An Integrated Big Data Model to Salvage Nigeria's Insecurity Challenges

Abstract

There is no doubt about the tremendous achievement of Big Data since its inception in recent times. Developed nations like the United States, Germany, and Australia are utilizing it along with manpower skillsets in their fight against crime and recorded tremendous success. In Nigeria, the fight against insurgence and local crime has witnessed an upsurge in recent times ranging from multiple attacks recorded by the Islamic State of West Africa Province, Boko Haram, Fulani Herdsmen and Farmers' clashes, Bandits, Cyber-crimes, Kidnapping, IPOB, and other civic unrest such as the ENDSAR protest. These have overwhelmed the present security architecture which has often struggled to contain the situation and restore peace to warring factions. This study, therefore, proposed an Integrated Big Data for Security Information Sharing (IBDSIS) model that integrates datasets from databases of security agencies, non-paramilitary organizations, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices in Nigeria to form a holistic cloud-based information sharing platform. The implementation steps and strategies proposed by this study to adopt the IBDSIS modeling framework into the current national security architecture can bring together domain experts and data scientists to analyze tonnes of datasets pooled together using artificial intelligence, machine learning, and graphical visualization techniques to observe hidden patterns and insights for knowledge discoveries. The results of their analyses (products) will be customized into web applications and continuously update and deploy for security agencies' utilization in the fight against insecurity and external aggression. Our study expounds on related literature on common data models, big data, and applications to national security. We proposed the implementation steps and strategies for the adoption of the IBDSIS architectural modeling framework for information sharing by the relevant security agencies.