Nigeria must strengthen its infrastructure if it wants to fully harness technology in the fight against insecurity, former Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor (Rtd), has said.
Irabor explained that the challenge is not necessarily the absence of technological solutions, but the lack of the infrastructure needed to deploy, connect and effectively use different technologies.
He spoke during a live broadcast of Generation Next: Youth, Power & The Future We Must Build, organised as part of activities marking Nigeria’s 66th Independence Day anniversary.
According to the retired general, Nigeria’s security challenges are too complex for a single technological application to handle. He said different tools must be integrated through the right infrastructure for them to produce useful results.
“It is not about non-availability of tech solutions or non-application of tech solutions. First, you must understand that no matter the technology that you have, there has to be an infrastructure within which you are to apply those tech solutions,” Irabor said.
He added that the various technologies must also work together because “there is no single application or, if you like, single technology that addresses the complexity of the threats that we have.”
Irabor said the supporting infrastructure would help security agencies harmonise information from different applications and make better use of the available technology.
He used drones as an example, explaining that simply having drones is not enough if there are no systems to receive, process and analyse the information they collect.
“One simple example many people talk about is drones and that drones can do a whole lot,” he said.
Irabor explained that footage captured by a drone could either be downloaded and analysed after the drone returns to base or transmitted in real time to a location where analysts can immediately examine it.
In both situations, he said, the necessary infrastructure must be available to make the technology effective.
“There is an infrastructure that exists to make that possible. So, it is in the light of the fact that we are limited in infrastructure that one sees that as a challenge,” he said.
Despite the challenges, Irabor stressed that work is ongoing to improve Nigeria’s security infrastructure.
He said the process requires continuous development and investment, adding that the progress being made in this area has already contributed to some improvements in the country’s security situation.
“But then that does not imply that nothing is being done and I must also acknowledge that it is a process and there is a buildup and this is the reason why we are having some of the improvements on the security situation in the country,” he said.
