Victory with Honour

About the Book

Victory with Honour, is an account of my stewardship whilst I was onboard NNS OKPABANA as the Commanding Officer from 2015 – 2016. The book renders a chronological narrative of my operational and command experience onboard the ship beginning with an opening chapter giving an exposé on the essence of sea power and the concept of navies, a brief historical perspective of the NN in the second, and the third chapter begins with my own story. In between, I also gave my view of the maritime security situation in the Gulf of Guinea and how to address the challenges being experienced therein. The book then continues with a personal account of the various exercises and operations that the ship participated in whilst I was in command. Chapter Eighteen being the last chapter gave some leadership principles, though navy-centric, could apply to almost any sphere of life. Largely esoteric in nature, I believe the readership would be inspired to draw lessons from my experiences and also add to the corporate/institutional knowledge of the Nigerian Navy as a whole. I also believe more needs to be laid out in the public space on how Nigeria as a maritime nation, has potentials to become a sea power state like other nations with access to the seas did in the past.

About the Author

Olusegun Ferreira is Commodore in the Nigerian Navy (NN) who has served the nation since 1993 as a Seaman/Executive Officer upon graduation from the Nigerian Defence Academy as a gentleman officer in the Armed Forces of Nigeria. The author has been involved in operations at sea and has also served onboard various classes of ships until he qualified as a helicopter pilot and got involved in air operations, both seaborne and shore based. He has also attended a number of military courses including the National Defence College Course, which prepares military officers for strategic level appointments and higher defence management functions. Commodore Ferreira has also had command of both the Naval Air Base and NNS OKPABANA, a Nigerian Navy frigate which was his last appointment until he was designated as Nigeria’s Defence Adviser to the Nigerian High Commission in New Delhi with concurrent accreditation to 6 other countries; Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Singapore and South Korea. The author is an experienced seaman who has put together his command and operational experience whilst in command of NNS OKPABANA culminating in the publishing of this book, “Victory with Honour”. Olusegun is also an alumnus of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, Coventry University and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. – my photograph below