…Says we must secure our waters,roads,rail system to stem insecurity
INTRODUCTION: Capt. Warredi Enisuoh is the Executive Director, Operations and Technical Services, Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited. He is both an aircraft captain and a ship captain. In this interview at the just-concluded 2nd Transport Summit themed, “Navigating Global Disruptions and the Road Ahead: Mobility, Energy, Trade Facilitation for a Resilient Future,” at the weekend,organised by JustAlive Communications Limited, he speaks on issues relating to the summit theme and how insecurity contributes to global disruptions. Our Managing Editor, Abel Orukpe, was there. Excerpts:
How do we integrate a proper solution to the insecurity in the transport sector?
When when it comes to security, the problem is people have to be aware. It is awareness or unawareness that your assailants take advantage of. If people know that you are aware, it also helps to douse the tension created by insecurity because people who are going to carry out threats on you always take advantage of the fact that you’re not aware.
So awareness is very key. And as we speak, the amount of insecurity that has somehow also inflicted this country is not reflected in the day-to-day education of our children in schools. We should start teaching insecurity in schools now. I mean in Nigerian schools.
This because those who will be kidnapped tomorrow are free today, if you ask me. Today, because everybody seems to feel, oh, it’s not my business or it’s not my portion. But the persons who said yesterday is not our portion, unfortunately it is their portion today, you understand? So we have to increase our educational syllabuses to handle this insecurity lecture also, because it’s something that has come to stay.
We don’t have a choice, that is number one. Now, are our logistic chains designed in such a way that it will handle insecurity? And the answer is no.
Our Ports
Look at the way our ports are? They are not designed as smart ports. You go into the ports, the design needs to change. Because sometimes even the design can kind of address your insecurity, do you understand? The way you stack your containers will also even prevent people from hiding or anybody behaving funny or carrying out any threat or doing anything inimical to the ports.
Installation of Cameras at Ports
What security cameras do you have? Tese days we have facial recognition cameras, whereby anybody that comes into the port, the systems can pick up the person’s face and be able to track the person all through the system under a Command Centre. You see that? And even if the person moves out of the port, even if you have security cameras way out, way out because we’re designing something now for Delta, and I’m the one in charge of that project. We’re designing a security system whereby the cameras recognise your face, even if you appear in a server.
We know that you are the one who was in our estate that has now appeared in a server. That’s where we’re going. have to make sure that all these things come together in terms of technology and everything.
Insecurity on Roads
East-West Road for example has become the insecurity attention in recent times. We can monitor that road with drones. We can and it is doable.
Today, we have drones, as I said earlier that can detect body heat. You can’t take anybody into the bush without we seeing you. It’s not possible. We will see your body generates heat. We’ll see and We’ll grab you.So if we patrol certain sections of the roads, every state patrol their section using drones, not only against kidnap, but also to secure the movement of goods within the area.
How good are our roads? If the roads are not good, it’s also a bedrock for insecurity because if portions of a road is bad and motorists have to slow down when they get there, they are bound to have issues, You understand? You will get into serious issues, you know?
Airport Airside
Again.when it comes to the airports, I can tell you one thing. The airside has done very, very well compared to that of maritime. Aviation because of the auditing systems, you know, especially from the United States and all of that, the fencing and everything, and whatever, the Airside, to some extent, has done very, very well.
For example, you cannot go into the airport without your On Duty Card(ODC). You can’t do this and you will not be allowed to do it. Do you understand? So maybe the Maritime industry has got a lot to learn from the Airside in the Aviation sector when it comes to insecurity. Those are some of the very, very key issues we have to look at. But we must deploy technology. This is because the moment people know that they are being watched from one end to another, that itself is security for you.
As expert in both the maritime and aviation sectors of the economy, the issue of intermodal transportation has been a major challenge to Nigeria, how best do you think this issue can be addressed?
If you look at it very well, when we were building the country, we did not really think of intermodal transport. Some countries build their airports close to their seaports. Which means they were thinking of multimodal while building it.
Some countries are able to designed it in such a way that both the air and the maritime cargoes can be brought to a central area. You understand? But not all is lost in our own case. We could still do that.
In Nigeria, we are still operating in silos. You go, okay, there is SAHCO or so in the airport, then there is this other one, NAHCo Aviance at the far end or the other end of airport but, you know, we have to think of future designs. By future designs, I mean, even airports or seaports do expire. Yes, they do, take it or leave it. They expire. They are like humans.
They grow old, outwit themselves. You may just need to do some other things. And sometimes also, you don’t have to build your port in such a way that you take more ships. No. You can build your port deeper in such a way that you take less ships, but bigger ships. It’s easier for you to monitor 10 bigger ships for example than monitor 22,000 small ships.Do you see that?
So, if your port is deeper and bigger, you’re handling 10 ships, you can focus easier than a shallow port with 100 ships and you’re distracted by hundreds of things going on.It is smart ports, and bigger ports. What I mean, deeper ports and everything will be fine. But when you want to go into this automation, port automation is key.
One day, may be you guys will find yourself yourself in Los Angeles. Visit the Los Angeles Port. There is no human being in the port. Everything is done by robots. From discharge to stacking.
If you see the way the boxes are stacked, they are stacked with GPS in such a way that the human being cannot even be in between two containers. It’s not possible. That also helps the security.of the port.
In fact, as a driver drives through the gates, there is facial recognition for the driver. They know who he is. They even scan your container number, they know whether that container is fake or original.The human intervention and interface is very, very low. So, these are some of the issues you could use to address in security.
Having seen these measures and innovations worked in other developed climes, have you been able to provide some of this solutions to any of the states governments threatened by insecurity,
Ah!, you’re dragging me into a political environment now.The answer is yes. But I don’t want to say too much about it. We are working in partnership with the Nigerian security forces. We’re working to address the issues.
What is your take on the theme of the summit?
I think one of the things that is going to assist in removing people’s taste buds from the oil and gas is that Nigeria is very rich in minerals that have not been harnessed. And as soon as we explore these other minerals and also bring them in the same way that the oil sector is regulated, the country will be richer, you know? And once the country is richer and people begin to get more services out of their money, they will shift their minds away. But we must also secure our waters because not all the stealing is going on that are being carried out by locals, no. You can see Iran now, the trouble in the Homos is putting a lot of pressure on the Nigeria’s oil presently.
A lot of pressure. A lot of ships are coming into Nigeria with the intention to steal. As a matter of fact, we’ve arrested two ships in the last 48 hours. You see it in the news, we’ll talk about it. It’s a very big problem. So we have to be more aware.
Maritime Patrols
Maritime Patrols should be intensified. At the moment, we’ve brought in some long range drones that can make Ghana from Warri. We are using them to patrol the maritime sector because we have to protect our waters.
But it is not just only because of the oil but for our waters. Most of the fish you even buy, if not all of the fish you even buy in Lagos here, all are caught in your waters. They are caught in the middle of the ocean and sold to you as imported fish. End.
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