The Nigerian Senate has finally passed the Digital Rights
and Freedom Bill, following in the footsteps of the Nigerian House of
Representatives which passed the Bill on December 19, 2018, reports ITRealms.
The bill, ITRealms gathered
was passed at about 1:09 pm Tuesday, and is a product of civil society efforts
led by Paradigm Initiative beginning at the 2014 Internet Freedom Forum in
Abuja, “provides for the protection of human rights online, to protect Internet
users in Nigeria from infringement of their fundamental freedoms and to
guarantee application of human rights for users of digital platforms and/or
digital media.”
ITRealms also
gathered that in 2016, Hon Chukwuemeka Ujam sponsored the Bill at the House of
Representatives where it underwent rigorous legislative process before eventual
passage last December.
The Bill was first tabled before the Senate for concurrence
on January 16 2018, and was finally passed Tuesday, March 13, 2018.
Notable of the Digital Rights bill, ITRealms reports provides progressive
legislative backing to online speech in the country.
For instance, ITRealms
reports that Clause 14 of the bill reads, “Every person shall have the right to
freely express opinion online without interference, this right includes the
freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas, regardless of
digital frontiers”.
In addition, ITRealms
gathered that under this Bill, freedom of expression further includes the
freedom to express and impart information and ideas of all kinds that could be
transmitted to others, in whatever form, and regardless of media.
Further, the Bill also made provisions towards the
protection of data and right to privacy online as contained in Section 5 of the
Bill, which reads in part “(1) Every person is guaranteed the confidentiality
of his personal data.
“(2) The integrity and confidentiality of personal data and
information of citizens is inviolable and therefore guaranteed... (6) All
entities that collect, store and/or process personal data in the course of
their activities shall have data privacy policies that are readily and easily
accessible to the public.”
The Bill will now be presented to President Muhammadu Buhari
for the presidential assent to transform the bill to a law, making it Nigeria’s
first law on human rights online.
Chuks Egbune and Uboshe Uboshe/GEE
Pix: Senate President, Bukola Saraki
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