The Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has stressed the need for the federal government to expedite the passage of the digital rights bill, which has been with the national assembly for over eight years.
Executive Director of CITAD, Engineer Yunusa Zakiri Ya’u, made the call during a two-day workshop on digital rights, protection mechanisms, and online security tools for digital rights activists in Kano.
He explained that the passage of the bill would safeguard internet users and curb rampant cases of fraudulent activities, data privacy, and protection.
The executive director stated that the purpose of the training was to enhance the capacity of journalists, activists, and lawyers in identifying online threats and responding to them professionally.
“The digital space has become a critical component of our lives, adding that the digital space is not just free; however, it has some challenges and threats to individuals, especially journalists, activists, and lawyers.”
“Journalists, activists, and lawyers need to understand what these threats are, the challenges, and what to do when their rights are violated digitally, as well as ways to report these rights to appropriate authorities.”
He pointed out that though the government had responded to one issue, which is data protection, by signing it into law, indicating that if one’s data protection is being violated, the person can report it to the data protection agency for redress.
The Country Director of Avocats Sans Frontières France, Angela Uwandu Uzoma Iwuchukwu, explained that the workshop was organized for journalists, activists, and lawyers to educate them further on internet usage.
She stressed that it would also build their capacity on professional mechanisms and the safe use of the internet without intimidation or harassment while discharging their duties.
The country director described journalists, activists, and lawyers as crucial to democracy, saying that they hold the government accountable and ensure the rights of citizens are protected. Hence, there’s a need to ensure they are properly guided on the usage of the internet.
“What we were urging the government for is to scale up awareness for people, noting that when we were talking about the right to data, the subjects need to know that they equally have rights and be able to know when those rights are breached.”
The workshop, organized by CITAD in collaboration with Avocats Sans Frontières France, and Spaces for Change, with financial support from the European Union in Nigeria, was attended by the State Coordinator of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Kano office, Alhaji Shehu Abdullahi, journalists, lawyers, activists, civil society organizations, among others.
