How Physical Security Can Enhance National and Global Peace

By the time you are reading this, the world would have just been done with celebrating the 2017 Eid-El-Maulud. While wishing the whole world a peaceful Eid, I note that religious, community and national (government) leaders can take advantage of the benefits of events security to ensure peace of mind during the Eid and similar festivities like Easter, Christmas and other cultural, social, entertainment events.

Events have become a necessary part of mankind. In some climes, summer time is fun time. In Nigeria, fun times span almost one half of the year from October to April. This has seen several people use that time to hold important events, taking advantage of fair weather.

So you find events like social, including weddings, birthdays, burial ceremonies, entertainment – musical and comedy, as well religious in form of crusades and annual whatever, often give global tone with the invitation of world famous preachers, and cultural like the Osun Oshogbo Festival, Calabar Canival, Eyo Festival and the Olokun festival.

All these tend to boost the tourism industry as foreigners and Nigerians living abroad target this time of the year to troop to Nigeria for holiday to grace the events for family, religious, entertainment and other reasons. Attendance of high net-worth individuals and large crowds have added to make events attractive to all segments of the society, including undesirable elements. This set of people have contributed in making events security a necessity in Nigeria.

In this edition, Mr Bosun Sosanya, Director, Physical Security at Halogen Security Company Limited gives insights on the evolution and growing importance of events security in Nigeria (how it can enhance national security). He also shares on what event planners/organisers should do and/or be doing to deliver delightful events experience and ensure topnotch security at event venues ….

Evolution

Some of the events listed above indicate that mega events and ceremonies have always been part of the Nigerian society. But there is evidence that value systems in Africa and Nigeria have been influenced by Europeanisation. This has given rise to larger family or social circles that frequently gather together for social and formal ceremonies, often classified as events. Sporting, political, cultural, educational and religious activities have also assumed larger dimensions with the explosion of the population, increased enlightenment, attendant quest for knowledge and pleasure. And wherever there is a gathering of people with good motive, those with evil intentions will also find their way to, thus making event security a necessity.

Pickpockets, miscreants, nonconformists, deviants, beggars and of late terrorists are known to have targeted where people gather for good purpose to unleash their nefarious activities. According to Sosanya, events security has evolved owing to the strong need of some level of security at events. “Our event security solution is tailed to the various categories of events and the security solution each one needs. So our solution is broken down into corporate solutions, like annual general meetings, conferences and seminars. Sports events and other open field events – cultural, religious, and political where our mobile control room is used to secure the parameters and events where international guests are invited,” Sosanya elucidates.

Growth in events has led to increase in demand for event security thus driving many people to that field. He explains that owing to signs of growth in the industry, security service rendition in the segment shows the following traits, zero barriers to entry and low cost of entry into the event security market space (for service providers), while customer needs/desires do appear to be still evolving. These traits have led to disruptive innovations, whereas new entrants are gaining market share effectively, market shares of leading players have not solidified, instead it could be said to be fluctuating rapidly. This volatility is frequently traceable to pricing and branding, the two main things in the race with innovation and expertise as key market value drivers.

Experts posit that this segment will continue luring many players because of the steady growth in population and urbanisation, with sporting (and other recreational activities), religious, educational and political activities demanding heavy play on human numbers. “The events industry in Nigeria is estimated to be among the most vibrant and extravagant in the world. It is presently pegged at about $650m annually. However, the level of our extravagance in organising events is yet to align with commensurate attention to the critical importance and deployment of security for events,” Sosanya enthused.

The state of evolution also show that technology is now playing a prominent role in events security. Mr Sosanya points out that with the combination of terrorism and more information being easily accessible through online sources and websites, there is an increased level of understanding of the imperatives of event security by event organisers and how to protect guests from the beginning till the end.

Pride of Place

The importance of security of people and valuables at events cannot be overemphasised. No one wants to call people together without being able to guarantee their safety and the safety of their belongings. Neither would guests want to show up at events where their safety is not reasonably assured. Vendors would not even let out their venues and equipment without some form of safety assurance. Some vendors charge some form of ‘premium’ or extra charges against damages to venues and equipment before letting them out for events. That is how important and how high demand for event security is. All these fall within event logistics.

Another area of great importance is in driving returns on investments. This counts majorly for entertainment – music and comedy and seminars. So Halogen fills the gap with “a combination of access controls that include devices and electronic mediums of ensuring ticket sales are captured and success is only granted to those that actually paid or are invited to the event.”

Hence, event planners are left with no choice but to care highly about getting the logistics right. However, with events becoming more experienced-based, planners are now laying emphasis on other details that guarantee safety including choice of locations (venues), as well as hire of professional event safety personnel and equipment.

Solutions/Services

Given the pride of place of security in success of events, Halogen has created a special unit (which would soon evolve into an independent enterprise) for this purpose.

When the company is hired for this purpose, it starts by visiting the event location, a careful study of the event assets with the aid of the organisers to design comprehensive risk management solutions for all the gaps identified. They ensure that event security is not intrusive. It uses high-tech equipment to ‘sweep the venue/location to detect bugs and improvised explosive devices, to ensure safety and peace of mind.

Deliberate efforts are being made to create world-standard human capacity to tend to the needs of this segment in Nigeria at Halogen. To attain this, the company keeps abreast of recent developments through synergy with leading event security services providers across the world.

According to Sosanya, “We keep in tune with the latest event and event security trends globally by visiting websites of top international security bodies, event specific agency websites and visits to events for learning purposes. This affords us firsthand knowledge of trends to help us upgrade to serve clients better. It also serves to ensure consistent knowledge-gaining on new trends driving the industry. Driving new trends depends on the appropriateness of such trends per event segment, and where required we apply them accordingly to improve on our competence, capacity building and future outlook.”

Manpower and Equipment

Sosanya counsels event organisers to ensure use of competent personnel and equipment so as to ensure maximum safety of their events and attendees. Having seen the prospects in events, Halogen is not just rendering services therein, the company has set up a topnotch academy that is churning out world-class human resource to meet the security needs of event organisers in Nigeria.

According to him, “We train and certify qualified events security operatives with the strategic intent of transforming the events security space, thereby, redefining how event security tasks are undertaken from start to finish, leaving the client and guests satisfied. We deliver peace of mind. Our vision is to train qualified operatives for our use and for the general public thereby, setting standards for the employment of certified events security operatives which would be a prerequisite for engagement.”

The basic distinguishing factor of events is that it has to do with a large number of human-beings with different characters. This has rendered man-guarding obsolete and ineffective. So devices, like motion detectors and body scanners have come handy in replacing the physical person for early detection of nefarious activities.

The burden this places on event security service providers is to pre-scan the venue to ensure a thorough risk assessment of the proposed event location and its environs to determine safety needs. This in turn guides installation of appropriate security gadgets based on the pre-scan findings.

Last takes….

Halogen is taking the initiative to create specialty in events security because we consider that everything in life is an event, that is why we are committed to assuring our clients’ peace of mind and safety through quality service, irrespective of the nature of the event the client is involved in. We guarantee this through service, experience and performance, for which we have become famous in the security industry over the years.

In the bid to sustain the strong brand we have built in the security segment and replicate it in the events security sub-segment, we carefully follow through with clients from planning to execution. That way, we can guarantee optimum security coverage from the physical and technology security aspects for each and any event thereby, ensuring the protection and safety of lives and assets.

The intent at Halogen is to set new security standards for all types of event gatherings, where the peace of mind of the organisers and guests is guaranteed.