CONTENDING ISSUES IN THE ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS BILL
defraud or emotionally traumatize people, he however, warned that such a bill should not be passed in a hurry, just for the sake of protecting Nigerians from threats and assaults.
“Government should call for an all encompassing stakeholders’ meeting to deliberate on the advantages and disadvantages of such bill before ever passing it into law. I will not completely condemn the bill, especially when it has to do with protecting Nigerians, but I am also of the view that sensitive issues like this, should not be addressed from only one side of the coin because it demands a wholistic approach to get it right,” he added.
Speaking on whether such bill to monitor every electronic communication of persons is obtainable in other countries, Ajayi said certain countries have certain level of authority to enforce such bill, but insisted that it is done in line with the level of development of such countries, and the environmental factors under which the people live.
“Such authorities must be carefully defined. In such countries, certain mitigation is put in place to correct certain actions of people, and Nigeria must consider all these factors and consult widely, before passing such bill into law. It is wrong to copy the laws of other countries, without considering the control measures and the mitigation put in place, as well as the environmental factors under which such law operates in other countries,” Ajayi said.
Speaking in the same vein, President of Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA), Mrs. Mary Uduma, who described the proposed monitoring of electronic communications as ‘wire tapping bill’, said Nigeria as a country, was currently in a very difficult situation, with regards to terrorism that has taken over parts of the country.
According to her, most times, the terrorists use Information and Communications Technology (ICT) tools to perfect their heinous crimes. “They are currently recruiting young people online and I want to believe that the online atrocities committed by terrorists, may have informed the creation of the electronic communications bill in the first place. But the truth is that government must look at the issue from a broader perspective and try to balance it from the regulatory angle. There should be a well-formulated bill that will protect the individuals, without undermining their privacy,” she said.
Government, she added, must be careful in ensuring that the implementation of such law, after the bill is passed, must not be misused by those authorised to implement it.
“I think there should be alternative bills supporting the rights and privileges of the citizens. When it comes to ‘wire tapping’ there should be enough protection of the privacy of the individual,” Uduma said.
Reacting to the issue of death sentence as contained in the bill, Uduma said: “I see it as retrogressive to the growth of democracy. Death sentence should not be promoted when it comes to ‘wire tapping’, except it is promoted specifically to address the action of terrorists who use online tools and communications tools to disenfranchise and kill their fellow human beings.”
In his opinion, President of Information Technology Systems and Security Professionals (ITSSP), Mr. Rogba Adeoye, told THISDAY that the bill, if eventually passed into law, would grossly violate human rights and called on Nigerians to rise up against the bill before it is passed into law.
According to Adeoye, “It is practically wrong for government to begin to monitor all electronic communications of Nigerians, when there is no established case of crime committed. People’s conversations could only be monitored when a case has been established against a person.”
On the area of death, Adeoye said the bill is anti-people because there is no place in the world where democracy thrives, and people are sentenced to death for wrongful electronic communications.
“We are not in the military era, and I wonder why the federal government will be so hardened to push a bill that stipulates death sentence for anyone that commits crime against critical national information infrastructure,” Adeoye said.
He described the bill as crude, wicked and unjust to humanity, and warned the federal government against passing the bill into law.
Adeoye who wants the bill stopped at its infancy, said Nigerians must begin to write and kick against it, before it is too late. Adeoye called on the federal government to immediately organise stakeholders’ meeting that must involve the public, to enable Nigerians make useful inputs into the bill, before it becomes a law.
Citing the case of Edward Snowden, the American computer professional who was used by the US government to secretly monitor electronic communications of persons, but latter leaked classified information from the National Security Agency to the mainstream media in 2013, Adeoye said Americans are against that singular act of American government and have rose against it because it is anti-people.
Mr. Andrew Adigwe, a mobile phone dealer at the Ikeja Computer Village market in Lagos, also condemned the bill, and called on government to expunge the aspect of death sentence in the bill, if they truly meant well for Nigeria.
“The aspect of monitoring electronic communications is not a bad intention, since it is meant to track people with evil and deadly intentions, but government must apply full caution to avoid harassing innocent Nigerians that carry out legitimate communications,” he said. House of Reps’ position Responding to the reactions of Nigerians, Chairman, House Committee on ICT, Honourable Shehu Gusau, admitted that a section of the bill is actually promoting death sentence for offenders, but explained that it was not meant to undermine the country’s democracy, rather, to scare Nigerians and to stop them from thinking in that direction.
Gusau told THISDAY that the bill is all encompassing, which seeks to protect Nigerians from all manners of abuses and threats to lives, using electronic communications.
“There is no law in the country today that empowers law enforcement agents to prosecute people who use electronic communications or any online tool to defraud and cause havoc to people. But with this bill, the law enforcement agents will have the full backing to prosecute offenders, which of course will act as a deterrent to anyone who thinks otherwise,” Gusau said.
He, however,explained that his committee has decided to expunge the aspect of death sentence from the bill, following concerns from various quarters.
According to him, “We are stepping down on the aspect of death sentence, because some members of the House of Representatives are opposing to it, even though some are in support of it. At the next hearing of the bill, we are like to step down that aspect completely because we listen and we feel the impulse of the generality that we represent at the National Assembly level.
It is one thing to speak against injustice and it is another thing for those in authority to have listening ears to those they represent. Now that members of the House of Representatives have shown exemplary leadership style by listening to the people, they deserve the commendation of everyone as Nigerians look forward to seeing the dreaded section 15 (1) of the bill expunged at the next sitting.