Maritime Law & Shipping Governance

Dr. Agbakoba’s maritime practice is unmatched in depth and longevity. He authored the foundational consultation paper for Nigeria’s Coastal and Inland Shipping (Cabotage) Act that led to its enactment. He served as Deputy Chairperson of the Presidential Committee on Maritime Sector Reform and Vice-Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Review of the Maritime Sector and was instrumental in creating the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy. He contributed significantly to the Nigerian Marine and Blue Economy Policy 2024, He advises the current Minister on blue economy and its setup, establishing him as a principal architect of Nigeria’s contemporary maritime governance framework.

As Founding President of the Nigerian Chamber of Shipping and Chair of the National Committee on Shippers Council Maritime Arbitration, he brings over four decades of maritime arbitration experience. A landmark case that exemplifies his practice is Seadrill Mobile Units Nigeria Limited v The Honourable Minister for Transportation & 2 Ors (Suit No: FHC/L/CS/607/2016), in which he successfully argued that offshore drilling operations fall within ‘coastal trade and blue economic’ under the Cabotage Act and that oil rigs qualify as ‘vessels’ under the law: a ruling that fundamentally help shape the regulatory act  reach of Nigeria’s cabotage framework. Dr. Agbakoba has handled several high-profile admiralty disputes and ship arrest proceedings, including the arrest of one of the largest vessels within Nigerian coastal waters. His maritime litigation and dispute resolution practice spans the Federal High Court, appellate courts, arbitral tribunals, and international maritime forums. He also pioneered the Maritime Newsletter Report, a leading maritime law publication that contributed significantly to maritime legal scholarship and industry development in Nigeria. Over the years, he has acted as counsel and adviser to major public and private sector stakeholders, including NIMASA, the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), FAAN, Samsung Heavy Industries Nigeria Limited, Access Bank Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc, First Bank of Nigeria Limited, MRS Oil Nigeria Plc, Lintex (Dantata Group), Tirex Petroleum, IAO Trading, Genesis Group Limited, Scintilla, Palton Morgan, BOAZ Group, and several indigenous and international shipping and offshore energy companies.His practice combines maritime litigation, policy reform, arbitration, and regulatory advisory, establishing him as one of Africa’s leading maritime and admiralty practitioners.

Dispute Resolution

Dr. Agbakoba is among Africa’s most experienced dispute resolution practitioners, with a record spanning complex commercial litigation, landmark constitutional cases, and high-stakes arbitration. He played a pivotal role in the CBN’s largest fraud case, involving an ₦88 trillion transaction, acting across both civil and criminal dimensions of the matter. He also successfully resolved what stands as the largest debt judgment in Nigerian legal history, ₦251 billion, in favour of a major financial institution.

His reach extends well beyond commercial disputes. Through constitutional and public interest litigation, Dr. Agbakoba has shaped Nigeria’s constitutional and legal jurisprudence in ways that continue to define the rights of citizens and the limits of state power. In Agbakoba v Director, State Security Services (1995), he successfully challenged the arbitrary withdrawal of citizens’ passports, with the court holding that such withdrawal violates the constitutional right to freedom of movement. In Olisa Agbakoba v Attorney General of the Federation & Minister of Education (2013), he successfully challenged a government policy that admitted students into Federal Government Colleges on the basis of state of origin, with the court holding that the policy was discriminatory and a violation of the constitutional right against discrimination. These are but two examples of a broader litigation record that has left an enduring imprint on Nigerian constitutional law.

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)

Dr. Agbakoba is a transformative figure in the development of Nigeria’s ADR ecosystem. He was instrumental in establishing the Lagos Court of Arbitration and in designing ADR frameworks for AMCON, which reshaped financial sector dispute resolution in Nigeria. As Chair of the National Arbitration Policy Committee, he advises the Attorney General of the Federation on policies to enhance Nigeria’s status as an international arbitration hub. He has also presided over complex, multi-billion-dollar disputes in both international-seated arbitration and national seated arbitral proceedings.

He has established industry-specific arbitration centres for the entertainment, construction, and maritime sectors, and collaborates with the Nigerian Economic Summit Group on the development of a Centre for Sport Arbitration. Dr. Agbakoba is a senior arbitrator listed at the London Maritime Arbitrators Association (LMAA), the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), and the African Law and Arbitration Association (AFLAA) and serves as arbitrator at the Lagos Court of Arbitration.

Environmental Justice

Dr. Agbakoba founded Environmental Rights Action (ERA) in 1989, Nigeria’s first environmental justice pressure group, and served as deputy lead defence counsel for Nigeria’s foremost environmental activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa. He has been instrumental in some of Nigeria’s most consequential environmental justice litigation, which established foundational precedents for community environmental rights in the Niger Delta, including Gbemre v. Shell, a landmark case holding that gas flaring violates the constitutional rights to life and dignity, a decision that set the standard that oil pollution implicates fundamental rights. He provided expert evidence on Nigerian constitutional law in international proceedings in Alame & Others v. Shell Plc (the Bille and Ogale Communities case) before the English High Court, concerning Shell’s liability for oil spill damages in Rivers State, Nigeria, instructed by Leigh Day, one of the world’s leading public interest law firms, proceedings that resulted in a major ruling by Hon. Justice May of the English High Court. His environmental justice work is grounded in both domestic constitutional law and international frameworks, including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

Legal Policy & Institutional Reform

As a pioneer in development law, operating at the intersection of law, governance, and economic development, Dr. Agbakoba has generated over 200 legislative proposals, most of which have resulted in key legislation and executive orders. Among the legislation, regulations and executive orders credited to his advocacy are the Coastal and Inland Shipping (Cabotage) Act 2003, the National Space Research and Development Agency Act 2010 and its Regulations, and Executive Order 9. His influence spans financial services, national trade, transportation, energy, oil and gas, space, maritime, ocean policy, land administration, and the digital economy.

At the judicial level, he worked under three Chief Justices of Nigeria and two Federal High Court Chief Judges on procedural reform, serving as Deputy Chairman of the National Judicial Council’s Rules and Procedures Committee. He championed the reform of the Fundamental Rights (Enforcement Procedure) Rules, leading to the abrogation of the 1979 rules and the enactment of the FREP Rules 2009 — substantially adopted from his draft. Through his Speed of Justice initiative, Dr. Agbakoba developed Model Civil Procedure Rules emphasising case management and fast-track procedures, first adopted by the Lagos State Judiciary and subsequently by other superior courts across Nigeria. He was commissioned by former Chief Justice Dahiru Musdapher to produce model civil procedure rules for consideration by Heads of Courts and contributed to successive reforms of the Federal High Court Rules under Chief Judges Ukeje and Mustapha — the latter introducing an overriding objective modelled on the English Rules. He also drove the introduction of fast-track Practice Directions for AMCON cases and the creation of a dedicated labour and employment disputes court and is currently engaged with the Attorney General of the Federation on sector-specific courts to decongest the commercial justice system.

At the legislative level, he serves on the National Assembly Business Environment Roundtable (NASSBER), through which he has facilitated over 108 pieces of legislation including the Companies and Allied Matters Act, the Investments and Securities Act, and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act. He has also advised on election rules reform, devolution of powers, and constitutional review processes. He served as Legal Adviser to the Central Bank of Nigeria as Chair of the Legal Implementation Committee, Financial Services Strategy 2020, and advised on the transformation of NIGCOMSAT into a statutory corporation.

In space law, Dr. Agbakoba advances Nigeria’s governance framework through work on orbital slot management, spectrum rights, and satellite procurement, advising NASRDA on legislative and institutional reforms. In aviation, he originated the Fly Nigeria Act, a legislative proposal modelled on the United States’ Fly America Act. The Act would mandate government-funded travel to use domestic carriers, redirecting billions in aviation revenue currently captured by foreign airlines back to indigenous operators and laying the foundation for a competitive national aviation industry.