Nigeria Celebrates First Home Made Warship

After nearly five years in the making, the first home made Nigerian navy ship, NNS Andoni, was launched with great fanfare. 

At 31m (100ft) long, NNS Andoni named after the Andoni people of south-South Nigeria - is no giant of the seas, but the fact that it was designed and built in Nigeria, by Nigerian engineers, is a great source of pride.

The launching also had a soupçon of interesting symbolism for the guest of honour, President Goodluck- he comes from a line of fishermen and water craft manufacturers, albeit makers of the humble canoe - and he, now the President of Nigeria, launching the first home made warship. That's a sign of how far he has come. 

"This is the beginning of the transformation... and I believe in another 10 to 15 years, we can be thinking about starting a project to take Nigerians into the air," President Jonathan said. 

According to the International Maritime Bureau, piracy in Nigerian waters is on the increase and incidents are happening over a wider area, The NNS Andoni could be key in the fight against militants operating near Nigeria's oil fields as well as the growing threat of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea. 

There were 10 piracy attacks off the 780km (485 miles) of Nigeria's coastline during the first quarter this year - the same number reported for the whole of 2011.

"While the number of reported incidents in Nigeria is still less than Somalia… the level of violence against crew is dangerously high," according to a recent IMB report.

The NNS Andoni is equipped with an advanced radar system and firepower. With a speed of up to 25 knots (46km/h).

As he launched NNS Andoni, President Jonathan lamented the decline of industries that had been strong not long after independence in 1960.

"We had Nigerian Airways, the Nigerian shipping line and a number of investments that were doing well. But because there was no indigenous touch, all these died," the president said.

"We are told that some countries that were on par with us are now building aircraft, choppers and other things," he said, adding that Nigeria had for a long time not embraced technology.

The president suggested sending the brightest students of engineering to the best universities in the world.

"Then let them come back and work in Nigeria because we cannot continue to be importing. We have a very large market and even what we consume alone is enough to support an industry."

"We have this market, we must use it," President Jonathan said