ENVIRONMENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS AS A TOOL FOR ENHANCING PUBLIC AND PERSONAL SECURITY

A PAPER PRESENTED BY MR. ADE ADEOGUN AT THE ALGON SECURITY CLASSES FOR LGA CHAIRMEN, CHIEF SECURITY OFFICERS AND CHIEF PROTOCOL OFFICERS OF RIVERS STATE ON FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2012.

 I believe that in the course of this forum you may have been addressed by professional security personnel from the various security agencies on issues connected with threats to security as it concerns the nation and the state. As a business owner and pensioner, I am smart enough to know that it is unwise to compete with people who have competitive advantage over you. So I will not attempt to compete with my more current and illustrious former colleagues in identifying State security issues. I shall therefore deal with an area that I am now more familiar with as the Chief Cleaner of the state.

I want to thank the organisers of this forum for finding me worthy of being a keynote speaker at this forum. Your choice may have been informed by the knowledge that I was once a teacher rather than my past association with the security world. So if you find this paper unworthy of an ex security officer, please blame it on my age. But if you find any use for it, the praises should go to the brilliant people I surround myself with. It is to their credit that I function well without having to belabour my brain.

For the purpose of addressing the subject of environmental awareness, we shall narrow our definition of environment to mean the surroundings in which we live or operate from. It encompasses the totality of locations within which our activities are carried out from. That basically includes our homes and offices but in addition the schools of our children, public functions we attend as well as those of your constituents given the fact that you are local government chairmen.

Environmental awareness is therefore about being conscious and informed of the activities and goings-on within the surroundings you live or operate from which precisely is your Local Government Area.

Security on the other hand can be defined as ‘Freedom from anxiety’. In other words, to be secured is to be safe. It encapsulates the degree of protection deployed by any given entity to guard against danger, damage, loss, and crime. It also includes all procedures followed or measures taken to ensure safety. The import of security to the performance of your different functions as public officers cannot be overemphasised given the fact that any society devoid of the safety of lives and properties can neither attract nor sustain development. So, security is critical for the meaningful development of any community.

Security threats are any activity that forestalls the attainment of a state of security. Such activities are always products of the environment where we operate. For instance Boko Haram is a reflection of the activities around the environment where they operate. Poverty, poor education, disenchantment among the populace provides good environmental context for the activities of the sect. This therefore makes it pertinent to be aware and recognisance the impact of the immediate and remote environment within which you operate on security. Without this recognition, there cannot be any meaningful deployment of strategic security to uphold or prevent the break-down of law and order or any related attempt to create danger.

To mitigate the impact of the environment on security, it is germane that efforts are made to understand the environmental context in which we operate and the challenges that could emanate there from. As a starting point, a security status appraisal of the environment is critical in identifying stakeholders upon whom your security may depend. This includes work local government employees, trade unions, neighbours, adjoin LGAs, law enforcement agencies, traditional rulers, educational institutions and their students, pressure groups, political parties, criminal groups and those who live on the border of the law.  For instance, within the environment you reside, the stakeholders will be family members, domestic servants, artisans who come to render services to your household neighbours, including the Mallam who sells provisions across the road, the beer parlour that is three meters from your house and all such ancillary services that are positioned around your residence.

You must be aware that the activities of these stakeholders in many ways than one are capable of affecting your security if adequate measures are not taken to understand their dynamics and forestall possible dangers. Knowing your stakeholders will enable you know areas of danger, identify your vulnerabilities as well as identify friendly forces that could assist you in the event of manifestation of threats.

It is essential that you know that criminals always operate with insider sources that are sometimes trusted relations and aides. Your seemingly harmless neighbours like the neighbourhood dispenser or ‘mairuwa’ could be conduits for storage of illicit weapons, drugs or ‘sleeping operatives’ of criminal groups. In the same vein your ‘innocent ward could be a member of a cult group or criminal gang thus exposing you, your family and associates to avoidable security risks. It is therefore critical you conduct periodic neighbourhood checks or a stakeholder analysis in order to be fully abreast of those who are your stakeholders.

Conversely, as a stakeholder within your environment, it is also important to evaluate how your actions and pattern of life affect other stakeholders within that environment. More important is to understand that every action you take communicates something to other stakeholders especially the lifestyle you live. While it is not against any known law to drive a Range Rovers Vogue, or the Mercedes G Wagon SUV, driving one while living in an environment like Diobu or Borokiri is undoubtedly an invitation to threat. Lifestyle must conform to the environment you live in. How you dress, the company you keep, your standard of living, the size of your house and the cars you drive, must conform to the environment in which you live in, otherwise you draw unnecessary attention to yourself and endanger your family.

Also, a consciousness of the environment in which you live or do business will decide the nature of physical security deployed and the kinds of personnel and personal security measures that is adopted to safeguard lives and property in your homes, offices and communities. For those of you who are Chief Security Officers, environmental awareness will largely influence the people you engage to safeguard lives and property, the measures you adopt to check their activities, lifestyles and habits. The same applies to Protocol Officers who have the responsibility of arranging meeting, scheduling visitors and arrange public engagements. What kind of meeting or engagement do you invite your bosses to attend? Do you gauge the moods of such events or you just act in your own selfish interest?

I will address the bulk of this paper to the Local Government Chairmen because without you, the protocol and Chief Security Officers will have no job. As Chief Executives of your local government areas, your style of governance has a direct correlation to the security of lives and property in your LGA. When a local government is well governed, the fear of insecurity dissipates because the government has no reason to be afraid of insurrection or any violent opposition. Good governance entails a political system in which the leadership is responsive, transparent and accountable to the governed. It entails building accessible public health care facilities so that citizens can take care of their medical needs without having to endanger themselves by going to fake medical doctors, uncertified traditional healing homes, religious charlatans and their ilk.

A situation in which a public officer lives ostensibly in superfluous wealth in the face of poor governance is not just an affront on the populace but an invitation for crisis. As Local Government Chairmen, you are by definition the Chief Security officer of your Local Government Areas. Environmental consciousness requires that you are abreast of local politics and events that could precipitate undesired security situations in all communities within your LGA. You are expected to support security agencies and give prompt attention to security issues. The situation in which council chairmen lock up the councils when leaving the LGA and become inaccessible to stakeholders including security personnel leaves much to be desired. How can you pre-empt imminent security threats when you make yourself unavailable to those who are deployed to assist you in curbing such threats? It amounts to being penny-wise and pound-foolish when you abdicate your responsibility to forestall threats to security because in the long run you will expend more resources when such threats eventually manifest. Always remember the proverb ‘a stitch in tome saves nine’.

Related to the foregoing is the link between infrastructure and security. Environmental consciousness requires that you take pre-emptive action to address infrastructure decay that could serve as security threat. For instance leaving the streets in your Communities dark at night would encourage criminality, a situation that could be addressed through mere provision of street lighting. Similarly patching potholes on roads in your LGA could forestall criminal activities like robbery and kidnapping. The notorious pothole on the Elele-Omoku road is an instance of unnecessary negligence, which has caused pain, and loss of lives. That the road is an NDDC road does not mean that the council cannot invest little funds for the convenience and safety of its citizens. After all a large percentage of victims of criminal activities along that road hail from ONELGA.

Recently, the Country representative of Water Aids Nigeria announced to the world that diarrhoea kills more children in Africa than Malaria, HIV and Measles put together. It is a fact that one of the major causes of diarrhoea is poor sanitary conditions and unsafe drinking water. In many LGAs where you govern, the citizens still drink water from unclean sources and use the same waterways for bathing and bowel movements. Are you aware that this is the major reason that average life expectancy in Nigeria is 47yrs? Good governance is when you add to the lifespan of those who voted you to power, not donate money at funerals. The fact is that for as long as your subjects are unsafe and susceptible to such unhealthy living conditions, you too are unsafe. Regardless that the only time you partake in Kola nut breaking or eat in the homes of your subjects is during political campaigns, there is no guarantee that you cannot pick up any of the diseases arising from unsanitary conditions even at this rare moments. Do you also know that cutting over grown weeds within communities and on inter-communal roads will deny armed robbers and criminals hiding places?

What is the role of environmental health officers in your LGA? Why pay people salaries and not provide them the tools to work? My suggestion is that you put these men to good use and reduce the anxieties associated with environmental health risks. They will help you in saving lives.

Before I draw a curtain on this key note address, may I draw your attention to what I will regard as the key note in this paper… being aware; avoidance of routine, being suspicious and never taking anything in the environment for granted? Does your lifestyle attract danger to you?

In the security world, the rule is that coincidences don’t happen. Never assume that being followed by another car is a coincidence. Check your rear driving mirrors when driving for suspicious tails and turn at a roundabout to doubly confirm your suspicion or drive to a safe haven. Check the telephone habits of your domestic servants. Do they make calls when you drive out of your premises? Listen to background noise when you make or receive calls, the noise tells a lot about the context of the call. Have someone monitor the neighbourhood kiosk operator to guard against criminality. Those of you who still patronise the ‘ministry of women affairs’, what time do you go to minister to your ‘disciple’? Are your routes and movements predictable? Do you leave your food or drinks unattended to and return to it? Do you travel with cash in this era of electronic money? Are you aware that being unpredictable is an important way of securing yourself, better than announcing your movements and presence to the world through the behaviour of your escorts?

If you are aware of your environment you will be able to address the most important security challenge that you face: FEAR! It is often said that what you fear most happens. I must therefore advise you to bury your fears and give your mind the freedom to guide you towards rendering quality service to your people. Fear is an indication of insecurity. Anything that generates anxiety breads insecurity. So to be safe is to be without fear. If you allow yourself to dwell in fear you will never attain your purpose, which is to render good governance and impact the people of your LGAs positively.

The key to fearlessness is being proactive and eliminating all sources of anxiety before they manifest. The key is to be conscious of your environment.  Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, leave nothing to chance. Be aware of your environment. Be safe!

Thank you.