This Boko Haram menace has taken so long in my country (Nigeria) and I feel concerned every time I hear the news of another bomb blast or attack. I am sure the government is really looking into how to curtail the attack of these terrorists but a lot have been suggested over the period these gruesome acts have been happening and I wonder why I have not read or heard an elaborate use of Information Technology to solve this problem. Over a year now I have consistently followed every report, strategy and news of attacks by this terrorist group and it appears someone is not seeing what I see.

I was so troubled when the issue of Chibok school girls’ abduction happened and I feel it remains the height of terrorism in Nigeria for now. Till this moment of my post, no one has got any reliable information on where the girls are. Some say it is Sambisa forest, some say it is Cameroun boarder or Mali. No matter where they are, the fact remains that the girls are not safe anywhere apart from being in their home with their family.

I am a trained mathematician turned computer programmer and I have consulted in different capacities; so I have decided to use my expertise to proffer solutions to this precarious situation in my beloved country with the hope that the right people in government would find and make sense out of my proposed solutions with technology, then implement them.

I need to confess here that I feel sad not to have heard much from the ICT ministry so far about their contribution to the battle against Boko Haram. Why should a powerful sector of the country be so quiet and passive at this critical moment? This is the time that we need the so called Nigerian Information and Computer Technology gurus to stop hiding the corners of their office or classroom but to come out and provide IT solutions and applications that would give accurate intelligence on this war against terrorism in Nigeria. I have listed below some solutions from my years of experience in Information Technology Consulting.

Complete work station scan and Secret Camera in all military formations

Why install cameras in military stations? Yes, it is essential at this critical time. It is obvious that our military formation has been compromised. The Boko Haramists do not only target the Nigerian people, they go as far as successfully destabilising our defence unit (The Nigerian Army). This is traceable several instances when we had the worst hit on our military barracks, police academy and also when all means of telecommunication was cut off in some military barracks in Borno. It is hard to conclude that there are insiders in the Nigerian Army who are agent of the dreaded terrorist group and they walk freely to perpetrate their missions.

I understand that the Nigerian government may not afford to install cameras in all the states because it is a capital intensive project. I won't like to over flog the issue because it has been bashed around on all media. What about installing CCTVs and having heavy surveillance on the military formation in the troubled states. We know there is a snitch in the system, so it is hard to have a plan that works because almost all major plans would be foiled by these terrorist group sympathizers. 

Let all the military formations in the troubled states be under serious surveillance. I don't know about military strategies but I know how leadership works. If you find out a snitch in your camp, you have to give misleading information to fish the snitch out.

All computers on the network should be thoroughly scanned and searched, all standalone computers too should be scanned without the knowledge of the user.

We can effectively scout a snitch and follow up with other valuable information on them and their activities. I suggest that the installation of the camera and scanning process should be done secretly by a private security agency or a special intelligence unit of the Nigerian Army. All we need is the right set of people (highly scrutinised) to implement the job.

Social Media Analyses

Either we like it or not, online social media is now very active in Nigeria and it appears that it has come to stay. Now, we cannot stop people from using social media to network or express themselves; but we can start analysing to pick clues from whatever they say. We need to start analyzing all public servants and certain individuals on social platform. In the recent past, most extremist have aired out their ideas on social media. Up to the last report about the Nyanya Bombing master minder in Abuja whose social media page gave so much information about his extreme beliefs. Let there be a platform that we can pin whoever we feel has an extreme belief, be it Christian or Muslim. I feel such platform should not be administered by the government even if it is the government that developed and deployed it. Owing to several reasons, many Nigerians are cynical about the government, so they may not feel too comfortable reporting a fellow on a platform projected by the government.

Let's have an individual project on social media analysis that will channelled towards detecting crime and terrorist activities before they are actually executed.

Video Analyses

It is clear that the primary medium this terrorist group use in conveying their messages is video. The questions that come to mind are what other things are being done to the video apart from just watching? On which public domain was this video posted? What data can we get from the video? What are the analyses done on the video? Who uploaded the video and from which IP? I understand that someone can upload media content from a proxy source but nothing stops us from knowing the proxy source and if it is unknown, we can divert attention elsewhere.

Then, as for the video, let's analyse the content from pixel to pixel and make reasonable and logic inference from it.

Send out wrong signal

I have read a lot about how the terrorist group (Boko Haram) sends out wrong information to confuse our Soldiers and get them ambushed then killed. This is saddening and unfortunate. I won't blame the Nigerian soldiers for being reluctant to fight when they are always made prey to their enemies because they are already destabilised. Why can't we also send same wrong signals to ambush these guys?
These guys listen to news and some of them are active on the social media platform. I don’t know if you had noticed that after almost every presidential talk there is always a new video from the BH boys that would contain more like a reply claiming the attacks and other plans. 

The recent one was when there was a heated controversy about the kidnapper of the Chibok girl; BH released a video to claim the attack. The next was when everyone said that it was a lie because it looked more like a movie carting away with more than 200 students with nobody knowing or seeing video of the girls . Then everyone started requesting for the video of the girls. To show that the BH boys have listening ears, overnight another video was released showing the students chanting Arabic and after the video, some of the parents started identifying their girls.

There are millions of ways in which Mr. President can also use this same medium to confuse these BH boys and get him confused. I would elaborate more on this on my subsequent write ups about combating insurgencies in Nigeria.

Improved Intelligence; Engage forensics and data analysts

I have always been bothered about our level of intelligence. It is wrong to say that Nigerian military intelligence is not doing anything but I think it would be right to say they need to do more. I won't forget how much I cried out to my colleagues about lack of intelligence when I started consulting some years ago, for a client in Victoria Island, Lagos. From the first day I started the job, I notice a man sitting at a particular spot around the office from morning till night. The day I was amused was when I saw him at the same spot when there was a heavy rain. I started getting so concerned. There was a day I went for a colleague’s birthday party in a club very close to my office. The first thing I did was to check if this guy was still at the same spot. I was disappointed, he was not at the spot but alas, I saw him walking towards me with a cigar in between his fingers. Then I had a lot running through my mind; imagine the amount of information this guy would have. I am sure he would know I just got a job on that street and I wouldn’t have been surprised if he called my name.

Looking at it from security stand point, who would argue with me that this guy won't be able to carry out a successful attack that would lead to millions dying. I noticed it and it is still a point of concern for me till date as I pass through that area because I just hope the enemy would not use this for an ulterior purpose.

We need to engage more threat analysis experts, forensic gurus and best of all data analysts. Let us allow people to report new faces, wanderers and idle people through the cheapest means...I still feel SMS would suffice for this alongside voice. Let there be an application to garner all these intelligence. The application should be built with lots of intelligent and analyses capacity.

Let's use SMS and not only voice for intelligence gathering

Let's use more of SMS for our intelligence gathering not only voice. It has worked in several parts of the world. I will never forget when I was in Austria to pick up the World Youth Summit Award for one of my applications; I saw what other youths are doing with SMS and Google maps. It is obvious that intelligence gathering with SMS is another way to go. It is quite cheaper and fast. It doesn't require you to say anything or make any sound.

Let people send their reports and let there be an application that would take the information and analyse it.

I have listened to campaign on Radio that gives an emergency number to call during any incidence and I won't forget the first time I called the line when I saw a drunk guy walking freely on the street with dagger. I was driving but I was so afraid that he might injure someone. So, I called the emergency line; at first it took so long before my call went through, secondly I could read the reluctance in the voice of the lady who picked my call as if it wasn't incidence enough to report...I had to keep my voice on a very low pitch because I really didn’t want my voice to be heard. How I wished I would have sent SMS and it would have been effective. Permit me if there is anything like that and I don't know.

The power of Interpol in technology (to get IP address)
I am moved to remove this part of the article because I feel this won't have been ignored by our intelligence but I would just love to list it for posterity.

It was reported that the person in charge of the Nyanya bomb blast has a social media profile; so he should have an email address. Why don’t we get the permission to access his social account, read through his conversations and further the search into his personal computer, email and so on? Why can’t we get permission from the website the video of the terrorists was uploaded for the IP (Internet Protocol) and details of upload. I think more can definitely be done.

Other Approaches

State of emergency is not enough, increase response to emergency
We need better and effective response to emergency. I particularly don't believe in restriction of movement, I think we should give everybody freedom to do anything but only to increase our intelligence. The idea behind State of emergency is too regimented and it may hinder efficiency in operations.

Motivate the military
Let's better equip the military formation. We all know they are gallant, we can do it. Give them the right weapon; don't allow them to feel inferior in their fight against this terrorist group. Motivation comes with giving them their allowance on time. Making their welfare priority is important. The same way you feel on top of the world driving the sleekest car is the same way carrying powerful and state of the art weapon. Let them be happy fighting.

More campaign not hate fight
We need stronger campaign for the public to report any suspicious acts. We need to reduce the rate at which we embark on hate fight and torturing of innocent citizens. The Nigerian government needs to be committed in making the citizen believe more in the government so as to provide valuable information about insurgency.

Who are at the borders?
Yes, who are at our borders? How do the weapons that are being used by the terrorists get into our neighbourhood? Were they sent from heaven or made from the Sambisa forest? I am sure we all know that there is nothing entering our borders that we can’t account for or claim responsibility of. This is food for thought.

My Message to the terrorist group, BokoHaram
Guys, if you truly want to live by your name, stop using the weapons created by the western world. Use your fist, wrestling, local charms and let our military officers use their sophisticated guns. Stop making videos because that camera is made from western education. Stop using the internet because it is against your ideology. Create your camera and technology to serve the video. I saw part of your improvised bombs; please stop using anything that is made out of western education.
You need to start appearing naked because even your cloths/costumes were made by sophisticate machines inspired by western education.

God bless Nigeria!