The international air space at the Gulf of Guinea may be partitioned between Nigeria, Ghana, Guinea, Togo and Republic of Benin after the ongoing scramble and diplomatic maneuvers for the control of the lucrative navigational environment in the west and Central African sub-region, literally speaking.
The airspace is regarded as international air environment, the control of which was given to Ghana by the world aviation body, International Civic Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in 1948.
But the scramble for the control among the four countries started last year when Togo and Benin Republic took control of their airspace from Ghana. Last month, President Buhari directed Nigeria Airspace Management Authority (NAMA) to take over the Nigerian airspace at the Gulf of Guinea from Ghana, although the country had denied being in control of Nigeria’s airspace at the Gulf.
But aviation experts explained the true position of things when they said the airspace was given to Ghana to control since 1948, long before Nigeria’s independence oin1960, as it was regarded as international airspace, belonging to no one country in particular.
They also argued that Nigeria is in best position to be in control of the lucrative airspace because of its nearness to Nigeria than any other country in the sub-region.
