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The needs assessment concluded that in recognition of the significant of space activities in modern world affair and in awareness of the broad implications and usefulness of data collected from earth-orbiting satellites for security and socio-economic development of Nigeria, every effort should be made for Nigeria to acquire her own earth-orbiting satellite and put in place infrastructural facilities for ensuring the successful operation of such satellite.
(Summary of the Professor Robert Boroffice-led National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) report, quoted in Turner T. Isoun and Miriam J. Isoun’s ‘WHY RUN BEFORE LEARNING TO WALK? Reflections on High Technology as a Strategic Tool for Development in Nigeria’ (2013), page 8).
Professor Ritchard Aduche Wokocha’s home town of Omoku bore the brunt of Don Wanney’s massacres that wiped out whole families. Yet, no sooner did the Rivers State House of Assembly pass the Governor Nyesom Wike-sponsored Rivers State Neighbourhood Safety Corps Bill than he issued his warning.
Speaking on NigeriaInfo FM, Port Harcourt, 21st February 2018, Wokocha opposed members of the proposed Neighbourhood Safety Corps bearing arms. In his view, such would worsen, rather than ameliorate, insecurity since more arms would then be in circulation. Drawing attention to sections of the constitution prohibiting private individuals from carrying arms, he argued that firearms were under Exclusive List regulated by the Criminal Code Act and Firearms Act. Governor Wike could not arm Neighbourhood Safety without violating extant laws.
The question now arises, how then do Neighbourhood Safety personnel protect themselves while protecting lives and property? In Lagos State, cultists shot dead a member of the neighbourhood security for passing information to the police, for instance. If Governor Wike deployed unarmed personnel, what is the guarantee that they won’t be kidnapped or killed? In response, Wokocha encouraged Rivers government to adopt technology in securing the state. How this can be accomplished is what this exercise is all about. All quotations are from Turner T. Isoun and Miriam J. Isoun’s major work cited above.
Nigerian satellites
President Olusegun Obasanjo had security in mind when on 18th October 2000 he handpicked Professor Turner Timinipre Isoun to serve as his Minister of Science and Technology, 2000-2007. Two factors influenced his choice: One, Obasanjo was out to modernise Nigeria through the application of high technology in a programme best described as paradigm shift. And two, Professor Isoun’s envisaged achievements would give the president the much-needed political currency before Nigerians.
Professor Isoun recruited 15 Nigerian scientists on merit before sending them to the Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL), a commercial arm of the University of Surrey, United Kingdom. For eighteen months he trained them in space technology before they joined the SSTL team “in mission definition studies, development of satellite engineering models, the manufacture of satellite flight models, and to participate in satellite testing launch preparations, installation of mission control stations and satellite orbiting commissioning.”
At 10a.m. Russian time, 26th September 2003, Pletsck in Siberia, the Russian rocket carrying NigeriaSat-1 lifted off reaching its mission destination of 686 kilometers above the earth. It was an epochal moment that saw a Black African nation finally in space. On ground monitoring the launch were the Permanent Secretary in the Presidency and, of course, the father of Nigerian space technology himself, Professor Isoun.
Within hours in space, NigeriaSat-1 was relaying streams of data back to the ground receiving (mission control) station in Abuja. President Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar went to the station to see things for themselves. There they saw “young Nigerian engineers and scientists in full control of the ground station, and down-loading data from the satellite, the two highest ranking political leaders in Nigeria were highly impressed with the young Nigerian engineers and scientists, and congratulated the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology and the staff of NASRDA.
Within days of opening shop, the mission station received requests from 50 persons and institutions for data and images generated by NigeriaSat-1. They included the Ministry of Defence, Nigeria (for carrying out military development over a four-week period). Satellite Application Centre, (CSIR), South Africa (for land use and land mapping). Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki (for geological, geographical, environmental and land use studies). The Survey Department of Ministry of Land and Housing, Cross River State (for digital mapping project).
Clarification
Nigerian first satellite was a remote sensing and imaging model called NigeriaSat-1, built by SSTL and launched 26th September 2003. It had a five-year lifetime and performed beautifully well till it expired in 2008.
Our second remote sensing and imaging satellite, NigeriaSat-2, also built by SSTL and launched 17th August 2011, has seven-year lifetime. Its performance is beyond expectations and is expected to be retired this 2018.
Our third remote sensing and imaging satellite, NigeriaSat-X, was a replacement for NigeriaSat-1 that expired 2008. It was launched into space same 17th August 2011 and carried by the same Russian rocket that carried NigeriaSat-2. The wonderful thing is that it was entirely built by a group of 25 Nigerian engineers who participated in the building of our previous satellites at SSTL. With a five-year lifetime; it expired 2016.
But our first ever communication satellite, distinct from remote sensing and imaging type, was NigComSat-1. It was built by the China Great Wall Industry Corporation, CGWIC, with fifteen-year lifetime and launched on 14th May 2007. For the record, it was this particular satellite that on 9th November 2008 developed power problem and went out of orbit at 35,000 km above the earth.
Subsequently, the CGWIC that built the lost satellite replaced it at no cost to Nigeria. Its replacement, NigComSat-1R, launched 20th December 2011, has a lifetime of fifteen years and will remain in active service till 2026. What all these mean is that since 2003 this great country has eyes in the sky.
Applying satellite intelligence
Managing security has a lot to do with intelligence gathering and Governor Wike could do this by (1) Bringing on board experts at the President Olusegun Obasanjo Space Centre, Abuja (2) Consulting Professor Isoun himself, and (3) Applying procedures stipulated in Professor Turner T. Isoun and Miriam J. Isoun’s book cited above.
For instance, for a fee paid to NigComSat Ltd, the commercial arm of NASRDA, Governor Wike could digitally map the entire Rivers. Next, the digital map is then broken down into parts showing every village, town and city. Each part is reduced to a simple readable map with identifiable street names and locations. The map is mass-produced and sold cheaply, as cheap as fifty naira, to members of the public.
Armed with this map, a visitor in your neighbourhood could reach his destination without asking for direction. But in fighting crime, the same map becomes a strategic weapon in cutting down the number of minutes Neighbourhood Safety and police will take to reach a crime scene.
Digital mapping aside, NigComSat-1R has the capability of providing “the most optimal and cost effective voice, data, and video services and solutions” (p.70). Such voice and video solutions should lead the Neighbourhood Safety to where kidnapped victims are kept in urban and forest hideouts. With such solutions, you might add, the Nigerian army has no excuse not locating and rescuing the remaining Chibok, and recently kidnapped Dapchi, school girls.
The benefits of what we can do with satellite technology in securing Rivers, host to Nigerian critical oil facilities, are numerous. Illegal refineries can be photographed and accurately marked for destruction. Rather than expensive helicopter surveillance, NigComSat-1R can deliver high resolution digital videos of every single pipeline in Nigeria with each pass real time.
But the implication is that those recruited into Neighbourhood Safety must be educated enough to understand and use interpreted data and images handed down to them for operations. This means an elite corps.
Conclusion
To defeat crime we must understand what we are up against. Post-civil war Rivers under the military was relatively safe. The worst case scenarios were armed robbery and the occasional homicide. We had low-profile money-doublers. All together, the criminals of the ‘70s and ‘80s were barely educated and crushing them was a routine exercise for the police. The information age, however, changed the crime pattern.
For every possibility the internet and cell phone presented Rivers, there was an equal vice. We embraced the former while refusing to even acknowledge the latter. Then one morning Rivers parents heard that their children in secondary schools were being initiated into secret cults. Workers complained of their hard-earned money being mysteriously withdrawn in far away Lagos even though their ATM cards never left their sight.
Organised criminality, not limited to human trafficking, advanced fee fraud, cultism, kidnap for ransom, sea piracy, oil bunkering, etc, is the hallmark of 21st Century globalised Rivers. It thrives on communication technology, coordination and violence. Perpetrators are often university graduates who use mindset and geography as weapons. Any technology aimed at defeating it must therefore be exponentially potent, flexible and intelligence-based.
Since coming into office Governor Wike has invested heavily in security. He donated patrol vans to Rivers command under Commissioner of Police Zaki Ahmed, a tactician known to favour diplomacy over brute force when dealing with potential trouble makers. He also granted amnesty to repentant cultists excluded in the Presidential Amnesty. Further investment in satellite technology, out of reach of criminals sophisticated or not, will give him the edge.
CHIGACHI EKE
Eke writes from Port Harcourt. Email: chigachieke@yahoo.co.uk.
