William Butler Yeats -The Second Coming. It was published in 1921.
However, as Africans we are more familiar with Chinua Achebe's 1958
publication, which aptly describes where Nigeria is at the moment …the
edge staring into the abyss.
It is with 'great joy' we welcome the news that security for the 2012
fiscal year takes the lion's share of the budget. However, the
question is how will it be used? The recession in most of the world's
biggest economies has presented a unique opportunity for Africa and
Nigeria in particular with her massive spread of untapped resources.
But this opportunity can remain unrealised and here's why.
Nigeria has largely been a difficult place to live and do business
especially within the commercially viable areas of Lagos and Abuja
along with strategic cities like Kaduna, Kano and Port Harcourt. The
dearth of infrastructure is a huge factor but this is further
compounded by poor security.
The state of insecurity in Nigeria has hit unprecedented levels
especially with the covert and sometimes overt threats coming from
different quarters. In recent times it has been from the Movement for
Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) and lately from the group
referred to as 'Boko Haram'. It's a concern how these groups seem to
emerge intermittently, if one remembers the Maitasine sect of the
'80s.
Whatever the political, economic or religious reasons for these
militant groups grievances, one thing remains clear, lives and
property are in danger. The government is largely being made to look
impotent and inept. The bottom-line is that Foreign Direct Investment
and even local investors will baulk at doing business in this 'great'
country of ours.
The wanton destruction of lives and property by the insidious sect,
Boko Haram over the course of 24 months can be considered a wage of
war on Nigerian soil. Unfortunately, the government is finding it
difficult to stop these attacks from happening despite the thick
presence of law enforcement organs. The catastrophic catalogue of Boko
Haram indicates that security agencies are always slow to react
despite some of these incidents occurring consistently. It will get
much worse as these attackers seem to have gained so much confidence
from the knowledge that assets are not protected or monitored. Let's
analyse why these agencies have been an utter failure.
What more can be said that has not been said about corruption. Poorly
paid or sometimes unpaid personnel fuels corruption within security
agencies. However sometimes, it boils down to blatant, unadulterated
greed by government officials and security personnel. Furthermore,
training is inadequate and is usually a consequence of corruption.
A false sense of security typifies government's inaction from the
rather tepid comments of government officials, which really does
nothing to put Nigerians at ease. As far as the highbrow areas remain
unaffected, the gravity of the problem is not recognised. But the crux
of the matter is that whatever is happening in Damaturu, Madalla or in
the creeks of the Niger Delta does not lessen the economic impact with
the air of insecurity. The use of brute force only complicates a
worsening problem. A sightless solution of using strong arm tactics to
contain this menace can only be likened to trying to kill a fly on a
glass window with a battle axe.
The norm is that when Nigeria has a security incident, the experts
from foreign governments are reeled in. It is an embarrassment that
Nigeria still perceives herself as a sovereign nation despite this
perceived lack of expertise. It's a ludicrous thought but the reality
is those in the diaspora are more informed about the security status
of Nigeria than those inside Nigeria. And this is unconnected to
stringent Nigerian government policies on information disclosure.
The Vanguard of Thursday, July 14, 2011 carried a story on its front
page headlined, "France to partner Nigeria on security". The specifics
of this include "a readiness to help Nigeria deal with the insecurity
threatening the stability of the country. The challenge in this offer
is that France cannot rely on its experience of creating governable
orders in its sphere of state making. It has no relevant on-the-shelf
expertise of creating political orders in Nigeria. Nigeria's internal
security challenges involve Nigerian parties in conflict. France's
offer to partner with Nigeria boils down to an offer to intervene in
Nigeria's national security.
Without credible intelligence these attacks cannot be prevented nor
can any effective corrective actions be made after the attacks.
Monitoring the environment can assist in this regard. For instance, a
blog titled: Tissues of Lies by the Nigerian Government through the
State Security Service (SSS) by 'Boko Haram' was posted on
http://yusufislamicbrothers.blogspot.com/2011/07/tissues-of-lies-of-nigerian.html
since July 2011 and this blog can be reposted in main stream sites
like Facebook thus spreading their 'cause'. This blog has obviously
not been monitored or reported. The ISP typically should be pressured
to block such use of it's services for terrorist activities. This blog
has obviously not been monitored or reported. The ISP typically should
be pressured to block such use of it's services for terrorist
activities.
We need an effective monitoring solution that would be independent of
our rotten national infrastructure, which would capture events in real-
time and act as a warning system. This would archive data including
images at a safe location where it can be properly analysed…
independently.
Every incident that occurs now is attributed to Boko Haram because the
fact is without Boko Haram's acknowledgement we just don't know. Our
borders are as porous as a tomato basket, we don't know who comes or
who goes, as if that's not bad enough if a whole army crossed the
border there would be no alert system or response because the borders
are not adequately monitored.
How can we combat these terrorist threats effectively on a 24/7 basis?
First we have to get the government to stop paying lip service to
security. The huge budget allocation as always is only a statement of
intent, what it's used for is another matter. There is a need to get
rid of the deadwood in government, people who stifle new ideas for
selfish gains, these invisible but powerful individuals are always in
government in one shape or form and undermine anyone who comes in
looking to make a change. The government has to pass legislation and
encourage industry regulation and the belief is there are attempts to
do this.
Secondly, proper risk assessments should be carried out after
identifying the country's prized assets and where they are. The
average Nigerian citizen first should be properly identified, (a
Chadian should not be able to claim he's Nigerian).The stadia,
refineries, government buildings, banks, airports, churches and even
mosques which are high value targets. We have to assess how vulnerable
they are to attacks, assess what the effect is of such entities being
out of commission and leverage the resources Nigeria has in protecting
them. For example it's obvious what "Boko Haram" is trying to
accomplish by attacking churches.
The protection comes from at least monitoring these assets and being
able to prevent attacks on high value targets due to the presence of
these monitoring safeguards. The follow on to that is detection in
case there is a breach of these assets and to alert the necessary
responders and help track down terrorists and apprehend criminals.
These monitoring activities could be through the use of CCTV cameras
located in areas of high risk and value. But that is just a part of
the monitoring, the images captured need to be analysed in real-time
or post incident. On the Internet, cyber chatter should be monitored
to gather intelligence that could help nip these dastardly acts before
they occur. Even with our epileptic judicial system, suspects will be
convicted in front of incontrovertible evidence and their unseen
benefactors will back off, that is if they are not exposed. But
without evidence, the defence of this country from enemies within has
not even started.
This article was written early January 2012 by:
Henry Ojo CISM, CISA, HISP BS7799/27001 Certified LA
A well-rounded technical and business information security consultant
with extensive global experience in implementing information security
management systems.
Henry Ojo is currently the Managing Director of Kamhen Services
Limited an Information Security Consultancy Company and eFortresses
Integrated Solutions Limited, a joint venture with eFortresses, Inc.
(USA) and can be reached at hojo@kamhen.com
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