Introduction
Security has always been an important issue of concern in human existence and it affects all human endeavours. Security is critical to the land, the maritime, and the air modes of the transport sector because the sector has highly valuable economic assets; it conveys people of varying status - the most valuable assets of organizations and nations; and moves products (goods and services) from their places of origin to places of maximum utility.
While issues of security have been before transport planners and managers for many years, it is only recently that physical security has become an overriding issue. Concerns were already being raised before the millennium, but the tragic events of September 11, 2001 thrust the issue of physical security into public domain as never before, and set in motion responses that are reshaping transportation in unforeseen ways.
No doubt, transportation is very crucial to the development of economies as Edmund Gubbins (1996) notes, “without transport, the efficiency of the world economy would be severely curtailed.” Also, Marshall (cited in Edmund J. Gubbins, 1996) admirably summarized the essential importance of transport in the following words: “The transport industries which undertake nothing more than the mere movement of persons from one place to another, have constructed one of the most important activities of a man in every stage of advanced civilization. It is not only a basic human activity but is also a movement in space.”
Khisty and Lall (2002), have estimated the role of transportation based on the American society, revealing that travel consumes an hour of an average person’s day, and roughly one sixth of household expenditures, and that an average person makes nearly a thousand trips per year covering a distance of about 15,000 miles annually. They report an estimated expenditure of households, businesses, and governments of over $1 trillion to travel 3.8 trillion miles and to ship goods of 3.5 trillion ton miles each year. Summarily, transportation accounts for 12% of Gross Domestic Product in the U.S.
Hence, transport is a cynosure to all manner of people: the good, the bad and the ugly. Each of these persons use transport to achieve their goals. The good for instance, benefit from transport by genuinely consuming its services and happily rewarding the transport providers in return. The bad benefit from the services but seek to cheat the service providers by paying less than the full value of the services consumed or not paying at all. The most dangerous and third category of beneficiaries of transport services are the ugly, the barbaric and violent negotiators. They go by so many names depending on the atrocities they commit such as snatchers, highjackers, armed robbers, kidnappers, militia (militants), insurgents and terrorists. The latter is so far the most notorious and highest form of wickedness, willing to destroy their own life before others.
Terrorists use transport facilities and services to generate widespread fear that puts pressure on the authorities to grant their wishes, which may or may not be stated. According to Cohen (2003) when the terrorists strike, “the public is supposed to blame themselves (“Why do they hate us? – What have we being doing wrong? – What are the roots causes of their anger and frustration?”).
Terrorists that lead this asymmetrical warfare are relatively the powerless who deliberately commit atrocities against attempting to extort concessions from a much more powerful government; as it is, “powerlessness corrupts” just as “absolute power,” does corrupt absolutely.
It is now very clear that the transport sector has become the main target of attack. The mass transit in particular has suffered so many attacks heightened by the September 11, 2001 (9/11) slamming of airplanes into the World Trade Centre in the United States of America. Jennifer Dorn of the Federal Transit Administration (TSA) of the United States of America is noted (Tarr et al) to have said:
“The State Department reports that in 1991, 20 percent of all violent attacks worldwide were against transportation targets; by 1998, 40 percent involved transportation targets, with a growing number directed at bus and rail systems. The recent attacks on the World Trade Centre… reminds us all that we must respond to new terrorist reality – terrorism that is well financed, well-organized and ruthless. The credible threat of increasing terrorism directed towards our-nations transit systems requires that we take immediate prudent action to prevent, prepare for and respond to violence – the nature and magnitude of which was unimaginable.”
The event of 9/11 actually made it glaringly clear that the transport sector is an area of interest to terrorists and other men and women of the underworld. The vulnerability of the transport sector to acts of terrorism has been identified during the 107th () up to the 112th Congresses on Transportation Security. The congresses have observed that the same characteristics of the transport systems’ design are the reason for the vulnerability of transport to terrorism, namely, accessibility and efficiency.
While transport seeks to improve access and lower costs of operation, it is through the same easier access and efficient transport services that attackers gain advantage of the services of transport to wreck havoc on innocent citizens. This development has obviously been widening the vicious cycle of poverty and perpetuating economic underdevelopment in terrorist prone areas.
The Concept of Security and its Bearing on the Transport Sector
A casual look at the word security lends a simple and unsuspecting meaning of protection from harm by a nation, connoting just a notion of “nation security;” and security personnel (the military) come to mind when one thinks of security. Over the years the concept of security has “widened and deepened” beyond,“ a narrow military conception of national security, (Ronaldo Munck cited in Greenfield and James edited, 2009).
Today, the word security has experienced a paradigm shift “from an exclusive stress on national security to a much greater stress on people’s security, from security through armaments to security through human development, from territorial to food, employment and environmental security” (cited in Hough 2004). The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) actually promoted also made famous the concept of “Human security,” launching the notion of “human development index” (HDI), which focuses on the welfare of individuals rather than the economy. This concept of human security covers a set of seven key areas: the economic, health, food, the environmental, the political, community, and personal (Greenfall and James (2009)). Also, the Commission on Global Governance observed that the concept of global security must be broadened to include the security of people and the security of the planet”(Commission on Global Governance 1995: 338).
The point is that security is becoming everything. It covers issues of crime, drugs, people trafficking and terrorism, which are much inside as outside national borders. Indeed, (in)security is so cancerous that it spreads like wild fire from one spot through the entire global system and unfortunately, transport is the blood that carries the stubborn disease from place to place, and a surgical operation of the transport system must be carefully conducted to check further spread of the global cancer called insecurity.
Global Transport and (In)Security
It is to the credit of transport that the world has been “reduced” to a size small. Globalization has been made possible largely by transportation. Friedman (2004) has identified three levels of globalization, which he links to transport: globalization 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0. He has shown that the first globalization started with the setting on sail by Columbus and crew that discovered the West Indies. The period lasted between 1492 and 1800.
The first globalization shrank the world from a large size to a size medium; and it was all about countries, muscles, horsepower, wind-power and later steam power. Transport was the driving force of the era. The period witnessed the first powered vehicle – the steam carriage that was developed in 1769.
The Second Globalization (2.0), which lasted from 1800 to 2000 and was interrupted by the Great Depression and World Wars I, II and the Cold war (1947 – 1992). It further shrank the world from a size medium to a size small; and the key agent which was multinational companies depended on transport for a global market with global arbitrage in products and labour. The second half of the second globalization was affected by falling telecommunications costs as a result of the diffusion of the telegraph, telephones, the private computers, satellites, fiber-optic cables and the early version of the World Wide Web (www). Collectively, globalization 2.0 gave “birth and maturation” to a global economy resulting to enough movement of goods and information towards the global market.
Globalization 3.0 began with the millennium (the year 2000), shrinking the world from a size small to a size tiny and flattening the world to a playing field. This development has enabled the empowering and linking of individuals with ease and without seam.
Global Terrorist Attacks on Transport
All the modes of transportation have their own woes to tell when it comes to issues of security or insecurity. After the 9/11 experience, there have been series of attacks recorded in other modes and in different parts of the globe. The bombings of commuter trains and subway trains in Madrid and Moscow in 2004 and the July 7, 2005 (7/7) bombing of trains in London highlighted the vulnerability of passenger rail systems to terrorist attacks.
It is on record that railroad freight and passengers are extremely vulnerable to terrorist attacks. Between 1998 and 2003 there were about 181 attacks worldwide on trains and related rail targets such as despots, ticket stations and rail bridges. The attacks resulted to 431 deaths and several thousands of injuries (Riley 2004 cited in Tarr et al).
Trucks have also become weapons of terrorist attacks. A large percentage of trucks carry hazardous freight that would provide terrorist with weapons that could be exploded on impact or detonations. Gary Petty president of the National Private Truck Council (NPTC) in America reportedly noted that there were over 150 terrorist attacks worldwide in the decade spanning 1993 to 2003 (Kilcarr, 1993).
Buses have been the main target even before terrorism reached a heightened level. The school buses have always been the main target of attackers by and hijackers for ransom.
The maritime transportation sector worldwide is faced with series of security challenges just as the pipeline has suffered vandalization and theft especially of oil.
Africa Transport Security Scenario
Shortly before the 9/11, the then Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr Kofi Annan, addressing the 37th Summit of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in Lusaka (Zambia) in July 2001 and warned, “we are confronted with persistent conflicts and crises of governance and security that threaten to derail our hopes for an African Union of peace and prosperity.” Clearly, the spate of insecurity in Africa has been as overwhelming as are the consequences on civilian populations.
In a foreword after the tragic events of 9/11 to the Proceedings of the UNESCO–ISS Expert Meeting held in Pretoria, South Africa with the theme: “Peace, Human Security and Conflict Prevention in Africa,” (23–24 July 2001), Ms Moufida Goucha and Mr Jakkie Cilliers noted that the aftermath of that tragic events were a wakeup call everyone to renew their efforts to better understanding the nature of the rapidly evolving large-scale risks and threats that can have a major impact on individuals and populations, and to strengthen mobilization of the wide array of actors actually involved in participative policy formulation in the various fields. The transport industry in Africa, must also rise up to this call.
Transport Security Issues in Nigeria
The Nigeria transport policy, though in draft, attaches importance the issues of security. The policy states: “This National Transport Policy acknowledges the need to support the country’s social and economic growth to enable her compete favourably in international markets. This Policy above all, acknowledges the need to develop a transport system that ensures national security, opens up inaccessible areas and serves the overall well being of the people.”
However, the security challenge in the Nigerian transport sector is enormous, though concentrated in the road mode. This is obvious because, the road transport system is responsible for over ninety percent of across the country movement of passengers and freight. The rail mode of transportation went comatose for some time and efforts are being made to revive the rail system. The air and maritime modes have been poorly developed. The road transport has therefore become one area of perpetuating insecurities. It is this sector too that has proven cases insecurities. Latest of these assaults on transport is the bombing of the southern bound luxury bus terminus in Kano, which occurred on March 18, 2013. Hitherto, motor cyclists are used to unleash terror on the citizens culminating to the ban of this form of transportation in many state capitals.
Terrorist make use of road transport services to strike on worship centers, security service centres (as in the case of the police headquarters in Abuja), United Nations Offices (also in Abuja). Attacks have been launched on media houses as well and no one knows there next target.
Security Measures to check the level of insecurity in the Transport Sector
The “widening” and “depending” meaning of security requires the coverage of issues that were hitherto outside the purview of national security such as “global warming” and “global terrorism.” Of course, when it comes to global warming transport alone shares the blame of contributing about 14 percent of carbon emissions globally (Friedman, 2008:210), and there are other threats of pollution such as noise. Transport modes and means also transport varying number of people and volumes of products across the globe at the same time. Therefore, a single attack may affect different nationalities.
The times have been bad with transport, but the world may take solace in the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson who said, “Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss.” What is important is to continue to learn from these experiences and make adjustment that will check and tame the menace of insecurities in transport is therefore a collective responsibility. It involves everyone as no one can avoid the use of transportation services.
The issue of security (or insecurity) has occupied the minds and discussion of institutions, government circles and personal levels. Thus, varying measures are taken to solve security and safety problems in transport.
¨ Resolutions at Conventions: Global, continental regional and national institutions do converge to brain storm on transport security challenges and make implementable resolutions and insist on compliance of member nations that are aimed tame or minimize insecurities. To this end, there are varying conventions in all the transport modes:.
· The maritime subsector for instance has since the first International Conference for Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) in 1914, held series of conventions including Conventions held on Standards of Training and Certification.
· Apart from conventions, aviation security has been the major focus of transportation security since 9/11. After this attack, the 107th Congress moved quickly to pass the Aviation Transportation Security Act (ATSA; P.L. 107 – 71) creating the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and mandating a federalized workforce of security screeners to inspect airline passengers and their baggage. The Act gave the TSA broad authority to assess vulnerabilities in aviation security and take steps to mitigate risks. The TSA’s progress on aviation security has been the subject of considerable congressional oversight over the past three years.
· There are also Road and Rail Transport Conventions that have been held and seek to resolve issues of safety and security.
¨ Training: Training institutions such as the Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology (NITT) engage in skills development and professionalism.
¨ Legislation and Policies: All governments worldwide have been taking policy decisions to ensure the taming of security insurgencies especially as it affects transport.
· States in Nigeria have for instance banned the use of motorcycles in some major towns of the country or restricted their operations within certain hours of the day.
· Government must improve on the general security system
· Policies that cause a redistribution of wealth
· Breaking the vicious cycle of poverty
· Creating the virtuous cycle of innovation
¨ Demand for security Devices: Transport organizations are reconsidering safety and security procedures in the face of terrorism leading to a rise asssesment of vulnerable areas, emergency planning; and emergency response training and drilling of transit personnel, ideally in coordination with the police, fire, and emergency medical personnel, installing video surveillance equipment in vehicles and stations and conducting random inspections of platforms and trains using bomb-sniffing dogs.
¨ Individual Security Awareness: Individuals must become more security conscious and aware. They should also contribute their roles in checking the problems of transport pollution and their contribution to global warming. For example Richard Branson of Virgin Air and Trains has staked about 25 million pounds to any person or group of persons who can bring up an innovative idea to resolving the climate problem.
¨ Collective Security Measures: Transport offers a wonderful opportunity for collectivity and integration. Recognizing the force of diversity is a step to reducing the high level of violence.
¨ Perseverance and persistence. The war on insecurity in transport cannot be fought and won in one day, but must penetrate the minds of insurgents and even the right people who must not be allowed to degenerate into negativity and become candidates for terrorism. Baruch Spinoza is quoted as saying, “Peace is not the absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.” Transport must militantly mobilize the people for peaceful coexistence as was recommended by Gen. Jonathan Wainwright, “Peace is a militant state, which is not secured by wishful thinking… If we are to be sure of our liberty, we must be ready to fight for it.” The transport sector must continually seek new ideas and be innovative enough to secure peace. We must all begin to do things differently as the common saying in Texas is “If all you ever do is all you’ve ever done, then all you’ll ever get is all you ever got.”
¨ Leadership Skills and Development. There is the need to groom more professionals who can better manage the transport system.
Conclusion
The issue of security in the transport industry is very important considering the strategic importance of the industry to national and global development. Transport has in recent times, especially since the beginning of the millennium suffered untold attacks from men of the underworld. There is need for all hands to be on deck to not only to protect the industry from collapse but to save nations and secure unity in a world that is boiling with violence every day.
References
Aydinli, Ersel & Rosenau, N. James (edited), Globalization, Security, and the Nation-state : Paradigms in Transition (Albany: State University of New York Press,2005).
Cohen, Herb Negotiate This! (New York: Warner Business Books, 2003)
Daily Trust Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Greenfell, Damian and James, Paul Rethinking Insecurity, War and Violence Beyond savage globalization? (New York: Routledge, 2009).
Gubbins, Edmund Managing Transport Operations (London: Kogan Pages Ltd, 1996).
Ronaldo Munck cited in Greenfield and James edited, 2009.
Khisty, John C. and Lall Kent B. Transportation Engineering (New Delhi: Prentice Hall of India, 2002).
Tarr, W. Ronald, McGurk, Vicki and Jones, Carol et al “Intermodal Transport Safety and Security Issues: Training Against Terrorism.”
Commission on Global Governance 1995: 338.
Goucha, Moufida and Cilliers, Jakkie (edited), “Peace, Human Security and Conflict Prevention in Africa” Proceedings of the UNESCO–ISS Expert Meeting held in Pretoria, South Africa, 23–24 July 2001.
By
Aminu Musa Yusuf, FCILT
Being a Paper Presented at the Work-Place Security Awareness Seminar
with the theme: Risk & Security Management for Executives, Organized by
the Commonwealth University (CUB), held at New Chelsea Hotel, Abuja, Nigeria
from March 27 – 28, 2013
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