World Leaders’ Security Summit In Abuja: An Imperative And The Urgency Of Security Awareness
Seventy-two hours from now, the above security summit holds in Abuja, Nigeria following the maiden edition which held two years agoto discussand proffer solutions to the Boko Haram terrorist threat. And that time, it was not only at her instance, France was the host. Obviously, her interests in the West African sub-region are at stake but globalization and radical changes in global politicsnowmake security threats in any part of the world, a global concern.
That became the case ever since the ‘Iron Curtain’ tumbled down, literally breaking physical as well as artificial barriers to free trade and movement of nationals of the world but with criminals latching on the new found freedoms of movement to step up their own activities across international borders.Also, the profound integration of the world by technology into a global village, is emboldening the criminally minded to replicate crimes in other lands in their own environments.
Similarly propelled by technology, the terrorism crime variant is becoming so decentralized that the worry is now about terrorism as a movement with a countless number of lone wolf terrorists on the loose. In fact, information and communications technologies have continued to inadvertently fill the motivational void created by marginalized terrorist organizational hierarchies.
With the Internet presenting individual terrorists know-how on violent crime; advances in telecommunication technology enhancing anonymity and; sensational real-time reportage by twenty-four hour cable television blaring terrorist exploits to the high heavens, adverse multiplier effects follow. Hitherto law abiding nationals are goaded into terrorist networks in droves just as more lone wolf terrorists and other crime copycats are spurred into action across the globe – sustaining a reign of criminals who think globally and act locally . Thus, technology is facilitating criminal capacity building and reach.
Hence besides the most audacious 9/11 attacks, criminals have struck at places previously unimaginable like the scaling of fence and entry into the White House by an assailant; a lone wolf terrorist shooting to death of a soldier guarding the Canadian National War Memorial grounds just a day after one other suspected terrorist crushed a soldier to death with a car; insurgents audaciously invading and massacring school children on a Pakistani military premises and; slaying of the Imam of China’s largest mosque amongst other high profile violent crimes in 2014.
Also, early 2015, religious insurgents reportedly massacred about 2,000 in Northeastern Nigeria in a single operation around which time terrorists similarly massacred a twelve-man editorial board of Charles Hebdo newspaper in France like they did 145 students at Kenya’s Garissa University College in April. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait suffered the terrorist malady in May and June respectively while France was again at the receiving end in November with a terrorist massacre of 130 besides hundreds wounded – making the year 2015 as one of the bloodiest ever!.
Obviously, there could be no parallel to this present time when the state of security is worsening across the globe. Or is there any time in recent memory when twenty-five percent of all news reports centre on violent crime across the world? The noticeable ubiquity of criminals and crime is reason why leaders of more countries besides Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Cameron and France ought to participate in the imminent world leaders’ security summit in Abuja. Therefore, it is hoped other countries would be represented by their ambassadors given the imminence of the summit – Saturday, 14th May 2016.
Meanwhile, as security of lives and property is worsening across the globe, the universe of criminals is getting so large and dispersed that with limitations in human and material resources, law enforcement agencies cannot possibly preempt every security threat. It is becoming more difficult to predict how many individual or organized criminals are planning attacks in a country. In fact, criminals and law enforcement agencies are now locked in a mouse and cat game, more than ever before. As security measures are implemented to counter known criminal tactics, criminals adapt in response and the cycle starts all over again. More than ever before, governments now have to judiciously deploy scarce resources in the war against crime and in the midst of all these, nothing better interpret the helplessness of governments than incessant security alerts.
While scholars,notablyThomas Hobbes and Max Weber believe that security of lives and property would ever remain the sole justification for a government, even so-called police states are not buoyant enough to protect all at the same time and everywhere. Over the ages, resources as well as distance have always imposed limits on how far any government can go protecting both human and material assets. So, neither the United States of America with advanced technology nor China with a huge reservoir of manpower can be expected to protect every crime target every time and everywhere. That is what occasional calls to vigilance affirm - that there are limits as to how far any government can go protecting crime targets.
By implication, for none to be victimized as a target of opportunity, all should be able to implement measures that among other objectives, deter, detect and delay criminals while law enforcement agents are awaited to respond. Besides, individuals are better positioned than law enforcement agents to notice and alert the authorities on suspicious or criminal activities in their environments.That is the near universal interpretation of self-defence.From the foregoing,it should be clear why and how national as well as individual security is a shared responsibility between a government and the governed. Acknowledging that and effectively fulfilling your part of the bargain is security awareness which these days, is more than ever necessary as fluid political and economic conditions keep stoking embers of insecurity frequently and unexpectedly.
But much as governments’ incessant alerts to vigilance is a measure of the worrisome state of insecurity, is it really possible to be vigilant without properunderstanding of the nature of risks faced, factors that enhance vigilance and responses that attest to functional knowledge of security awareness? The answer to that question would explain why there appears to be no reduction in violent crime proportionally to governments’ now incessant alerts to vigilance. Obviously, most governments have only been alerting to vigilance or security awareness with no officials forthcoming on the how. Otherwise, how else, for example,would one interpret the altercations following the September 19 2014 security breach at the White House?
While the then Director of Security sounded satisfied that the U.S Secret Service: “did use restraint in making a very difficult decision” to stop a knife-wielding intruder right inside the presidential mansion, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform countered: "Tremendous restraint is not what we're looking for [when it comes to protecting the President]. The objective is overwhelming force." Also, the committee could not but query: "How on earth did this happen? Why was there no guard stationed at the front door of the White House, and yes, how much would it cost to lock the front door of the White House?" Eventually realizing the grave risk to lives and national pride of exercising restraint until an intruder who could have been concealing a suicide vest or belt entered a highly sensitive security environment, the director expectedly threw in the towel.
Now, security awareness or vigilance could be defined as a state of total alertness and watchfulness for danger and unsafe conditions using the senses of seeing (eyes), hearing (ear), smelling (nose) and feeling. And to facilitate vigilance, familiarity with a terrain, awareness of pertinent risks and ability to recognize manifestation of those risks (even as decoys) without taking anything for granted, are all important. It is only asall those facts are internalized can anyone cultivate an attitude of vigilance or risk anticipation and observation - spotting and making a mental note of everything one sees and assessing facts carefully and accurately. That way, one would be able to confirm any risk, react and report for any further action by the law enforcement agencies.
After all, mitigating security threats is 90% awareness - only 10% preparation! Or can you plan for or against what you do not know? That is why acquaintances of both the same physical or circumstantial environment and not law enforcement agents, are better positioned to notice and preempt violent crimes at their infancy. By implication, all must be sufficiently security aware to be useful part of that early warning system. And more than ever before, this has become urgent with incessant alerts reflecting a worsening state of security globally. Otherwise, an attitude of complacency, fatalism or delusion that security is a responsibility solely for government risks disastrous consequences.
It should be clear from the definition of vigilance why familiarity with an environment or terrain enjoys a pride of place - you can only be as safe as your environment. But while that terrain is theoretically your surrounding as well as immediate community, globalization occasioned by radical changes in international politics and advances in information and communication technologies have made the entire world a global village and by implication, your actual security environment or terrain of interest. Although internal (national) factors – collectively, bad governance negatively impact national as well as individual security, external (global) factors are more to blame. Over time, it has become obvious that as part of the global village to which advances in technology and radical changes in world politics have reduced the entire world, no country can successfully immune herself against factors negatively influencing global security.
In fact, national causal factors are aggravated by international factors like automation throwing workers off production lines into crime; technology conferring anonymity on criminals as well as facilitating identity thefts and; electronic media inciting to violent crime by sensational real-time reportage amongst other negative fallouts of technological innovations. Just in case anyone is in doubt, did relative security not subsist until the historic technological innovations and radical changes in global politics that ushered in great socio-economic opportunities but along with corresponding challenges for both national and global security? So, it is strongly recommended that variations in those factors are periodically gauged for better appreciation of the present urgency of security awareness for proactive and appropriate mitigating security measures at any given period of time.
On the whole as security has always been a shared responsibility, members of the public must keep tabs on security news and occasionally upgrade individual security measures as the last layer of their national security architecture. Individual as well as corporate security measures must be as resilient as the threat environment dictates in various parts of a country.
In fact, the weaker or thinner a national security cover over a particular community, the higher or greater should be the internal security arrangements by stakeholders to complement the response capability of law enforcement agencies in terms of gear and response time. After all, that is the essence of self-defence or internal security arrangements – foreclosing chances of being a target for opportunistic attacks and where need be, being able to hold out against criminals until help comes from either law enforcement agents or a licensed private security outfit.
Adapted from a 423-page book entitled: Security Awareness: An Imperative and The Urgency by Mr. John Uwaya