By Sumaila Ogbaje
Some security and intelligence experts have advocated the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to tackle the security challenges confronting the country.
They made he call while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the 15th International Security Conference and Award (ISCA), organised by the International Institute of Professional Security (IIPS), on Saturday in Abuja.
The Director-General of IIPS, Dr Tony Ofoyetan, said that deploying inanimate things like drones would give great push to the fight against insecurity.
“There is need for more of technology in intelligence gathering and operational executions and the like.
“They need to understand the essence of inanimate intelligence and that is actually the reason why we put on this conference,” he said.
Ofoyetan also advised the government to look at the security challenges beyond the perspective of military actions.
He added that the government should interrogate the possibility of international sponsorship of the various security challenges bedeviling the country.
The director-general said international infiltration into the nation’s domestic terrorism was obvious and advised the government to review its relationship with neighboring countries.
“We have porous borders with more than 2, 000 Illegal routes into the country today, and it is a major problem,” he added.
Another security and intelligence expert, Mr Kabiru Adamu, said the conference with the focus on intelligence was apt considering the nature of the security challenges being confronted by the military and other security agencies.
“What this conference has done it to bring forward solutions using technology in managing insecurity in Nigeria.
“The reality is that technology is a force multiplier in a situation where you have paucity of funds, where you don’t have enough personnel, then technology is the natural fallback.
“That is what this conference is proposing. All the papers that were presented discussed solutions around the use of technology, in particular, is the use of AI.
“Looking at #EndSARS crisis when Nigeria was caught unawares, it’s obvious our security agencies were not prepared for the kind of modernisation that took place in the cyberspace.
“Now what this conference has done is to bring out all the solutions that are available within the technology space for solving security challenges.
“Like I emphasised, it is absolutely important for Nigeria, because we are faced with a situation where we don’t have enough personnel, we don’t have enough money and AI or technology is the natural option for us,” Adamu said.
The security expert said the nation had no choice but to adopt technology in intelligence gathering, in order to effectively tackle the security challenges.
Adamu also called for engagement of young people, especially those who are experts in different aspects of cybersecurity, to support the military forces.
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