While there are various legislations like the Cybercrimes Act, Terrorism Act, Criminal Code and various Criminal Laws of States, all fashioned to combat cybercrimes and ensure cyber security, YEJIDE GBENGA-OGUNDARE reports that Nigeria continues to enjoy a rise in criminal activities on cyber space due to what experts describe as ineffectiveness, non-enforcement as well as lack of proper and defined enforcement mechanism.
In Nigeria today, when security is the focus of discussion, the average person only thinks of insecurity in terms of land borders and in extreme situations, insecurity at air and on the high sea. However, the scope of insecurity has risen to more overlooked and dangerous areas with the advent of technology. Consequently, security has extended to areas of data protection and protecting users during online interactions and transactions.
Today, cybercrimes and attack on cyber space have become entrenched in Nigeria and internet fraud and data theft occurs almost every minute, making the nation an epicenter of nefarious online practices which has affected the way the average Nigerian is viewed by other nations due to high numbers of space-related crimes.
And while this mode of criminality extends beyond the shores of Nigeria, many seem to think the country has the highest figures in such activities due to increased crime and criminality in cyberspace.
This is the reason the nation put in place diverse legislation with provisions to combat cyber crime in all its mode by acting as a protective layer over cyber space in order to prevent occurrence of such crimes.
There are various levels of cybercrime; crime against government, crime against properties and crime against individuals. Cybercrime against property refers to crimes like against computer or server; copyright infringement, cyber squatting, hacking, virus transmission, computer vandalism and Intellectual Property Rights violations while crime against individuals refers to crime that directly affect persons like e-mail phishing, cyber stalking, social engineering as well as trafficking, distribution, posting and dissemination of obscene material including pornography and indecent exposure. And cybercrime against the government is when individuals and groups threaten the government and citizens of a country online.
Often, cybercrime evolves into terrorism when certain individual or group of individuals unlawfully attacks or threatens to attack the government through the use of computers, networks and the information stored therein with the intention of intimidating or coercing a government or its people in furtherance of political or social objectives or facilitating a crack into a government or military maintained website. The position of the position of the Cybercrimes Act, 2015 on Cyberterrorism and the Terrorism (Prevention) Act, is that any person that accesses or causes to be accessed any computer system or network for purposes of terrorism commits an offence and is liable on conviction to life imprisonment.
And because the damage that cyber crime causes for people and the nation is enormous, legislations were put in place to combat it. The major legislation in fighting cybercrime is the Cybercrime (Prohibition and Prevention) Act, 2015 which is a comprehensive legal, regulatory and institutional framework for the prohibition, prevention, detection, prosecution and punishment of cybercrimes in Nigeria.
In a bid to address these multifaceted cyber threats and prepare the country for efficient and progressive use of the cyber domain, the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN), had few years back through the Office of the then National Security Adviser (ONSA), undertook proactive steps to draw a cybersecurity roadmap.
The document, titled, ‘National Cybersecurity Policy And Strategy, February 2021, was developed to provide direction for mainstreaming Nigeria’s National Cybersecurity Programme and also set the path for effective coordination of the activities of all relevant stakeholders across the board while revealing that the Nigerian cyberspace is faced with significant threats, which result in huge financial losses corresponding to a substantial percentage of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Equally, a high number of organisations in Nigeria fall victim to cyber attacks, making the country a high target by cyber criminals.
The Federal Government had since 2019, outlined three cardinal and existential national objectives for the Nigerian people; protecting national security; strengthening of economic development, and fighting against corruption.
But while all efforts seems to be yielding few results, stakeholders have called for review of relevant laws to strengthen the fight against cybercrime on the ground that there is an urgent need to review the existing laws in Nigeria to enhance the fight against cybercrime.
The chairman of the African Union Cybersecurity Group of Experts, Abdul-Hakeem Ajijola, had at a stakeholders’ forum held in Abuja recently, stressed the need to improve Nigeria’s legislation along with cybersecurity architecture, adding that “I urge Nigeria to ratify and accede to the Malabo Convention as Africa has started moving forward on it without us. However, legislation alone is not enough. We need to fortify our digital frontiers with advanced cybersecurity technologies.”
On his part, the former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Ali Isa Pantami, had also called for collaborative efforts by ministries and agencies of government to tackle the menace. He urged an improved legislative framework to combat the offences while the Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, canvassed improved legal framework to combat rising threats to Nigeria’s cyberspace.
And this is the reason that the recent signing of the Nigeria Data Protection Bill, 2023 into law by President Bola Tinubu to serve as a legal framework for the protection of personal information and the practice of data protection in Nigeria has been lauded as a step in the right direction.
According to experts, while it is important to note that the Federal Government has made some efforts to strengthen the legal framework on cybersecurity, which is wider in scope than data protection, more gaps need to be filled as the world of cybersecurity is dynamic and requires prompt action.
Currently, the Federal Government is making efforts to review the major cybercrime legislations like the Cybercrime Prohibition and prevention Act 2015, in line with the dynamics and evolving nature of cybersecurity in Nigeria. But while many say that the law needs to be overhauled because of loopholes in it and the need for it to be up to date with current and evolving trends in cyberspace and its security, others believe that implementation and enforcement is the major challenge.
It is said that cybercrimes is on the rise in Nigeria as a result of ineffectiveness of the laws meant to combat it as well as the absence of a properly defined enforcement mechanism. Experts say that with proper implementation and enforcement mechanism in place, the lacunas in the cybercrimes and cybersecurity laws would be cured at least to a minimal level, leading to reduction in cybercrimes.
READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
and then