National summit on critical infrastructures’ protections holds Dec. 6

The Chairman Presidential Think-Tank on Defence and Security Major General Abdulmalik Jibril (rtd) has appealed to Nigerians to take full ownership of the critical national infrastructure by protecting them against any form of vandalism.

Jibril made the appeal at a press conference to formally unveil the forthcoming National Summit on protecting Nigeria’s critical infrastructure, monuments and business assets.

This is contained in  statement issued by the Special Assistant to the Minister of Defence on Media and Publicity & Media Consultant, Summit Planning Committee, Mohammad Abdulkadri, on Friday.

Represented by Air Vice Marshal Dick Iruenabere (rtd), the chairman said the two – day summit will hold between 6th and 7th December at Transcop Hilton Abuja.

He said the planned conference is basically in response to President Muhammadu Buhari’s Call-to-arms and wake-up call to all Nigerians to work in concert towards reducing the vulnerability of the nation’s critical national infrastructure to threats and hazards.

According to him, “Again the conference is also aimed at improving the resilence of such Critical Infrastructure by strengthening their sustainability, durability and ability to recover from disruption.

“This according to the Chairman summit planning committee will involve a number of measures ranging from physical protection, ensuring back- up system and building a level of reliability into them so that they can continue to operate even after an attack.

“On what to expect at the conference, he disclosed that the specialised themes to be treated by specialists in the relevant subject matters include ” Instutionalizing Early Warning Systems and Response Architecture for Threats to Infrastructure, Monuments and Business Assets” ,”Systematizing a framework for Intelligence Generation, Information Management and Tracking against Threats to Infrastructure, Monuments and Business Assets” as well as “Domesticating frameworks and Protocols for the stratification, codification and protection of national infrastructure, monuments and business Assets.”

The statment however said that the forthcoming conference to be organised by the Presidential Think-tank in partnership with Ashcraft Centre for Social Science Research has the approval and the backing of the Minister of Defence, Maj. Gen. Bashir Salihi Magashi, CFR (rtd) as well as the presidency.