CITAD calls on FG to quicken passage of digital rights Bill
By Admin
The Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) on Wednesday appealed to the Federal government to fast-track passage of the Digital Rights Bill to protect internet users.
Yunusa Zakari Ya’u, CITAD Executive Director who spoke in Kano at a training workshop noted that the passage of the bill into law would not only safeguard internet users but would also curb rampant cases of fraudulent activities, data privacy and protection.
Mr Ya’u noted that once the bill is legislated, it would ensure that our digital rights are coded and guaranteed.
The two-day training workshop on digital rights, protection mechanisms and online security tools for digital rights activists was jointly sponsored by the CITAD in conjunction with Avocats San Frontieres France.
CITAD boss explained that the training was designed to enhance the capacity of journalists, activists and lawyers to identify threats as well as respond to those threats online.
Mr. Ya’u said digital space has become, a critical component of our lives adding that digital space is not just free but has some challenges and threats to individuals, especially journalists, activists and lawyers.
He added that “Our lives have become more and more online, we communicate with our friends, families and companies, at works digitally engage government digitally, do education, commerce and so forth”
“Hence the need for journalists, activists and lawyers to understand what are these threats, the challenges and what do, when they have as citizens, to protect these rights and when they are violated digitally and ways to report these rights to appropriate authority”
He however added that though government had responded to one issue, which is data protection by signing it into law, which indicated that if one data protection is being violated, the person can be reported to a data protection agency for redress.
But that issue is a piecemeal approach to what Nigerians were yearning and calling for saying that what we were calling for is for government to quickly legislate on a digital rights bill.
Speaking on the occasion, the Avocats San Frontieres France, Country Director, Angela Uwandu Uzoma-Iwuchukwu, disclosed that the workshop is organized for journalists, activists and lawyers to educate them more on internet usage.