The National Orientation Agency (NOA) said it has concluded plans to launch “The Mobilizer”, an App that is to be used by Nigerians as a platform to provide information that would lead to nipping in the bud issues of insecurity in Nigeria.
The NOA also disclosed its plans to introduce Nationalism Studies in the school curriculum as part of efforts to instill values in Nigerians, particularly, the youth, so as to rid the country of issues that serve to devalue Nigeria.
The Director General (DG), NOA, Lanre Issah-Onilu, who disclosed this while briefing newsmen on strategies to rejig the agency in Makurdi, said that as part of modalities to launch the App, the Agency met with security agencies in Nigeria and their counterpart in the United Kingdom, including the NSA of both countries.
The Agency noted that the App, which would be launched next week, has gone through various stages of tests, and would be used by Nigerians to send information on insecurity, that would in turn be transmitted to the relevant agency that would tackle the particular issue at hand.
Issah-Onilu, who spoke with newsmen at the end of a two-day familiarization tour of the state, explained that the App would also serve to protect the users (informants) by shielding their identities as they provide timely and credible information that would arrest insecurity across the country.
Asked when the App would come into effect, the DG, NOA said: “Next week. We are testing it (App) as we speak and last week, the top hierarchy of the United Kingdom’s security architecture was in Nigeria, led by the British NSA, in conjunction with our NSA and the Nigeria military and NOA was invited; we had a meeting for three days.
And by law, we handle the non-kinetic aspect of security management; we were invited and so, the session of the civil/ military relations was chaired by us (NOA) and we discussed the issues, such that even the foreigners were elated with the App that is coming and what it can do.
“We have discussed with the stakeholders for them to know what the App is all about. We are also going to follow it up with a lot of campaigns for more people to be aware of it and by God’s grace, next week, it will be launched”, he assured.
On plans to introduce nationalism studies in school curriculum, Issah-Onilu explained that nationalism studies would be introduced in schools across the country from the primary to the tertiary level.
While he expressed optimism that the introduction of the subject in schools would institutionalize values and ensure that citizens imbibe the Nigerian values right from the cradle, he explained that the measure was part of the components of the National Values Charter, which would soon be unveiled by the Federal Government to showcase the nation’s value system.