NASS-building

The Senate Committee on ICT and Cyber Crime has harped on the need to sensitise Nigerians on the effect of cybercrime and cyber security in the society.

Senator Abdulfatai Buhari, the chairman of the committee disclosed this while speaking with newsmen at the sideline of 2nd Legislative –Stakeholders Conference on Cyber Security in Abuja on Tuesday.
He said that there was the need to educate Nigerians “particularly our young ones who are versatile with the social media.’’
“Most of our boys, instead of using their talent to help the country use it to attack one another and even the system.
“The moment you do that, you are opening ways for international attack. We need to educate the masses for them to appreciate the danger ahead.
“One of the problems we have in the country is that we do not take precautions. All we do is look for solutions for things we do not have solutions for.
“When you are able to take precautions, even if an incident happened, the impact will be minimal and controllable,’’ Buhari said.
He said former President Goodluck Jonathan signed the cybercrime law shortly before leaving office in 2015.
“Although it was scanty, the committee picked up part of the law and decided to expand it so it will fit into international standard,’’ he said.
Buhari said the committee had sponsored a bill on the amendment of the cyber crime law which is before the senate.
According to him, in 2017 the committee gathered experts on ICT in a conference and it was able to gather some information which it added to the ideas from other consultants and this helped in the presentation of a draft bill to the senate.
“With the conference we are doing today, some of the few ideas we have again will be inserted into the bill to make it richer,’’ Buhari said.
He said from the decisions reached at the conference, the committee will be able to present the bill for second reading and move into public hearing and eventual passage by the National Assembly.
“We are appealing to the media to collaborate with the committee as you cannot do a law on cyber security alone without ICT and the social media and even in the developed world it is being regulated,’’ he said.
Buhari added: “At the beginning of the Buhari administration when we were trying to bring in a law to regulate the social media, I remember that what we saw at that time was not palatable.
“But now everybody is being attacked particularly on false information.
“We need to face the reality that if we allow the law to go loose without being regulated, it is going to cause doom particularly in the election year.’’
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the two day conference has the theme Cyber Security: Implication of disruptive Technologies on National Security and Economy and it was organised by the Senate Committee on ICT and Cybercrime.