The Director of Centre for Cyber Awareness and Development (CECAD), Dr. Bayero Agabi has called on the Nigerian Government and the National Assembly to increase Cyber Awareness and responsibilities at all levels of government.
Bayero stated this at the recently held First Legislative Conference on ICT and Cyber Security, which was organised by the Senate Committee on ICT and Cyber Security. The Conference was part of events marking the 2017 Cyber Security week.
At the event held at the Zeus Paradise Hotel, Abuja, Bayero spoke on the need to encourage cyber responsibilities by Internet users through advocacy and Public Education. According to him, there is a need to adopt effective communications as weapon of choice in order to change people’s actions and behaviours in the Cyberspace.
“We need to encourage cyber responsibility by Internet users at the local, regional, national and international levels. This can be done through advocacy and public education. This will reflect positively in the government’s attempt at modifying ‘cyber behaviour’ of the Internet users on sundry platforms. We must adopt effective communication in the form of constructive messages, as the weapon of choice in order to change people’s actions and behaviours in the Cyberspace,” he said.
He argues that the mandate to dissuade people from misuse of the internet should be another focus of both the Federal government and the National Assembly.
Other speakers at the conference also called on the Government to establish policies on patronage of made in Nigeria ICT content as well ensure policy consistency in Cyber Security and other ICT issues. The stakeholders also called for a review of the Cyber Crime Act 2015 to fill the identified gaps and create an agency for the regulation and enforcement of the Cyber Crime Act.
They canvassed for the establishment of a Commission to coordinate policy and training in digital literacy as put together by the National Digital Literacy Council. They called for women’s participation in digital literacy programmes and cyber security issues through relevant agencies and institutions. Participants also raised the need for the establishment of an ICT Fund of about 5 per cent of the national budget by 2019 to fund ICT infrastructure, cyber-security issues and Digital Literacy Commission for training and certification of Nigerians.
The Conference was well attended by several agencies, including the National Information technology Development Agency, National Assembly, Federal road safety corps, the Military and other ICT stakeholders.