Nigerian Navy

The Nigerian Navy's institutional origin is the Nigerian Marine Department created in 1914 at amalgamation, a colonial harbour and lighterage service rather than a fighting force. The post-war Defence Force Act 1955 dissolved the Marine and the Nigerian Naval Force was constituted in April 1956 with the loan of the corvette HMNS Pathfinder and a small training cadre from the Royal Navy. The Navy Ordinance of 1958 created the Royal Nigerian Navy; the Royal prefix was dropped on 1 October 1963 at the proclamation of the Republic.

The Navy's first Nigerian commanding officer, Commodore Joseph Edet Akinwale Wey, was appointed Flag Officer Commanding in 1964 — three years before Aguiyi-Ironsi's appointment as Army GOC had been the analogous Army moment. Wey would go on to chair the Supreme Military Council under Gowon.

Operationally, the Navy enforced the federal blockade of Biafra (1967–70) — the Operation Tiger Claw riverine campaigns out of Calabar and the seaward cordon that strangled Port Harcourt — and has since 1990 been the lead Gulf of Guinea force against piracy, oil bunkering, and illegal fishing. Falcon Eye, the integrated maritime domain awareness system commissioned in 2017, is its principal surveillance platform.

The Navy operates the Nigerian Naval College Onne, the Naval Engineering College Sapele, and major bases at Apapa (Western Command), Calabar (Eastern Command), and Lokoja (Central Naval Command).