Some information and communication technology professionals have said that Nigerians should not worry themselves about government monitoring technological devices as the country has not reached such a level.
This is against the backdrop of the situation in United Arab Emirates where government has decided to block Blackberry mobile service by 11 October because of security reasons. Reuben Muoka, the spokesperson of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said, “We have not gotten to that level of advancement where government begins to monitor technology devices and its uses. We should focus on our immediate concern like the SIM cards registration, quality of service among other things, than focusing on how to get to an advanced stage without dealing to the main issues. We have to lay emphasis in utilising the infrastructure we have right now.”
The New York Times reported that the United Arab Emirates has been in a long dispute with Research in Motion (RIM), the smart phone’s producer, over the BlackBerry’s highly encrypted data system, which offers security to users but makes it more difficult for governments to monitor communications. According to the report, the dispute between the United Arab Emirates and RIM took an unusual turn about a year ago when the company warned users that software described by a United Arab Emirates carrier, Etisalat, as a BlackBerry upgrade was actually spyware. However, Steve Evans, the chief executive officer of Etisalat Nigeria said in a telephone interview, “I have not been briefed about the issue from Etisalat Group, so I cannot say anything about it. Until, I get information from Etisalat Group before I could say something about it, I am still waiting to hear from the group.”
No laws
Over nine years after the inception of mobile telephony in Nigeria, and the attendant growth in technology advancement, Nigeria has no laws to monitor or protect communication transmitted via technology devices. “There are no such laws yet in the country to monitor communication content in the context the Middle East is doing it based on security reasons but we would get to that level,” said Kenneth Ugbechie, Secretary of Africa Telecoms Development Initiative, a non-governmental Africa organisation. “The federal government need to enact laws that monitor communication content especially one that particularly stress on national security and punished offenders based on certain provision of that law. The nature of the Middle East environment is a peculiar case because of the war activities going on there, Nigeria is not fighting any nation so such ban of text messages, instant messaging, and emails on mobile phone cannot take place here.” However, Mr. Ugbechie explained that such ban on mobile phone service greatly affect the economy of such nation as the telecom sector is a very important growth to any nation’s economy.