Against the advice of a ministerial committee, the outgoing administration recently
announced the concession of the management and operation of a critical national
security facility to a private company in the twilight of its tenure.
A $470 million National Public Security Communication System (NPSCS), originally
conceived to be operated by the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has instead been ceded
to Openskys Services Ltd, a private security contractor owned by a businessman
known to be financier of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, Sir Emeka Offor. The
ministerial committee, which comprised Police Affairs Minister Jelili Adesiyan and
Minister of Communications Technology Omobola Johnson, among others, had opposed
the concession, stating, rightly, that it would compromise national security.
The facility’s concession was conveyed in a letter by the Permanent Secretary of the
Ministry of Police Affairs, Dr James Obiegbu. In the letter, Openskys Services Ltd was
directed to liaise with the Nigeria Communications Satellite Limited (NigComSat) for
the purpose of setting up a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to “operationalise and
commercialise the NPSCS network of the Nigeria Police”.
The NPSCS is thought to be a state-of-the-art IT-driven communication network that
incorporates a complement of over 2,000 pre-installed security cameras, and has
capacity for real-time video surveillance and videoconferencing for combating various
forms of crime, especially terrorism related activities. It was developed and installed in
Nigeria by China’s ZTE Corporation, with $399.5 million of the funding coming from the
China Export-Import Bank, and $70 million contributed by the Nigerian government.
After ZTE installed the infrastructure, the government invited bids for a Nigerian
technical partner, which led to four indigenous firms applying. However the choice of
Openskys as the preferred bidder has attracted considerable misgivings over the
conduct of the process, especially since it did not enjoy the involvement of the Bureau
for Public Enterprises (BPE), nor the Federal Executive Council. Rather, the process
seemed to have been driven by a coterie of high ranking Presidency officials, including
Vice President Namadi Sambo and Secretary to the Federal Government Pius Anyim;
and Sir Emeka and the former Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigeria Communications
Commission (NCC), Mr Ernest Ndukwe.
Details of the deal stipulate, among other conditions, that Nigeria would keep 18% of
the equity while Openskys would retain 82%. Other conditions are to the effect that
Openskys would operate the NPSCS and sell sensitive and critical security related
services to the nation’s public security establishments, including the police and
military, and those in the private sector, virtually in perpetuity. This in effect confers on
Openskys the preeminent status of control over the operations of the statutory
security apparatuses of the nation, portending a future security nightmare.
It may be argued that the essence of involving the private sector drew from fears, with
the ample benefit of hindsight, that the NPF could prove incapable of maximizing the
utility of the facility for the public. That would have dictated that due process be
deployed to guarantee a most viable private sector participant. Rather, what obtained
was a concession of such a critical national asset to a private concern with no track
record of competence in the management of such a facility and in questionable
circumstances.
The outgoing Goodluck Jonathan administration seems to have a penchant for
conceding the security of sensitive national assets to private concerns, even by
bypassing agencies statutorily vested with such responsibilities. Typical examples are
the recent award of contracts for the protection of critical oil and gas installations to
firms owned by ex-militants in the Niger delta region and other community-based
pressure groups. This was at a time the nation’s security agencies were suffering from
neglect and paucity of funds and vital operational equipment. That is why the
incoming administration would be duty bound to review this NPSCS and other security
contract transactions in order to restore national security to legitimate management
structures under the purview of due process.

http://dailytrust.com.ng/daily/editorial/54259-privatizing-national-security