Nigeria’s socio-political and economic landscape has been obliterated by the endemic twin evil of crime and violence.
The shameful attack of the Boko Haram sect in Nyanya, Abuja last Monday was a sad statement that Nigeria is enmeshed in a full- blown war.
And the pattern of insecurity in Nigeria has been regionalized and no longer an exclusive reserve of a particular region.
In some parts, it is militancy, kidnapping, and bombing; in the other, it is armed robbery, destruction of government properties; and yet in another it is a combination of all.
The thirst for blood and the preference for violence in expressing pent-up frustration and disenchantment with the state, its citizens and national totems may be a pointer to the need for a technology approach in quelling this conflagration threatening Nigeria’s statehood.
The role of ICT in tackling crime in modern times cannot be overemphasised, going by the modern tactics deployed of the western world in combating the menace.
Only last week, United States of America celebrated the first anniversary of the April 13, 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and Nigeria and indeed the rest of the world watched in amazement how America deployed its security system to track down the bombers.
Similarly, in less than five minutes the images of the two men who hacked down a brave soldier on London Street on May 22, 2013, appeared on television screen around the world.
There were no guess works in those scenarios, which make many Nigerians get disturbed by the many cases of unresolved high profile crimes in the country.
Some of the things ICT can do to help deal with the security challenges the nation is grappling with include the establishment of a criminal database with exciting agency-specific graphical user interfaces for use by law enforcement agencies.
With ICT, the law enforcement agencies can locate criminal callers within the cellular networks.
The country can employ surveillance cameras, social network analysis, biometric surveillance, data mining and profiling, corporate surveillance, satellite imagery, radio-frequency identification and geo-location devices to mount surveillance on suspected targets.
Importantly, Nigeria needs to enact appropriate laws for national cyber-security, as well as protect the country’s critical national information infrastructure.
Technology is proactive in security sense.
It detects and holds back danger, threat, disaster and so on any given time.