Johnson @ NCS Conference, Says Cyber Security Bill Coming

Mrs. Omobola Johnson, minister of Communications Technology, on Thursday said that the cyber security bill is expected to address many security challenges especially online crimes that have been on the increase because of lack of legislation that will enable the court to prosecute and punish online offenders.

The Minister in her keynote address at the ongoing Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) 11th international Conference in Osun State, told the gathering that the bill is currently with the federal ministry of Justice for final drafting.

She  said, “The Cyber Security will be ready before the end of the year. The Federal Ministry of Justice is working on a draft that will form executive bill. There will be inputs from stakeholders from the IT industry”.

It would be recalled that several draft bills about cyber security have been sent to the National Assembly since 2006.

Before now, stakeholders in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) who have been clamoring for the bill were worried over the unnecessary delay in the passage of the Bill by the National Assembly.

However, the cyber Security bill first came to fore in Nigeria in 2004 where some civil society advocated for the passage of the bill to make provision for a framework for the prohibition, prevention, prosecution and punishment of cyber traitors in the country.

The federal ministry of Justice in collaboration with the National Security Adviser had came up with a draft of cyber security bill in 2011, but has been hobbled by several factors, especially lack of political will, as noted by stakeholders in the IT industry.