The Nigerian Navy came into official existence in 1956, staffed by 200 people from the Marine Department, with the tasks of mine-sweeping, ports examination and naval control services.
The oil extraction companies ignored rules to use Nigerian ships and instead supplied their own tankers to transport most of the crude to their refineries abroad.
[4] The industry has been represented at international conferences by members of the Merchant Navy Officers' and Water Transport Senior Staff Association.
The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) undertook an investigation in 2007 after hearing that President Olusegun Obasanjo had authorized establishment of a Nigeria Merchant Navy Corps.
[8] When the police announced a ban of an organization calling itself the "Nigerian Merchant Navy" in July 2010, due to alleged illegal activities of some members of that organization, Kemewerigha said the ban did not apply to his Nigerian Merchant Navy Officers and Water Transport Senior Staff Association, which was recognized in the Federal Gazette.
In July 2010, Comrade Kingsley Enahoro issued a statement reading in part: "The Executive and entire members of the fishing zone of the Nigeria Merchant Navy want to bring to the notice of the Federal/State Government as well as the International community and the General Public of the threat and killing suffered by sailors as a result of the insurgence of sea pirates in the Nigeria/Cameroon waters".
[11] This appears to have related to an earlier incident in December 2007 where "Commodore" Benson Edema was transferred to the custody of Nigerian Navy after being arrested for allegedly assaulting men of the Lagos State Transport Management Authority.
He noted there were "strong arm politics in play to outlaw the merchant navy", and said the NMN had been fighting their ejection from their Lagos premises since 2009.
According to a naval spokesman only the Nigerian Maritime Academy at Oron, Akwa Ibom, and the Institute of Oceanography and Marine Research on Victoria Island, Lagos were licensed to train merchant navy personnel.
The Maritime Academy in Oron and the College of Science in Victoria Island, Lagos were unable to meet the demand for qualified merchant navy staff, and the universities were not offering the courses needed.
[18] In January 2011 Aderemi Latinwo and three other senior officers of the NMN were arrested by the police, who alleging that they were running a fake maritime academy.
[19] Sunday Adelani, the NMN Director of Communication, described the arrests as a calculated attempt to sabotage the academy and the maritime industry in Nigeria.
[20] Adelani said "For anybody or group of persons to tarnish the image of a noble institution like the Merchant Navy, especially in view of its strategic importance to the Nations economy is callous and wicked".