The upper chamber of the National Assembly has urged Nigeria’s Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) to explore and leverage innovative technologies in addressing security challenges in the country.
The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio made the call on Tuesday while addressing conference Defense Attaché and Advisors at the Chief of Defense Intelligence Annual Conference 2024, in Abuja, Nigeria’s Capital.
Themed ‘Exploring the Role of Technology in Strengthening National and Regional Security’, the annual conference is an avenue for Defence Attachés and Advisors to evaluate their roles in maintaining peaceful coexistence among allied nations while highlighting the role of technological innovations in the evolving security landscape.
Akpabio, who was represented by the Minister of Defence, Mohammed Badaru, said the complexities in the security landscape have expanded the threats within Nigeria’s border, with serious implications for the nation’s national security.
He said the conference is timely as it gives an avenue to explore ways to enhance Nigeria’s national defense capabilities through technological innovations especially as the intelligence landscape continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace.
He noted that while we now have access to a vast volume of data, we risk the challenge of extracting meaningful insight from the deluge, and to address this, we must adopt new skills, tools, and disabilities.
“The intelligence Agency’s commitment to integrating artificial intelligence, machine learning, and human analytics into its operations is commendable. These innovations will help process massive data sets and identify patterns that might otherwise remain undetected”, he said.
The Chief of Defence Intelligence, Major General Emmanuel Undiandeye, said the agency recognizes technology as an unprecedented enabler and a leading driver of global competitiveness that has been harnessed by the Armed Forces and Defense Intelligence Organizations of many nations, towards achieving a comparative advantage over adversaries.
According to him, the theme of this year’s conference was therefore carefully chosen in acknowledgment of the need for the integration of technology into intelligence processes.
“The advent of artificial intelligence or AI, machine learning, robotics, big data analytics, and the Internet of Things, among others, has ushered in a wave of changes across the global intelligence landscape, forcing a rethink about the perception of safety and security at individual, group, and national levels.
“While the nature of threats facing our dear country, Nigeria, are still the same, permit me to report to you that their potency, prevalence, frequency, and intensity have been significantly on the rise due to the unprecedented activities of the adversary. However, our armed forces, gallant as they are, and sister security agencies and services, have lived as the bastion of defense, protection, and success in protecting the life and lives of our great country and citizens”, Undiandeye said.
He however admitted that there is still much work to be done, with current and emerging threats that are complex and multifaceted in nature, including those emanating from the Sahel region, the challenges of climate change across the West African sub-region, and Africa in general.
He said the agency has taken several initiatives and pilot projects to enhance national security and defense capabilities, stressing that, “if AI can read more data in a minute than a human can read in a year, then its value to military intelligence is immeasurable.”
