By Okey Muogbo
A major trust towards defending and protecting critical national assets from destructive activities of terrorists and vandals has emerged in the form of a Think tank of volunteer-experts on military, diplomatic and intelligence and they are putting up a summit on the remedying of the activities of enemies of the Nigerian state.
The group, a major intellectual outfit on the security crisis facing the country has volunteered to deploy their wealth of experience to cushion the eroding of national critical assets and monuments.
Addressing the journalists on their programme, Maj Gen A. M. Jibril (rtd) Chairman, Presidential Think Tank on Defence & Security who doubles as the Chairman Summit Planning Committee said they were putting up the summit in response “to the call-to-arms” by President Muhammadu Buhari to the Armed Forces, Intelligence and Security establishments, business owners as well as to all residents of Nigeria to work in concert to “reducing the vulnerability of the Nation’s Critical National Infrastructure to threats and hazards, on the one hand, and improving the resilience of such critical national infrastructure by strengthening their ability to withstand and recover from disruption.”
The summit has the theme: “Protecting Nigeria’s critical Infrastructure, monument and Business Assets” and it scheduled to hold at the Congress Hall, Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, from 6th – 7th December, 2021.
This according to him will involve a number of measures ranging from: physical protection to prevent damage or disruption; building a level of reliability into them so that they can continue to operate even after an attack and ensuring that there are back-up systems to putting in place organisations that can rapidly respond effectively to threat events to enable such infrastructure recover quickly from disruptions.
General Jubril, whose address was read by Air Vice Marshal (AVM) Dick Iruenabere (Rtd) mentioned the critical national infrastructures to include National Infrastructure consisting of those facilities, systems, sites, information, people, networks and processes necessary for a country to function and upon which daily life depends.
“It also includes some functions, sites and organisations which are not critical to the maintenance of essential services, but which need protection due to the potential dangers they could pose to the public in the event of an emergency (civil nuclear and chemicals sites for example).
“There are some parts of the National Infrastructure system that are judged to be critical to the functioning of the country. ‘Those critical elements of Infrastructure (facilities, virtual and physical systems, sites, property, information, people, networks and processes), the loss or compromise of which would result in major detrimental impact on the availability, delivery or integrity of essential services, leading to severe economic or social consequences or to loss of life.
“So, Gentlemen of the Press, the Summit is about getting owners of such Critical National Infrastructure to network with subject-matter experts to bring their whole-of-society perspectives to bear in developing or contributing to the development of policy.
“The choice of topics and the quality of Resources Persons invited scheduled to make presentations is a reflection of the seriousness attached to this Summit”, he added.
He mentioned some of the resource persons to include Prof Niran Oluwaranti of Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife who will be talking on: Institutionalizing early warning systems and response architecture for threats to Infrastructure, Monuments and Business Assets
Another person is Maj Gen Emeka Onumajuru, Deputy Commandant ,National Defence College, Abuja who would handle “Systematizing a framework for Intelligence generation, information management and tracking against threats to Infrastructure, Monuments and Business Assets”
Prof U. .A Tar Head, Centre for Defence Studies and Documentation, Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna will talk on “Domesticating frameworks and protocols for the stratification, codification and protection of national Infrastructure, Monuments and Business Assets,” General Jubril stated.
The Thinktank said they were organising the summit this time because “our world has changed! We are seeing agitations for all sorts of causes easily turning violent…and what these non-state actors readily focus on are humans and some of these critical national assets…vandalization and destruction of assets in the Oil and Gas, Telecommunications, ICT, Maritime, Education, Railways, Banking and other resources in the Public and Organised Private Sectors, etc.
“Such actions undermine investor confidence; inhibit the drive for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and capital growth, and truncate real business development in all sectors of the productive economy. In other words, productivity drops, rise in out-of-jobbers, poverty increases, resentment and more violence…develop is either stagnated or declines. We are seeing these in virtually all the geopolitical zones, therefore, a grave impact on our collective national interest”, he disclosed.
The group also insisted that no society will allow such monumental destruction hence the Summit.
Apart from the proposed this Summit, “it may interest you and members of the public to know that the Presidential Think-Tank is also in consultations with some of the leading Security Experts and institutions with specialized capabilities to develop this nationwide seamless Enterprise Architecture to harvest a wide range of innovative technological options to achieve the desired solution outcomes”, he added.
According to him, the forthcoming National Summit has as its main theme: “Protecting Nigeria’s Critical Infrastructure, Monuments and Business Assets.” adding that there would be sub-themes under which proceedings shall be anchored.
He pointed out that issues of security, destruction of lives and property know neither religion nor ethnicity.
“We need the partnership and support of, and urge all Stakeholders, both in the Public and Private Sectors, with diverse political, religious and professional orientations to put aside all prejudices to help forge a common front to confront the monster that is threatening the integrity of our corporate existence as a people and as a nation.
“We also look forward to the robust participation and inputs of all Partners and Stakeholders to achieve this national endeavor. We have reached out to a few Individuals and Corporate Organizations for partnership and support. We are hopeful that they will consider this as a patriotic duty to our fatherland and contribute to the success of this event.
“We trust therefore that as patriotic professionals of the fourth estate of the realm whose duties are impacted by the aggravated assault on our collective psyches, you will help disseminate the content of this press conference to a wide domestic and global audiences, through your various media channels, so as to create the necessary public awareness about this forthcoming National Summit”, Gen Jubril concluded.