GOODWILL MESSAGE BY MALLAM AMINU DIKO, DG/CEO, INFRASTRUCTURE CONCESSION REGULATORY COMMISSION AT THE WORKSHOP ON STRATEGIC TECHNIQUES FOR PREVENTING TERRORISM ATTACKS, KIDNAPPING AND VIOLENT EXTREMISM IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN NIGERIA DATE: 17TH APRIL 2017 VENUE: NATIONAL DEFENCE COLLEGE NIGERIA THEME: THE POTENTIAL ROLE OF PPPs IN PREVENTING TERRORISM ATTACKS, KIDNAPPING AND VIOLENT EXTREMISM IN OUR TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS PROTOCOLS Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, I feel particularly honoured to be asked to deliver this goodwill message today. 1. I will start by commending and thanking the gallant men and women of our armed forces, for their massive sacrifices and hard won battles that has brought peace and stability to all parts of our nation. You are true patriots and your sacrifices in line with PMB Change agenda would never be forgotten. 2. The subject matter of this workshop is not only germane, it is indeed crucial to our national survival and future progress. It is often said that the future belongs to the youths. This truly means that a nation without a well trained and secure crop of youths has no future. 3. Experience has also shown that there is a clear nexus between between human security, poverty and national development. America is safe, secure and prosperous; while Somalia is insecure and under developed. We must have a strategic discourse like this to secure the future of our nation. The incidents of insecurity in our higher institutions must be tackled headlong or we will reap a terrible harvest. Am sure the policy and educational leaders assembled here today will not allow this terrible harvest to happen. 4. What are PPPs and how can the help in the context we are strategizing on: A Public-Private Partnership is a contractual agreement between a public agency (federal, state or local) and a private sector entity. Through this agreement, the skills and assets of each sector (public and private) are shared in delivering a service or facility for the use of the general 1

public. In addition to the sharing of resources, each party shares in the risks and rewards potential in the delivery of the service and/or facility. Thus the main aim of a PPP is to combine the best capabilities of the public and private sectors for mutual benefit. 5. The former US Home Secretary, Tom Ridge said and i quote “…I want to just say this about the private sector. In my mind, the government is incapable of responding to its maximum ability without private sector support…”. This clearly implies that private sector collaboration & support is very crucial to the government being able to maximize policy outcomes in all areas of governance – security inclusive. There are several areas where public private collaboration can lead to improved security outcomes in our tertiary institutions. Please permit me to address just a few areas. 6. Student Accomodation – We are all aware of the sporadic xenophic attacks on foreigners in Johannesburg, Pretoria and other parts of South Africa. However its claimed by many analysts that the largest population of foreigners in Joburg and Pretoria South Africa are students. We have not heard of attacks on them. This is mainly due to the fact that these foreign students stay in hostels provided by the private sector on PPP or sole risk basis. The investors who provide these facilities depend on the occupancy and security of these students to earn a return on their investment. To protect their business returns these facility owners go the extra mile to install sophisticated access control and other security equipments like CCTVs and panic systems to ensure the students are safe. Clearly here the profit motive of the private sector has been used via this public private colloboration to provide secure facilities. The continuous 24 hour monitoring and strict security rules in these privately provided hostels provides an early warning system for extremism control while eliminating threats of terrorism and kidnapping. 7. Power and Street Lighting - Many of our tertiatry institutions are not well lit at night, the cover of darkness provides a fertile ground for all sorts of criminal activities and actions. To address this, our tertiary institution leaders can partner with the private sector on PPP basis to provide power and street lighting coverage all over our campuses. These will facilitate the installation of video survelliance and other cyber security measures including biometric readers and monitors. With good power, street lighting, video surevelliance etc. Extremism, kidnnaping and terrorism will 2

find it hard to take root and survive. These facilities can be paid for by a small Student Power, Lighting and Security Charge. 8. There are several other areas where PPPs can also be used in a strategic manner to improve security in our tertiary institutions eg. Static and active security measures, Drone Survelliance, Satellite Imagery/GIS monitoring, 24 hour internet based video monitoring, data analytics to identify security weak points and harden them, use of embedded chip access cards, Installation of scanners, screeners, cyber monitoring etc. I will reccomend that you engage with the ICRC and we can deep dive together and work out other areas where PPPs can play a crucial role in improving security in our tertiary instiutions. While thanking the esteemed leadership of the National Defence College and workshop organizers, Am pleased to be with you at this very important and strategic workshop. I enjoin all present to use the opportunity of the high levels of discuss that we would naturally expect from a forum of this nature, to properly diagnose, identify and situate techniques for preventing terrorism attacks, kidnapping and violent extremism in our tertiary institution. If we do...we will be secure & successful as a nation assured that our future leaders will be there to secure our nations future. Kind Regards and God bless.

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