The National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno (rtd), has described the outbreak of coronavirus known as COVID-19 as one of the emerging biological threats to national security.
Munguno disclosed this at a five-day training on Biorisk Management and Public Health Emergency Preparedness, organised by the Office of NSA in collaboration with the World Health Organisation and other technical partners on Monday, in Abuja.
The NSA represented by the Director, Policy and Strategy, Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), Ambassador Aminu Lawal, said the outbreak of COVID-19 in December 2019 had brought the world to a standstill.
He said that 340,543,962 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 5,570,163 deaths, had been reported to WHO as of Jan. 22, globally with 9,571,502,663 vaccine doses administered.
According to him, in Nigeria, coronavirus cases are 251,959, with 3,124 deaths and 225,946 recoveries.
“The crises that engulfed the world brought economies to low point and that disruption is still ongoing.
“The current COVID-19 pandemic had also left in its wake, loss of lives, economic losses as well as stalled programmes and activities due to strict adherence to COVID-19 protocols, amongst others,’’ he said.
Monguno disclosed that a Joint External Evaluation (JEE) exercise was conducted in 2017 to examine the health systems preparedness for emergencies and shocks.
He maintained that the capabilities were well tested and still being tested with the outbreak of COVID -19.
He added that Nigeria had continued to witness outbreaks of other endemic diseases such as Lassa fever, Cholera and Malaria with significant morbidity and mortality.
According to him, it is, therefore, safe to say that the country’s health systems are overwhelmed in several aspects.
He said the training was designed to bring together critical personnel drawn from over 20 MDAs to equip participants with current trends in the Biospace as the next potent threat to national security.
“The aim of the training is to acquaint participants, who are largely public health practitioners from Security and Law Enforcement Agencies, with emerging biological threats to national security.
“With 4th wave of COVID-19 cases receding across Nigeria, we hope to consolidate gains of this meeting to provide basis for future engagements as we seek to build a viable force to curtail any threats to national security emanating from biological threats.
“It may interest you all that the ONSA is coordinating efforts to build a broad based response to CBRNE emergencies by developing capabilities across MDAs.
“In this regard, the yearly simulated Crisis Exercises organised by ONSA with over 28 Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) a strong statement that national security involves multi-sectoral and multiagency collaboration,’’ he said.
The Head, Medical Intelligence, Dr Levin Damisah, said the training was in response to the fact that security had gone beyond fighting with guns and bombs into biological aspects.
Damisah said that battles had shifted to fighting bacteria, viruses and telecobalts, adding that there was need for adequate preparations to tackle these emerging biological treats.
He said that security agencies could no longer be side lined in the medical health emergency response considering the important roles they played during outbreak of Ebola in 2014 and COVID-19.
He said that ONSA believed that there was need to synergise and had force multiplier against the emerging biological threats to national security through capacity building.
“We are having this meeting so that we can start a new narrative to see how we can push ourselves harder and forward to ensure that Nigeria’s health security is guaranteed.
“The essence of this training is to start giving us the understanding that viruses are serious weapons that does not spare anybody but the effect can be mitigated if we join forces together,’’ he said.
Damisah urged participants to show serious commitment to the training by seeing themselves as key stakeholders in the health security management.
The Director General, National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), Dr Rufus Ebegba, said the training of security personnel on biorisk management was a testament that Nigeria was prepared for emergencies.
Ebegba said that the issue of biotech was something that required synergy of all sectors, adding that the issue of invisibility of microorganisms required knowledge, skills and technology.
He gave assurance that the NBMA would continue to collaborate with all relevant agencies, ministries parastatals and agencies towards having a very strong approach to the issue of biosafety.
He commended ONSA for the zeal and interest shown in the development of national action plan for health security, saying its guidance had assisted NBMA to achieve its mandates.
