In the spirit of the 2020 World Data Privacy Day, leading cybersecurity expert, Mr. Remi Afon has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to assent to the Data Protection bill, which was passed by the 8th National Assembly in May 2019.
The expert, who is also the President of the Cyber Security Experts Association of Nigeria (CSEAN), believes the signing of the bill has become more necessary owing to the fact that the Buhari was a victim of data privacy violation by Cambridge Analytica during the 2015 presidential elections.
Business Hilights recalls that during the said election, the firm allegedly worked with the Israeli intelligence firm, Black Cube to acquire hacked medical and financial information about him.
He argued that the Data Protection bill will be charged with the responsibility for the Protection of Personal Data and Data Subjects’ Rights and Regulation of the Processing of Personal Information, disclosing that the bill, when finally signed into law, will see an increase in the number of Data Protection Officers in the country.
Afon added that “As part of our advocacy as cyber security professionals, we urge the President Buhari to assent to the Data Protection bill, which we believe is on his table to commemorate with this year’s Data Privacy Day.”
He explained that in May 2019, the National Assembly passed the Data Protection bill and sent it to the President for assent, unfortunately this is yet to be signed into law for the past eight months. “One would have expected the President to act swiftly in signing the bill into law,” he added.
The Cyber Security Experts Association of Nigeria has been advocating for Data Protection Law for years now. But both the lower and the upper legislative chambers were magnanimous to pass the Data Protection bill last year.
