern understanding of the intersection between royal authority, coastal geography, and economic development. He inaugurated the Oniru Business and Culture Day — a structured engagement platform anchored on the philosophy of “Peace Through Partnership,” with a deliberate focus on coordinating growth, structuring dialogue and ensuring shared prosperity. The Lagos State Governor pledged commitment to full implementation of the Victoria Island and Iruland Master Plan, with particular emphasis on the waterfront and commercial activities along the waterways.
A monarch who has made waterfront economic activation a cornerstone of his reign lending his royal authority to Africa’s most consequential maritime conference for women professionals is not a protocol exercise. It is a policy statement.
Why Traditional Authority Still Matters in Maritime Spaces
Nigeria’s maritime governance discourse tends to be dominated by federal agencies, port authorities, and shipping companies. The role of traditional institutions in shaping the social and cultural environment within which maritime commerce operates is persistently undervalued.
Yet the evidence from Lagos suggests that royal endorsement and community legitimacy remain powerful accelerants for economic activity — particularly in coastal and waterfront zones where customary land relationships, community security dynamics, and cultural hospitality shape the environment in which businesses operate and conferences convene.
The Commander of Nigerian Navy Ship Beecroft paid a courtesy visit to the Oba of Lagos earlier this year, ahead of the Nigerian Navy’s 70th Anniversary, specifically to seek royal support and formal invitation for the monarch’s participation — because sustained collaboration between the Navy and traditional institutions, especially in coastal communities, plays a critical role in economic development and security.
The Navy understands what conference organisers are beginning to recognise: in Nigeria’s coastal cities, royal authority is not decorative. It is infrastructural.
Oba Oniru’s backing for WISTA’s regional conference carries an implicit message to investors, foreign delegates, and African governments considering Lagos as a maritime hub: the waterfront kingdom’s traditional authority stands behind this gathering. That is not a small thing in a region where trust, community relationships, and cultural legitimacy often determine whether international business stays or leaves.
WISTA at 32: Africa’s First, Still Leading
The WISTA Africa Conference traditionally welcomes approximately 150 local and international delegates representing maritime authorities, port authorities, shippers, agents, business owners, maritime lawyers, maritime media, government authorities and other leaders in the sector.
But this eighth edition carries an ambition that transcends delegate numbers. This edition of the WISTA Africa Conference is intentionally structured to move beyond conversations — providing a platform to learn from best practices, expand professional networks, and facilitate partnerships and business deals that deliver measurable value.
That shift — from dialogue to deals — is significant. African maritime conferences have long been criticised for generating eloquent communiqués without commercial outcomes. WISTA Nigeria’s explicit reframing of the Lagos conference as a transactions platform positions it differently.
The timing also intersects with a broader continental moment. Nigeria’s Ministry of Blue Economy has been actively exploring capital market funding models for maritime projects, and the 11th Our Ocean Conference held in Mombasa this week — the first edition on African soil — focused directly on ocean sustainability, coastal communities, and economic opportunities, attracting over 1,000 participants from around 100 countries. Lagos will be receiving Africa’s maritime investment and policy attention exactly as this continental momentum peaks.
The Waterways Dimension
For readers of Waterways.ng, the significance of this conference extends beyond its gender inclusion agenda — important as that is — into a question that our publication tracks persistently: what does Nigeria’s blue economy actually look like when examined from the water inward, rather than from the land outward?
Victoria Island, Iruland, and the Lagos waterfront represent perhaps the single most commercially concentrated stretch of maritime-adjacent real estate in West Africa. With two five-star hotels, high-class restaurants, diplomatic missions, and headquarters of banks, oil companies and other multinational firms, Iruland has become the nerve centre of business and tourism in Nigeria. Almost all of this commercial density exists because water defined this space — historically, geographically, and economically.
When Africa’s women maritime professionals gather here on June 25, they will be meeting not just in a Lagos hotel but in a kingdom built on water, endorsed by a king whose land was the waterfront, in a country that is still debating what it means to genuinely harness a blue economy rather than simply announce one.
Oba Oniru’s attendance at the WISTA conference is a reminder that maritime history in Nigeria is living, local, and royal — and that the conversations happening at Eko Hotel in twelve days’ time are rooted in a much longer and deeper relationship between this city, its people, and its waters
Waterways News covers Nigeria’s rivers, creeks, coasts, and inland waterways — the communities that live by them, the economy they carry, and the governance that shapes their future.
Blue Economy
Lagos to Host Abuja MoU’s Inaugural Regional Port State Control Capacity-Building Programme
Lagos to Host Abuja MoU’s Inaugural Regional Port State Control Capacity-Building Programme
By Okeoghene Onoriobe | Waterways News
Senior maritime officials and regulatory leaders from across West and Central Africa will gather in Lagos on 29 June 2026 for the inaugural launch of the Abuja Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control (Abuja MoU) Capacity-Building Programme — an event that places Nigeria at the centre of regional efforts to raise maritime governance standards.
The programme, which will be held at the Eko Hotel, Lagos, is organised by the Abuja MoU and supported by Lloyd’s Register Foundation. It is designed to strengthen port state control frameworks, deepen regulatory compliance and improve oversight of vessel operations across member states in the West and Central African sub-region.
Heads of Maritime Administrations, government officials, development partners and industry stakeholders are expected to attend the launch. The event carries particular significance for Nigeria, which holds the vice-chairmanship of the Abuja MoU — a position occupied by the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Hon. Adegboyega Oyetola, who has confirmed his participation.
Secretary General of Abuja MoU, Capt Sunday Umoren
The Abuja MoU’s Chairman, Hon. Ebrima Sillah — who also serves as Gambia’s Minister of Transport, Works and Infrastructure — is also expected to attend, underscoring the high-level political attention the programme has attracted.
Speaking ahead of the event, the Secretary General of the Abuja MoU, Captain Sunday Umoren, said the programme would equip maritime administrations across the region with the knowledge and operational tools required to strengthen vessel oversight, improve alignment with international maritime standards, advance safety and security, and better protect the marine environment.
Following the formal launch, a regional workshop for Directors-General and Chief Executive Officers of Maritime Administrations, as well as Heads of Port State Control, will run from 29 June to 1 July. The workshop will serve as a high-level forum for policy dialogue and technical exchange among the region’s most senior maritime regulatory officials.
Nigeria Watch
For Nigeria’s maritime sector, this event is more than a regional gathering — it is a statement of strategic positioning. As host nation and vice-chair of the Abuja MoU, Nigeria has both the responsibility and the opportunity to drive the agenda on port state control reform across West and Central Africa.
Port state control is the frontline mechanism by which substandard vessels are identified and detained, and the Gulf of Guinea has long been flagged by global shipping bodies as a region requiring more robust enforcement. An inaugural capacity-building programme of this nature — backed by Lloyd’s Register Foundation and drawing in heads of maritime administrations — signals that the Abuja MoU is moving beyond declarations toward institutional action.
For Nigerian stakeholders — from terminal operators and freight forwarders to shipowners operating under the cabotage regime — stronger regional PSC coordination translates into a more predictable regulatory environment and, in time, a reduction in the reputational risk that has historically shadowed the region’s ports. The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) will be watching this programme closely, as its outcomes are likely to shape compliance expectations along Nigeria’s coastline and inland trade corridors in the months ahead.
The choice of Lagos as host city reinforces Nigeria’s role as the sub-region’s dominant maritime hub. Port operators and logistics providers should note the dates: 29 June to 1 July
Sanitation Deficit Poses Silent Threat to Nigeria’s Blue Economy, WTO Founder Warns
By Emetena Ikuku | Waterways News
Sanitation infrastructure has been identified as a critical but chronically neglected pillar of Nigeria’s blue economy ambitions, with the founder of the World Toilet Organisation (WTO), Prof. Jack Sim, warning that untreated waste flowing into the country’s rivers, lagoons and coastal waters could quietly erode the very foundation on which the sector is being built.
Sim, a globally recognised advocate for sanitation access, made the remarks while speaking on the relationship between waste management and the blue economy, stressing that clean and healthy water ecosystems are not incidental to Nigeria’s maritime and aquatic industries — they are their lifeblood.
Without proper sanitation, untreated wastewater and human waste discharged into rivers, lagoons and coastal waters can destroy aquatic habitats, reduce fish populations and threaten the livelihoods of millions who depend on these resources,” he said.
His warning carries particular weight for Nigeria, where coastal and riverine communities remain largely underserved by wastewater treatment infrastructure, and where open defecation and industrial effluents continue to degrade the waterways that support fishing, aquaculture, maritime commerce and tourism.
Sim urged a fundamental reframing of how sanitation investment is categorised in national planning. Toilets, wastewater treatment plants and faecal sludge management systems, he argued, should no longer be viewed merely as social welfare provisions, but as strategic economic infrastructure capable of driving growth, protecting jobs and strengthening food security.
Prof Sim Jack – WTO Founder
The WTO founder noted that pollution from poor sanitation practices poses direct risks to Nigeria’s fisheries and aquaculture sectors — industries that feature prominently in the Federal Government’s blue economy expansion agenda under the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy.
Cleaner waterways, he said, would improve fish stocks, enhance seafood quality and create a more sustainable operating environment for aquatic businesses.
On maritime tourism — a sector that Nigeria’s policymakers have increasingly highlighted as a major revenue frontier — Sim was equally direct, emphasising that clean beaches and waterfronts are non-negotiable prerequisites for attracting visitors and unlocking private investment.
He also pointed to the public health dividend of improved sanitation, noting that reducing the burden of waterborne diseases would yield healthier and more economically productive coastal and riverine communities — populations that are integral to sustaining maritime trade, fishing activity and nearshore enterprise.
Sim sounded the alarm over threats to critical ecosystems, warning that mangroves, wetlands and estuaries — which function as fish breeding grounds, natural coastal defences and climate resilience buffers — face mounting pressure from untreated waste discharges. These ecosystems, he noted, are essential infrastructure for the blue economy even if they rarely appear on any balance sheet.
To safeguard Nigeria’s blue economy trajectory, Sim called on policymakers to deliberately prioritise sanitation in coastal and riverine communities, expand access to safe sanitation facilities, strengthen faecal sludge management systems and scale up investment in wastewater treatment infrastructure to prevent further contamination of rivers and coastal ecosystems.
Nigeria Watch
Prof. Sim’s remarks, though global in framing, land squarely within the fault lines of Nigeria’s blue economy policy landscape. The Federal Government under Minister Adegboyega Oyetola has articulated ambitious goals for the sector — from deep seaport development and fisheries commercialisation to maritime tourism and the harnessing of inland waterways for economic productivity. Yet the sanitation dimension of this agenda remains conspicuously absent from most policy conversations.
Nigeria’s waterways — particularly the Niger Delta creeks, Lagos Lagoon and inland river systems — are under sustained assault from domestic waste, industrial effluents and petroleum-related pollution. The communities most exposed to these conditions are precisely those that the blue economy is supposed to empower: riverine fishing communities, coastal traders and artisanal boat operators.
For regulators such as NIMASA, NIWA and the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, Sim’s intervention offers an important prompt. The blue economy cannot be built on polluted water. Investors in aquaculture, maritime tourism and seafood export markets will assess environmental quality as a prerequisite — and Nigeria’s track record on waterway sanitation is unlikely to inspire confidence without deliberate remediation effort.
The message from the World Toilet Organisation may seem, at first glance, tangential to maritime affairs. But for a country whose coastline spans over 850 kilometres and whose inland waterways stretch more than 10,000 kilometres, proper sanitation infrastructure is not a peripheral concern — it is a core competitiveness issue.
Waterways News | Blue Economy Desk
Tinubu Places Hydrography at Heart of Nigeria’s Maritime Agenda — Matawalle
By Okeoghene Onoriobe, Lagos Correspondent
The Federal Government has signalled a renewed commitment to hydrography as a strategic pillar of Nigeria’s maritime development, with the Minister of State for Defence, Dr. Bello Muhammad Matawalle, declaring that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration has placed the discipline at the centre of the nation’s maritime priorities.
Matawalle made the declaration on Wednesday in Abuja while receiving the Hydrographer of the Federation and Chief Executive Officer of the National Hydrographic Agency (NHA), Rear Admiral O.O. Fadahunsi, who led a management delegation on a courtesy visit to the minister.
Federal Government Reaffirms Support for NHA
In a statement released through his Personal Assistant on Media, Ahmad Dan-Wudil, the minister said the Federal Government remains firmly committed to strengthening Nigeria’s hydrographic infrastructure to support improved marine navigation, defence operations, and ocean-based economic activities.
Matawalle stressed that the National Hydrographic Agency occupies a critical position in Nigeria’s broader maritime ambitions, particularly in the Gulf of Guinea — a zone where overlapping concerns over maritime security and resource governance continue to demand sustained governmental attention.
He noted that hydrographic work underpins the country’s emerging Blue Economy agenda, which seeks to expand maritime trade while ensuring the sustainable exploitation of ocean and riverine resources.
Nigeria Positioned for Regional Leadership
The minister expressed confidence that existing policy frameworks under the Renewed Hope administration have positioned Nigeria to assume a leadership role in hydrography across the West African sub-region. He pledged that government support would be sustained to improve navigational safety, enhance maritime security, and deepen scientific data generation to serve national development objectives.
Rear Admiral Fadahunsi, for his part, commended the minister for what he described as consistent support and visionary leadership. He affirmed the agency’s readiness to work in concert with relevant ministries, departments, and agencies to strengthen intergovernmental coordination and build greater hydrographic resilience. Both parties indicated that the meeting focused on expanding Nigeria’s hydrographic capacity in line with global maritime standards.
Nigeria Watch
For the Nigerian maritime sector, this development carries significant operational implications.
Hydrography — the science of measuring and describing the physical features of navigable waters — is the often-overlooked backbone of safe shipping, port operations, and offshore resource extraction. Without current, accurate hydrographic data, vessels navigating Nigeria’s coastal waters, the Niger Delta creeks, and the nation’s inland waterways do so at elevated risk.
The National Hydrographic Agency, which is mandated to produce and maintain nautical charts covering Nigerian waters, has historically operated with limited visibility in national maritime policy discussions. Its elevation to a stated priority under the Tinubu administration — articulated at the level of the Defence Ministry — signals a more integrated, security-conscious approach to maritime domain awareness.
For port operators, shipping companies, and offshore energy stakeholders, a well-funded and operationally capable NHA translates directly to more reliable navigational data, reduced insurance risk premiums, and safer routing in Nigeria’s busiest sea lanes. For NIMASA and the Nigerian Navy, improved hydrographic coverage strengthens the infrastructure for maritime domain awareness and threat response in the Gulf of Guinea, where Nigeria continues to assert its role as the dominant maritime power.
The blue economy dimension is equally noteworthy. Hydrographic surveys are a prerequisite for viable offshore wind energy development, aquaculture zoning, and the delimitation of maritime boundaries — all areas where Nigeria’s policy ambitions have outpaced technical groundwork. If this stated presidential prioritisation translates into budgetary commitments and institutional capacity-building for the NHA, it could mark a foundational shift in how Nigeria approaches its vast but under-mapped maritime estate.
Stakeholders will be watching to see whether the rhetoric of prioritisation is matched by concrete resource allocation in the next budget cycle.
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