By: Godwin Onuh Odeh, PhD Historically, one of the first famous militaries to have been established on planet Earth was the Spar...
By: Godwin Onuh Odeh, PhD
Historically, one of the first famous militaries to have been established on planet Earth was the Spartan Army, which became so powerful in the 5th century BC during the Peloponnesian Wars, circa 460 to 404 BC. Consequently, others like the Romans’ military and contemporary militaries of independent states across the globe, including Nigeria, came on board. The general history of the Nigerian military, of which the Navy was essentially a part, may be traced to 19th-century developments that saw the establishment of the Hausa militia in 1862 by Captain John Glover, to secure the British colony of Lagos. The mission of the militia was expanded to include imperial defence engagement in the Gold Coast during the Asante expedition of 1873 to 1874. This was further enlarged and named the Hausa Constabulary in 1879, and was engaged in both police and military assignments until 1895, when it was given exclusive military functions.
Be that as it may, the independent or separate history of the Nigerian Navy, which came into existence on April 1, 1956, may be traced to 1887, when the British Colonial Government established the Lagos Marine as a semi-military organization combining the responsibilities of the modern Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), the Inland Waterways, and the maritime police duties of the modern-day Navy. The Lagos Marine was amalgamated with the Southern Marine in 1893, and by 1900, the Northern Nigerian Marine was established. Consequent upon the epic 1914 amalgamation of the Southern and Northern Protectorates, what was called the Southern and Northern Marine Departments became known as the Nigerian Marine. It may be interesting to note that, prior to the establishment of the Lagos Marine in 1887 and the consequent establishment of the Nigerian Naval Service as a civil department in the colonial government in April 1956, the Royal Niger Company, which controlled bulk of activities in the Delta and Niger-Benue Valley, established what may be authoritatively called the first navy in the hinterland in 1886. In its formative years, the headquarters of the force was at Asaba, and later Lokoja, Lagos, and now Abuja since the early 1990s.
As an integral part of the Royal Niger Company and Royal West African Frontier Force (RWAFF), the Navy was under the control of the executive officials of the company, and ratings into it were essentially drawn from Nigeria, Ghana, and Sierra Leone. It was saddled with responsibilities such as:
- to maintain communication between one part of its territory and another;
- to re-supply its forts and garrisons established at strategic places along the Niger-Benue Valley;
- to transport troops to wherever they were needed;
- to patrol the Niger and the Benue in order to prevent smuggling;
- to bombard towns and settlements, or blockades, or destroy those towns considered to be hostile to the Royal Niger Company.
To achieve the above objectives, which were fundamentally colonial, the navy and the ships were equipped and loaded with machine guns, in addition to arms and ships capable of conveying up to 400 to 600 tons of merchandise and over 200 men that were used for administrative, military, and commercial interests. This may account for the raiding of Akassa in 1895, in which the navy invaded and destroyed the entire Brass town, and similar attacks were experienced by those on the banks of the rivers Niger and Benue between 1886 and 1897 for the purpose of effective conquest and occupation by European (British) colonialism. With the revocation of the Charter of the Royal Niger Company in 1897 following the creation of the RWAFF, the navy arm of the company almost went into total oblivion.
In retrospect, the Nigerian Marine Department created in 1914 following the amalgamation was to be engaged in buoys and lighthouses, dredging, ferry services, and pilotage, which are now functions performed by the Nigerian Ports Authority. There appeared to be a dramatic shift in the functions of the Navy following the outbreak of World War I, in which Nigeria as a colony of Britain was invited to take part in the offensive against the Germans in Cameroon. The marine contingent was made up of Europeans and Nigerian ratings. From Lagos, they were shipped to the Cameroon River to meet with contingents from other British dominions. In conjunction with the RWAFF, the Naval Squadron under Capt. Fuller bombarded Duala, the chief port of Cameroon. Arising from the ferocious offensive of the squadron, the German steamers quit Port Duala on 27 September 1914, and many steamers were captured and several crews were taken as prisoners of war. Alan Burns, cited in Dada, captured the military exploits of the officers thus: “Officers and men of the Nigerian Marine distinguished themselves in many skirmishes along the rivers and creeks of the Cameroons, and, as long as the campaign was confined to the banks of the navigable rivers, provided a reliable and efficient transport service.”
What is now the Nigerian Army fought alongside the British and launched offensive operations against the Germans too, albeit on land.
However, at the end of the war, the Colonial Government established the Nigeria Maritime Training School at the Dockyard, Apapa, on 1 April 1952. The school was to provide basic seaman training courses to personnel of inland waterways, Merchant Navy reserve officers, and those seconded to the Marine Department. This was against the backdrop of a shifted interest to port control-related assignments. Consequently, the Nigerian Ports Authority was formed on 1 April 1955 and began operation with the services of 25 ex-marine officers and 200 men seconded to it. These Royal Navy Reserve officers were to play a crucial role in the struggle for the establishment of a Nigerian naval force that could manage Nigerian water territories, as they preferred a proper navy as contradistinguished from a “civilianized” organization like the NPA. Famous among them was Capt. FWJ Skutil, the last Director General of the Marine Department and the first expatriate to head the Navy when it was finally established. Their effort and that of other Nigerian politicians led to a Policy Statement that was laid before the House of Representatives on 26 March 1956, passed as a Naval Legislative Bill on 1 August 1956, and assented to by Sir James Robertson on 5 September 1956. This became the Nigerian Navy Ordinance. This first Naval Ordinance provides for the following:
1. Naval defence of Nigeria within its territorial waters;
2. Hydrographic survey to the extent that the Government of the Federation may require;
3. Maintenance of the customs laws of Nigeria; and
4. Training in maritime and naval duties.
When the Naval Force commenced its operations on 1 June 1956, it had eleven ships and crafts, namely:
1. Survey ship _Pathfinder_
2. Sea-going survey launch _Petrel_
3. Customs Preventive patrol boat _Challenger_
4. Governor-General’s yacht _Valiant_, which was to become an afloat restaurant along Marina
5. Governor-General’s Barge _Frances_
6. VIP’s launch and relief for _Frances_
7. Dockyard Tug _Trojan_
8. General Purpose launch _Jade_
9. Training boat _Dignity_
10. Training boat _Nymph_
Aside from these inherited ships from the Nigerian Marine Department and Ports Authority, others were added before the civil war erupted. The reader may be interested in the table below, which shows the Navy’s fleet as at 1962.
Table 1: Nigerian Navy’s fleet as at 1962.
S/N Name of vessels NNS Type Length in feet Armament
1 Ogoja Corvette 185 1x3" gun
4x40mm Bofors
2 Calabar Minesweeping motor launch 112 6x40mm Oerlikons
A/S Equipment
2x20mm Oerlikons
Minesweeping gear
3 Sapele Minesweeping motor launch 112 2x20mm Oerlikons
Minesweeping gear
4 Enugu Seaward defence boat 110 1x40mm Bofors
A/S Equipment
5 Penelope Survey vessel 79 1x40mm Bofors
6 Lokoja LCT 118 2x20mm Oerlikons
7 Challenger Patrol - 1x40mm Bofors
Source: J. Dada, The Federal Armed Forces in the Nigerian Civil War, 1967-1970, Jos: Midland Press, 2000, p.101.
Further additions to the above and NNS _NIGERIA_, a multipurpose frigate which was brought in 1965, saw the NN acquire three old Seaward Defence Boats (SDBs), namely: NNS _BENIN, NNS IBADAN II, and NNS KADUNA, from Vickers Shipyard in the UK on 1 July 1966. After this, there was no acquisition of sophisticated ships until 28 March 1968, when two Mark 3 Corvettes, NNS DORINA and NNS OTOBO_, were requested and added in 1973. This entry was to mark modernization in the history of the Nigerian Naval Fleet. It should be noted that three ex-Soviet wooden patrol boats — NNS EKPE, NNS _EKUN, and NNS _ELOLE — joined the fleet in February 1968 and performed well during the civil war, but their service was short-lived after the war due to lack of spare parts. There were further entries into the weaponry due to the changing role of the Navy and changing maritime security terrain since the civil war.
The services of the NN since 1956 have been manned by several seasoned professional officers from inception to date. The NN is one of the most disciplined and intelligent security organizations that the nation could boast of. The officers in charge were mainly of the rank of Vice Admiral, who in navy literature are referred to as “the icons of the Nigerian Navy”. Readers may be interested in the table below showing the persons that have headed the Nigerian Navy over the years.
Table 2: Icons/Headship of NN, 1956–2023
S/N Name Year/Tenure
1. Capt. FW Skutil, Captain Commanding Royal Nigerian Navy 1956–1958
2.Commodore AR Kennedy, Commodore Commanding Royal Nigerian Navy 1958–1964
3.Vice Admiral JEA Wey, OFR FSS March 1964–11 May 1973
4.Rear Admiral NB Soroh, MFR FSS IDC 11 May 1973–29 July 1975
5. Vice Admiral MA Adelanwa, GCON FSS rcds 30 July 1975–14 April 1980
6. Vice Admiral AA Aduwo, CFR FSS FBIM 16 April 1980–31 Dec. 1983
7. Rear Admiral AA Aikhomu, FSS Psc mni 2 Jan. 1984–7 Oct. 1986
8.Vice Admiral PS Koshoni, FSS Psc mni 7 Oct. 1986–29 Dec. 1989
9. Vice Admiral MAH Nyako, rcds CFR GCON 2 Jan. 1990–7 Feb. 1992
10. Vice Admiral DPE Omatsola, FSS DSO Psc rcds 7 Feb. 1992–17 Sept. 1993
11. Rear Admiral S. Sa’idu, FSS LSS MSS DSS rcds 17 Sept. 1993–24 Nov. 1993
12. Rear Admiral AA Madueke, FSS DSS MRIN mni 24 Nov. 1993–22 August 1994
13. Rear Admiral OM Akhigbe, FSS MSS DSS Psc+mni 22 Aug. 1994–13 July 1998
14. Vice Admiral J. Ayinla, DSS Psc+usnwc fwc GCON 13 July 1998–29 May 1999
15. Vice Admiral VK Ombu, CFR mni 29 May 1999–24 April 2001
16. Vice Admiral SO Afolayan, DSS Psc+fwc 24 April 2001–1 August 2005
17. Vice Admiral GTA Adekeye, DSS Psc+mni MIRSS 1 August 2005–20 August 2008
18. Vice Admiral II Ibrahim, CFR DSS Psc fwc 20 August 2008–8 Sept. 2010
19.Vice Admiral OS Ibrahim, CFR DSS Psc+rcds fwc+LLB MA 8 Sept. 2010–8 Oct. 2012
20.Vice Admiral DJ Ezeoba, GSS Psc fwc+MSc MRIN FCIS 8 Oct. 2012–20 Jan. 2014
21.Vice Admiral UO Jibrin, GSS AM Psc+mni LLB PGCPA 20 Jan. 2014–13 July 2015
22. Vice Admiral AZ Gambo, AM GSS Psc ensp(RSA) MTM FMNIM LMUSNI FIIPS FCAI 13 July 2015–19 June 2023
23. Rear Admiral E.A. Ogalla 19 June 2023–2025
24.Vice Admiral Idi Abbas 30 Oct. 2025–date (G.O. Odeh, “The Nigerian Navy since 1956”, in The Military, State, Society and Security in Nigeria: Essays in Honour of Lieutenant General Faruk Yahaya (RTD) CFR, A.A. Sifawa, G.O. Odeh, and M. Marafa (eds), ABU Press, 2023- Updated by the current author, 2026).
The above officers, under the various Commanders-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, have contributed to the development of the Nigerian Navy and brought it to the level it is today. They have as well contributed their quota towards enhancing maritime security, which remains the core mandate of the Navy. The Navy thus remains one of the best and is poised to compete favourably continentally and globally.
Dr. Godwin Onuh Odeh,
Department of History and Diplomatic Studies
Sokoto State University, Sokoto, Nigeria: godwin.odeh@ssu.edu.ng
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