Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) has called on government at all levels to accelerate the development of enabling legal framework and environment to create legal status for electronic records, encompasses cybercrime legislation and enforces checks and balances.
The message was contained in a communiqué at the end of its 11th International Conference in Osun State, adding that after the paper presentations, technical sessions, contributions of the participants and exhaustive deliberations, the following decisions were reached that e-Government when properly deployed is able to deliver continuous optimization of service delivery to the citizens thereby engendering the attainment of the Vision 20-20:20 of the Federal Government.
The Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) was established in 1978 as the umbrella body for all Information Technology practitioners in Nigeria. The 2013 conference had as its theme, “e-Government and National Security”.
The communiqué signed by Sir Demola Aladekomo, immediate past president, Professor David Adewumi, the new President, and Professor Sola Aderounmu, deputy president, and chairman, Conference Communiqué Committee all of NCS, advised that in deploying e-Government services, it is imperative to embrace the cooperative model of governance which brings together the government, the governed, the civil society, professional bodies and other relevant stakeholders.
It reads: “That to build an efficient and credible e-Government cyber infrastructure, there is the urgent need to commence development of our national cyber security capability, otherwise we will be at a grave disadvantage against other nation states;
“That government at all levels should accelerate the development of enabling legal framework and environment which create legal status for electronic records, encompasses cybercrime legislation and enforces checks and balances;
“The Conference deplored the low level of IT security awareness in the country and urged the government to work with NCS and relevant agencies of government to mount security awareness programs and campaigns for citizens as a way of curtailing security breach and reducing cyber crime;
“The deployment of IT to enhance national security seems to be limited to the enhancement of Cybersecurity/IT security.
The Conference also commended the Federal Ministry of Communications Technology and the minister for the giant strides being made through various progressive initiatives by the ministry such as the National Broadband Initiative, denomination of Federal Government websites and e-mails in .ng domain, and involvement of NCS members to drive some of these initiatives; the Conference further advocates for continuous engagement between the Ministry and NCS.
There were more than 700 attendees from within and outside Nigeria. In addition, 336 new members and 12 corporate members were inducted at the conference which hosted five plenary sessions with speakers from broad spectrum of the society: IT professionals, academia, government and non-government agencies, industry and business. Also there were parallel sessions to complement the plenary sessions.
The topics of discussion were as diverse and encompassing as the speakers spanning E-government and National Security; Economic Security, Political Security and National Database; Public Key Infrastructure, Governance through e-Government, Smart Government and Social Security.