An ICT professional and security equipment specialist has advised the Nigerian government to tackle the security challenge facing the nation with the application of ICT.
Dr Emmanuel Ekuwem, Chief Executive of Teledom Group and past President of Association of Telecommication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), told Vanguard Newspapers the country can should create an identity database which is openly accessible.
He also recommended the use of appropriate surveillance systems.
“The fact is that we can have ICT-based automation of procedures in the Nigeria Police Force, Army, Navy, Air Force, Customs, Immigration, NDLEA, Prisons, State Security Service, FRSC, including the National Security and Civil Defense Corps which can enable them bend over their laptops to have access to a criminal database and know whether a suspect is a serial offender,” Ekuwem said.
“If we are serious about security, we should have Gamma ray-based scanning of vehicles and cargoes, VACIS, on our roads, highways, airports and seaports to detect bombs, explosives, arms, ammunitions, light weapons and dangerous chemicals with local and remote display of scan outputs using broadband.”
Ekuwem added the government needs to start inquiring about how it can use ICT to “monitor, detect, analyze, transmit the acquired data and information, receive same, store same, retrieve same for further analysis and retransmission, coordinate and manage an entire operation”.
According to him, the nation needs a national security database that is restricted with strong passwords and will be accessible to Nigeria’s various security institutions and tertiary institutions.
In addition, access should also be given to hospitals, banks, insurance companies, hotels and guest houses, administrations of churches and mosques, sports and recreational clubs, airports, seaports and motor parks.
“Just imagine at a hotel or airport check-in counter, Motor Park, railway station or in a bank when your criminal identity is known via a software-triggered pop-up by a young man or woman who was compelled by due process to log in to the criminal database while attending to you,” he said.
“The bank will refuse to do business with you. The hotel will politely refuse to check you in. Wherever you go your criminal past will haunt, embarrass and shame you down. Criminals will either be embarrassed out of our streets in shame or be legally put behind bars where they actually belong.”
