Presidential Think-Tank to address Relevance of National Critical Assets Protection

The Presidential Think-Tank on Defence and Security, is set to address issues on the importance of protection of National Critical Assets in the country.

The Chairman of the forum, Major General Abdul Jibril made this known during a news briefing in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.

Jibril said that “the organisation has been in existence for over three years now. It is a Presidential Committee set up by the President to handle issues on National Securities that affect Defence generally and the Nation as a whole”.

He noted that the Committee has been doing their work but not in the public eye. He recalled that the President some time ago addressed the nation and drew the attention of Nigerians on the need to individually and collectively protect National Critical Assets.

“The President has called upon all agencies and departments to carry it as a duty,” he added.

He said the organization thought it wise on the need to deliver Mr. President’s intention to the public and decided to organize a seminar on the importance of protecting the National Critical Assets.

A member of the Committee, Retired Air Vice Marshal Dick Iruenabere during his address said a two-day summit which will be coming up on December 6 and 7, 2021 is basically in response to call-to-arms of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Mr. Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, to the Armed Forces, Intelligence  and Security  establishments, business owners as well as to all residents of Nigeria to work in concert to “reduce the vulnerability of the Nation’s Critical National Infrastructure to threats and hazards, on the one hand, and improving the resilience of such critical national infrastructure by strengthening their  ability to withstand and recover from disruption”.

The Theme of the summit is “Protecting Nigeria’s Critical Infrastructure, Monuments and Business Assets”.

Iruenabere this will involve a number of measures ranging from,

1. Physical protection to prevent damage or disruption
2. Building a level of reliability into them so that they can continue to operate even after an attack,
3. Ensuring that there are back-up systems to
4. Putting in place organizations that can rapidly respond effectively to threat events to enable such infrastructure to recover quickly from disruptions.

According to him, using the UK definition, national Infrastructure consists of those facilities, systems, sites, information, people, networks and processes necessary for a country to function and upon which daily life depends.

He added that it also includes some functions, sites and organisations which need protection due to the potential dangers they could pose to the public in the event of an emergency.

Iruenabere said “experts from different fields and schools will be coming to bring their whole-of-society perspectives to bear in contributing to the development of policy”.

He noted that the Presidential Think –Tank is also in consultations with some of the leading Security Experts and Institutions with specialized capacities to develop this nationwide seamless Enterprise Architecture to harvest a wide range of innovative technological options to achieve the desired solution outcomes.

Members of the committee attended the briefing.

Nneka Ukachukwu