The December 26, 2009, attempt by Farouk AbdulMutallab to bomb an American airliner has shown that someone who can carry a bomb on a plane in one corner of the world can threaten people across continents and time zones, Secretary of the United States' Department of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, said yesterday in Abuja.

Ms. Napolitano, who spoke on Monday at the ongoing Regional Ministerial Conference on Civil Aviation Security, said the incident should now be used to look critically at the International Civil Aviation Organisation's current global security standards and consider possible enhancements.

At the conference, which had over 30 African ministers of aviation in attendance, Ms. Napolitano said the incident has led to a review of access to aircraft, airports and the screening of passengers. She expressed her hope that after this conference, there will be more high level meetings in the near future to discuss how to improve on other security measures such as information collection and analysis.

According to her, to effectively maintain the initiative in fighting terrorism and crime, all the ministers must partner together to utilize the intellect of their scientific communities and pursue their common cause. She noted that AbdulMutallab's attempt illustrated ingenuity and planning which cannot be detected by old technology.

New measures

The Minister of Aviation, Fidelia Njeze, explained that because the air transportation system is very critical to the development of any economy, there is a need to establish and implement procedures and cooperative actions that can strengthen the capacities to assess and face threats to civil aviation.

The minister stated that in Nigeria's quest to fight terrorism, she has introduced some enhanced security measures at the nation's airports, particularly the four major international airports in Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt.

According to Mrs. Njeze, the security measures include: pat down searches of all aviation passengers - including crew members - secondary screening of all passengers at the boarding gate, use of Advanced Imaging Technology (body scanners), use of Explosives Detection Systems (EDS), and a dedicated check-in bay for all US-bound flights at the international airports in both Lagos and Abuja.

She also disclosed that the Nigerian government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the American government on February 18, 2010, for the reciprocal deployment of Air Marshals on aircrafts going to and from the US. In addition, she said that Nigeria has been participating in international outreach programmes on aviation security with the American Transportation Security Administration (ATSA).

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