Governor, State of Osun, Rauf Aregbesola, has called for the establishment of national call centres across the 774 Local Government Areas in Nigeria, to aid national security in times of emergencies.
Delivering a keynote address at the 11th International Conference and Annual General Meeting of the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) in Oshogbo recently, he urged the Ministry of Communication Technology to expedite action on the establishment of national emergency/distress calls centres across the 774 local governments’ areas in the country.
The governor noted that the project long neglected would have served as critical public infrastructure to check the spate of insurgencies in the country.
“I want to call on the Minister of Communication Technology to look into the national emergency call centres that will enable the people interface with the government while giving information to law enforcement agents,” he added.
According to him, if the Police are privileged to have information on crime as they are being committed, it will help them and other security agencies do their jobs better, but the nation at large. Already there is a big ICT gap in this part of the world. All we need to do is to develop different platforms we know will aid our people to survive.
“We are disturbed by the level of security challenges in the country. Had the previous and present administrations at the federal level deployed Closed Circuit Televisions (CCTV) in some rural areas, maybe Yobe, Damaturu and Maiduguri would have been safer today”.
The governor maintained that ICT application in governance is the ultimate means of maintaining transparency, accountability and improved life to the citizens.
Also at the event, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) experts raised alarm over IT projects in the country and called on the government to include professionals in the planning and execution of such projects.
Rogba Adeoye, chairman, Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), Lagos State Chapter, said Nigeria has gained notoriety as a country with most failed IT projects.
He lamented that IT projects are treated with levity by governments while experts are relegated to the background in the conceptualization and execution of such projects.
“We have seen instances where biometric project is contracted out to a bricklayer because he is well connected to the authorities (people in government) to the detriment of our national security,” Adeoye said.
The Lagos NCS Chairman cited the moribund national identity card project as an instance of the waste of tax payers’ money by government without remorse.
“Because somebody could not get the data capturing right, the project was laid to rest. We have started another one. In what ways have the government contacted the stakeholders to ensure it will not go the ways of similar projects”, he lamented.
