Governor Dickson and Nigeria’s Cybercrime Bill

By ‘Sola Fagorusi
The Governor of Balyesa State, Mr. Seriake Dickson must be a happy man these days. His temperament to criticism of public office holders from the children of anger, a la Reuben Abati is spreading to the crevices of the legislative arm of government. Only last week, the House of Representatives received from the presidency a proposal detailing concerns around cyber misdemeanour, one it justly tagged the Cyber Crime Bill 2013. The 27- page bill if passed into law is unkind to social media critics. Part 3, Section 15 (cyber stalking) and Section 18 (Racist and Xenophobic offences) are where the ambiguity of this bill lies. Knowing what we are capable of in this clime, the hard line of a critic to any ‘big man’ or ‘oga at the top’ can be classified as insults given the provision of these sections of the bill.
 
Last year, a number of Nigerian newspapers reported the different arrests of two Nigerians – Tonye Okio and Melford Esinki by Mr. Dickson. Their crime was their use of social media to spread ‘false information’ about him (Dickson). The Governor did not wait for the Cyber Crime Bill to come into effect before acting. In internet policy circle discussions, Governor Dickson’s name comes up regularly for his sponsorship of the so called ‘Rumour Mongering Bill’ with which he hopes to ‘provide punishment for false dissemination of information and propaganda, either against the reputation of private individuals or about government or its officials’… and punish ‘dem say, dem say’. Tonye, who was recently released after spending two months in prison, denied ownership of the Facebook account which had an update that one South-South governor from the same region as former governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha (inferred) was arrested in the United States for laundering about $5 million.
 
That there are mischievous users of the social media is not in question. What one would have expected is that the governor rises up to the occasion within the framework of the law. Mr. Dickson as a lawyer should know this. He should aim to be seen as fair even as he wields constitutional powers. In 2011, Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State also arrested one Moukhtari Ibrahim Aminu for ‘abusing’ the governor on Facebook. If passed into law in its current state, the Cyber Crime Bill would allow extreme abuse of power by office holders especially against any consistent dissenting voices. No matter the performance brilliance of any office holders, there would always be criticisms. Even Governor Babatunde Fashola, the poster boy of excellent state governance in Nigeria has his critics.
 
Is the Cyber Crime Bill initiative a right one? Absolutely; especially given Nigeria’s reported loss of over N407 million to cybercrime on an annual basis and the dark image it has cast on the country. Nigerians still do not have access to certain online resources and platforms. In 2012, Nigeria was ranked the 55th most dangerous cybercrime country, a huge improvement over its 3rd place in 2006 when ‘Yahoo-Yahoo’ was a notorious fad. Internet penetration rate in Nigeria is growing, it is currently put at 48 million; the highest on the continent. Cybercafés are no longer in vogue as it was at the start of the millennium. It is even more difficult now to track a cyber-criminal with reportedly over 105 million mobile telephone users in Nigeria and 26 million of these users with smart phones.
 
When the Nigerian constitution was crafted in 1999, it made clear provisions for the freedom of expression. Chapter four, section 39, sub section one and two of the constitution states that ‘Every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference. Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1) of this section, every person shall be entitled to own, establish and operate any medium for the dissemination of information, ideas and opinions….’ The deluge of social networks we have now was not in operation then. With the supremacy of the constitution, the status updates of the social media crowd are their rights. Mischievous or libellous ones should simply be settled in the court of law. The internet is bigger than Governor Dickson. Without intent at mischief, a simple search of his name on Google throws back ‘Serieke Dickson Laundering’ as the second drop down option. Handlers of his image simply need to match this with several pro-people projects and it will change!
 
Needless to say, Mr Dickson, who trained as a lawyer, is not likely to give the gorgeous Freedom of Information Act a thought for adoption in his state. What Mr. Dickson’s aides need to tell him is that when eventually he leaves office, knowing how Nigeria operates, he would need this same platform to live as a citizen of Nigeria and indigene of Balyesa that he is. Let him peep at the Facebook timeline of Femi Fani-Kayode, former aviation Minister the twitter feed of ex-Education Minister, Obiageli Ezekwesili, in case he is in doubt.
 
For every time the government tries to hide information and make public issues private, they give room for extrapolations which may sometimes be wrong. Opening up government activities would contribute to the sanity of the social media crowd. Already, effort by the World Bank, its private partners and the Ministry Communication Technology with its #OpenDataNigeria project would hopefully make this happen soon.
 
Given the cross border nature of cybercrimes, the nation needs to key into continental and international provision on cybercrime for complemented solution. On this proposed law, the words of St. Augustine should ring true – An unjust law is no law at all.
 
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@SolaFagro on twitter