Safety Experts Seek Proactive Caution against Insecurit

Omolabake Fasogbon

With insecurity posing a big threat to the financial and social stability of Nigeria, experts have sought for a conscious and proactive effort from individuals and institutions.
The experts, who weighed these options as being reliable and sufficient in arresting security confrontation, also advised government to come up with a concrete and workable security plan that is acceptable with global standards and benchmark.

Speaking in an interview with THISDAY, Programme Director of NFPWA, Mrs. Anthonia Beri, stated that security measures adopted so far had not yielded much fruit, adding that not many have an idea of the security plans for the country whether it is preventive and passive.

She noted as well that individual conscious effort at homes and work to curtail envisaged or actual dangers was also keen and needed to secure the national security.

She cautioned that there was urgent need to correct certain fundamentals before the economic situation of the country gets out of hand, noting that a lot of resources had gone down the drain as a result of this challenge.
“Nigeria has been ranked as the 127th most competitive economy in the world out of 138, according to the just released World Economic Forum’s 2016-17 global competitiveness report, a drop of three spots from the 124th in 2015-2016.”

This is largely on the back of weakened public finances as a result of lower oil exports.
“Institutions remain weak with insufficiently protected property rights, high corruption, and undue influence. In addition, the security situation remains dire. The need for business and individuals to properly protect and secure their assets cannot be over-emphasised, as security is always key to survival of any business, be it security of goods, facility and personnel, the resultant losses suffered by business in Nigeria due to poor and inadequate security programs and security measures is on the rise, especially at this time when there is an economy recession.”

Beri hinted that the worrying security uncertainties in the country explained why national and institutional security top the issues to be dissected at the forthcoming NFPWA conference billed to hold in May, adding that the whole essence was to stabilise the economy.

“We have a module that is designed to provide guideline security risk management and proffer solutions for cross sectoral safety risk management. It covers security planning, administrative controls, security perimeters, crime prevention through environmental design, security systems, and accessory property. It also presents specific requirements for educational facilities; health care; lodging, multi-dwelling unit buildings, restaurants, shopping centers, retail establishments, office buildings, and industrial facilities.”

She enthused that government needs to step up investment in the training and education of security experts including private businesses like engineers, consultants and manufacturers in order to be up to date on globally accepted principles and guidelines, which will guide them in practice as well as developing a security plan.