Uwaje, who was reacting to the recently passed cybercrime law by the Senate, told THISDAY that unless an ICT law is promulgated, technology development would continue to drag to the detriment of the country.
He expressed regret about a situation where the government appears to be comfortable with ICT policy, rather than the actual law itself, explaining that ICT policy is an administrative guide and not a law document that can be enforced.
Uwaje, who is also Chairman of Mobile Software Solutions Limited, therefore called for quick passage of ICT law in the country.
"It is a fundamental flaw that the foundation for the ICT legislation architecture for Nigeria, which is the National ICT Bill and its enabling Act have not been laid. All we had before now is a national ICT Policy document, which is not law but an administrative process," he said.
According to him, a sustainable house is not built from top down, but rather from bottom up.
“The National ICT Bill is the root while Cybersecurity and indeed, Cybercrime are branches and sub-branches," he said.
Although Uwaje said the passage of the Cybercrime Bill by the Senate last week should be commended, he added that the law might be obsolete sooner than it was programmed, due to the global speed of information technology (IT) innovation and systems intervention.
"Indeed, what are we securing from cybercrime. Is it the lives and property of the citizenry? What should first be secured are government database and national information system, and these are best secured through ICT law rather than cybercrime law," Uwaje said.
He reasoned that protecting the national information system and database through ICT laws is more important than protecting lives and property through cybercrime law. He noted that Nigeria might require up to 100,000 skilled IT professionals to protect her national information system and database, and wants government to play in that direction.
“There is a great difference between government computerisation and automation. e-Government has not lived up to its expectation and IT-Nigeria has been grossly misunderstood across board and the national IT focus is on telecoms only, making us one of the largest telecoms consumer country in the world,” Uwaje further said.
In justifying his submissions, he said there were over 10 billion electronic devices connected to the internet today and wiring humanity.
“Nigeria is an integral part of the global electronic Cyberweb. For the completeness and effectiveness of the deep understanding and implications of the Cyberspace gladiators’ pandemic, it is strategically imperative to build a National Cybersecurity Force, incorporating Cybersecurity and Cybercrime Emergency Response Team for all levels of cyberattacks,” he said.
Uwaje listed other things that government needed to do in order to address issues with cybersecurity. They include: the declaration of cybercrime and cybersecurity as a national emergency, which deserves conscious political will and special budgetary resources to effectively engage the challenges presented by its impact; provisioning of legislative framework for cybercrime and security; establishment of cybercrime reporting and response centre; establishment of national cybercrime and cybersecurity training centre; establishment of national emergency response framework on cybercrime and cybersecurity; establishment of cyber police and forensics commission, among others.
---
Autor(en)/Author(s): Emma Okonji
Quelle/Source: THISDAY Live, 30.10.2014
Bitte besuchen Sie/Please visit:
