THIS week, I’m afraid I’ll have to get back to the issue of ICT and security. In previous takes of this column, I had taken the position that management of security nationwide is still in the early 20th  century format, analog, and mechanistic. More than eleven full years into the 21st century, there exists an urgent need for a complete change into a mode that fits the times, and that is the ICT mode.

Analog cops
I recently overheard a man recounting his ordeals with policemen at a roadblock, or check point, if you like. The unlucky fellow rushed out of home, and forgot his vehicle papers, driver’s license, and all. The policeman that stopped him asked for his papers and license, and after rummaging around in the car told the officer that he did not have them.

He was asked to get in his car and drive to the station, where it might be determined that he was, or not driving a stolen vehicle. The man refused, and instead, called home and asked somebody to bring the papers. The papers arrived after more than one hour, during which a scene had been created as the man flatly refused to drive to the station, while other policemen tried to ensure that he did.

Well, the man shouldn’t have forgotten his papers, since he knows his country, but the approach of the policemen was anything but productive. All six policemen at the checkpoint then focused just one person in a bid to get him to their station, while countless other felons must have escaped.

A 21st century policeman in ICT mode would have taken the man’s phone numbers, name, home and work address. He would also have written down the number tags, and let the man go. He would then check with AutoReg (the Lagos vehicle licensing system, which is an e-operation). If the information unearthed doesn’t tally with what the man gave him, then he has a possible felon he could take in for further investigation.

Interestingly, LASTMA officers are doing this; they now take snapshots with their mobile phones of motorists who drive against the traffic  and run away. I suspect that in the immediate future, many people will begin to get demand notices from LASTMA

The idea is simple — for our society to get better, it must be established that nobody can get away with any infraction of the law; sooner or later, the offender will be caught, and ICT is the enabler that will help us achieve this.

Last year, the University of Benin concluded a CCTV project on its campus, a project that will in no small measure boost the security and environmental sanitation of the university as nobody would want to be caught on camera burgling an office or peeing where he/she should not. How many institutions have toed the UNIBEN line?

More surveillance
Where we are with security, federal, state and local governments should by now be falling over themselves to award CCTV and other surveillance systems contracts. Afterall, the bombs that keep going off didn’t get to their targets themselves; somebody must have brought them there.

If we could see the bombs being put in place, we could at least warn potential victims, even if we couldn’t immediately catch the felons. Why some places seem safer than others is because it has been established that the criminal just can’t get away with the crime, so, no point committing it.

If our governments truly have the love of the governed at heart, there should be immediate action on this, NOW.