By Chinedu Eze
The fear is growing by the day that Boko Haram may target the nation’s airports if the security is not fortified. The fear is reinforced by the fact that all over the world, terrorists target such important public places.
But the Federal Government through the Ministry of Aviation and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), is putting measures in place to forestall such possibility.
But indications have shown that such measures must be unrelenting and continuous because, as the United States warned Nigeria recently, that successful bombing of any of the airports in the country would have collateral damage on the nation’s economy, image of the country as well as the status of the country in the comity of nations. Aviation security experts have given warnings on the possibility of the organisation infiltrating the security apparatus of the airport.
Former Managing Director of FAAN, Richard Aisuebeogun, in a recent lecture, described insider threat as the violation of security policy using legitimate access or obtaining unauthorised access.
He noted that the Murtala Mohammed International Airport and other airports in Nigeria were facing terror threat like other sensitive government institutions, so the agency and other security organisations have to intensify efforts to ensure passengers’ lives and that of other users of the airports are protected.
Aisuebeogun admitted that employees with the above tendencies abound at the airports as they do in every organisation, remarking that while motivation alone might not translate into terrorist activity, “it is an important precursor.”
“The worst case scenario is to have a terrorist operative become an airline/airport employee, thus having unescorted access to restricted areas. Such employee could also corrupt an incumbent employee into providing access or to act as an agent of the terrorist,” Aisuebeogun said.
The Director-General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr Harold Demuren, said recently that human error was a cog in the fight against terrorism at the airports because if all security procedures are put in place and the officers who are to carry out this process compromise their positions, then all the measures put in place would come to nothing.
He said the most efficacious way to fight terrorism was the use of technology, noting that terrorists had advantages over the society because they have time to plan, they have funding and they are ready to die. “The best bet to defeat terrorists is through technology. Terrorists have advantages over us; they have time to plan; they have funding and the worst is that they are ready to die. The people that are meant to protect you are the ones that will blow you.”
Speaking at the opening of a conference in Abuja, on insider threat on the aviation sector on Tuesday, the Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah, admitted that the task of ensuring the safety and security of civil aviation operations in present day world was an enormous challenge to the aviation industry worldwide.
She noted that it had become expedient for aviation experts to begin to network proactively in checkmating insider threat. “I would like to reaffirm the total commitment of Nigeria to continue to work with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the United States Transport Security Administration (TSA), the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) and the international community in addressing the challenges to aviation security.”
FAAN has intensified the training of aviation security personnel, recruited new officers and increased the surveillance of airport facilities together with other security agencies in the country.
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