Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has asked security agencies to leverage technology-driven solutions and intelligence-driven collaboration to improve the nation’s security architecture in line with global standards and tackle challenges nationwide.
He said this on Saturday at the graduation ceremony of participants of the Executive Intelligence Management Course 14 at the National Institute for Security Studies, Bwari, Abuja.
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Prof. Osinbajo also urged the adoption of cutting-edge technology to tackle security challenges.
“It was clear that we cannot secure or police a country of this size with human assets alone. We must, therefore, leverage technology. We must become much smarter in the deployment of Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance tools to compensate for the human resource deficits within our security establishment.
“Our intelligence services must be proactive rather than reactive, ahead of the curve rather than behind it. Threats must be identified and addressed well before they evolve into manifest perils,” he said.
Osinbajo said the use of technology-driven solutions would not only address security complexities, but also checkmate the way it has also empowered criminal non-state actors, with capabilities that just decades ago could only be exercised by nation- states.
He said, “For example, look at the various criminal and terrorist possibilities on the so-called Dark Web -a virtual underworld that hosts a global illicit economy and has proven difficult for state actors to infiltrate. Within this underground cyber universe, transactions around illicit drugs, weapons, child trafficking and even weapons of mass destruction are being conducted.”
The vice president said the Federal Government was investing more in the sector.
He said, “President Buhari has emphasized an approach that leverages inter-agency collaboration, joint operations, technology-driven enablers and the optimization of existing capabilities to avoid duplication of resources and expenditure.”
He identified some major challenges in the security environment, such as the global dimensions to local security, country size and the challenge of covering extensive terrain, the availability and use of technology by criminal and terrorist individuals and groups, and inter-agency coordination.
