Prince Osuagwu
Information and Communications Technology practitioners in the country are no longer comfortable with spate of kidnaping, arms banditry and racketeering as well as other vices that are constituting national security embarrassment to the country today.

This is even when they believe and describe their sector as  perfectly capable of nipping the vices in the bud and return the honour and prestige due the nation often described as the populous black nation in the world.

However, the practitioners are not only depending on their knowledge of the power of ICT to break the kidnappers barriers but are also putting action to it. To that effect a group of ICT industry associations and stakeholders are putting powers behind a one-day Forum to consider appropriate ICT interventions to address the current national security emergency threatening the peace, economic development and stability of the country.

The stakeholders summit is initiated by an ICT-based security technology provider, Technology Development Company Limited, TDC in strategic partnership with an events management company Gamnet Solutions Limited, and a media based Non Governmental Organisation which also serves as umbrella body of ICT reporters in Nigeria, Joint Action Committee on ICT Awareness and Development, JACITAD among others.

Announcing the event at the weekend, MD/CEO of TDC, Dr Emmanuel Ekuwem, said that the event which holds September 7, 2010 at the Eko Hotels and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos is also in collaborating with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and all relevant ICT industry Associations.

With theme; “National Security Emergency: ICT to the Rescue” Ekuwem said the summit seeks to address the growing rate of insecurity in Nigeria, including negative activities like armed robberies, assassinations, kidnapping, religious disturbances, ethnic riots, political violence and urban gangsterism which all cause serious concern to governments at all levels.

The summit also has the collaboration of Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Association of Licensed Telephone Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Nigerian Internet Group (NIG), Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), Internet Services Providers Association of Nigeria (ISPAN) and Information Technology Association of Nigeria (ITAN).

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), recently expressed concern over the spate of kidnaps and related heinous crimes perpetrated by unscrupulous and undesirable elements in the society and announced its determination to mobilize the support of telecommunications operators in Nigeria towards devising and deploying appropriate ICT systems and solutions to help the security forces track down kidnappers and other criminals in the society.

The Commission believes that the ICT sector has what it takes to enhance the efforts of the security forces in bringing the current embarrassing security situation under control Organisers of the event said that it was in support of this stance that the summit was conceived adding that resolutions arrived at the summit would certainly set the pace for a national framework for sustainable ICT-enabled security networking capable of enhancing efforts of the security agencies in combating insecurity across the nation.

According to Ekuwem, “the summit will also serve as a business networking roundtable between ICT services providers, public security agencies and their private sector security practitioners. It will provide ample opportunity for the security professionals to discuss their work challenges with security-based technology providers, leading to the recommendation of ICT solutions that could meet internal security requirements”.

He also added that the summit would forge strategic alliances between all relevant stakeholders in the Nigerian project with a view to establishing the required synergy and security networking platform aimed at dismantling criminal hideouts and overpowering the gangsters across the states of the federation.

Participants will focus attention on security-based ICT interventions for effective national security surveillance and monitoring including scanning systems in the sea ports, airports, border posts and inland waterways to detect movement of arms, ammunitions and light weapons across the country. Other aspect will be the navigational systems for tracking and locating criminal automobiles, to ease their interception and arrest; integrated systems for detecting and monitoring footprints of criminals and their activities even after they have left the scenes; ICT-based coordination of surveillance and monitoring activities across the nation; in situ, distributed and central data storage and archiving systems with date and time-specific playback capabilities; as well as establishment of personal identity management systems  and criminals’ database for online access at every point of transactions.

Also to be considered will be the issue of legislation on lawful interception, data retention on the networks and cyber security.