Institutional Coordination and Interoperability in Maritime Security Governance in Nigeria's Contiguous Zone: An Integrated Infrastructure Governance Perspective

The effectiveness of maritime transportation in Nigeria depends not only on the availability of maritime security infrastructure but also on effective institutional coordination, systems interoperability, and a robust governance framework among maritime stakeholders. However, fragmented institutional arrangements, overlapping mandates, limited systems interoperability, and weak regional cooperation continue to undermine the operational effectiveness of maritime security infrastructure architecture within Nigeria's Contiguous Zone (NCZ). This study evaluated institutional coordination and systems interoperability in maritime security governance to determine their implications for maritime transportation in Nigeria. A mixed-methods approach comprising questionnaire survey, Key Informant Interviews (KII), Focus Group Discussions (FGD), and tco secondary data analysis was adopted. Data were collected from 149 Sample Size drawn from a population of 450 strategiclevel personnel across regulatory, enforcement, port and shipping organisations, lawmakers, and other maritime stakeholders. The sample size was determined using Taro Yamane's formula at a 0.05 margin of error. Descriptive statistics, one-sample t-test, and thematic analysis were employed for data analysis. The findings revealed that information sharing, joint operations, training and joint exercises were rated above average with a mean score of 2.72 (SD = 0.99), which was higher than the criterion mean of 2.50 (p < 0.05). However, integration of systems, regional cooperation, unharmonised legal frameworks among the Gulf of Guinea states were identified as the major governance weaknesses of the existing system. Consequently, the study developed the Integrated Maritime Security Infrastructure Governance System (IMSIG-S) to strengthen institutional coordination, systems interoperability, and regional cooperation of security agencies for a sustainable maritime transportation in NCZ