Commandant General of NSCDC said, over $200 billion damages of assets since 1999. Major General Babagana Monguno, the country's national...
Commandant General of NSCDC said, over $200 billion damages of assets since 1999.
Major General Babagana Monguno, the country's national security adviser, has raised alarm over the recent wave of attacks on vital national assets in all six geopolitical regions.
At the same time, Ahmed Audi, the Commandant General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, disclosed that since 1999, attacks against key infrastructure had cost the nation an estimated $200 billion.
Although Moguno claimed that the government had put both kinetic and non-kinetic procedures in place to protect these assets, she added that more methods to deal with changing threats to the country's infrastructure must be developed and continually reviewed.
At the Tuesday validation exercise for the Critical National Assets and Infrastructure National Protection Policy and Strategy 2023 in Abuja, Monguno spoke through the Principal General Staff Officer, Office of the National Security Adviser, Major General Sadiq Ndalolo.
"Bandits and terrorist organizations target the transportation network and educational institutions in the North West," he declared. These gangs' presence further poses serious security risks to the area, particularly in the area of the Kainji and Shiroro dams. Attacks on critical infrastructure in the South East, including police stations and security checkpoints, are thought to be planned by members of the Eastern Security Network. Armed robberies directed at banks and other financial institutions, as well as willful destruction of public infrastructure in the wake of unrest, have posed significant threats to critical national assets and infrastructure in the South West.
Meanwhile, insurgent activity, particularly pipeline damage and oil theft, is the main cause of attacks on assets and infrastructure in the South-South. Piracy is yet another difficulty Nigeria's maritime sector, which crosses the border, faces. As shipping premium insurance for ships grew in reaction to piracy worries, the threat came dangerously close to crippling the maritime transportation supply chain. However, the fact that this threat has been greatly reduced by the Nigerian Navy and other maritime stakeholders is quite comforting.
Despite having an infrastructure deficit of more than $3 trillion, the country has lost an estimated $200 billion due to threats on key assets since 1999, according to Ahmed Audi, Commandant General, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.
The economic losses brought on by the threats against CNAI, he claimed, are incalculable in monetary terms. No thanks to terrorism, insurgency, banditry, militancy, vandalism, the End-SARS protest, the Covid-19 outbreak, and other factors, some estimates place the cost at above $200 billion since 1999. This occurred in a nation where the deficit in infrastructure is estimated to be over $3 trillion. Threats to CNAI make us go one step forward and two steps back while we work to close this gap.
He continued by saying that the publication of the document was timely given the danger that new security threats posed to important national infrastructure and assets.
With new security threats putting our CNAI in danger and potentially preventing them from supplying or enabling national critical functions, this document is a further boost that couldn't have come at a better time, according to Audi.
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