Babagana Monguno, national security adviser (NSA), says
social media is being used to incite violence in Nigeria.
Speaking at a workshop on the 2020 national cybersecurity
strategy in Abuja on Wednesday, the NSA said the social media poses increasing
challenges of cyber-terrorism.
His comments comes a day after Lai Mohammed, minister of
information, insisted on the federal government’s plan to regulate social media
despite criticisms against such move.
Represented by Aliyu Mohammed in the office of the secretary
to the government of the federation (SGF), Monguno made reference to the
#EndSARS protests during which he said the social media was used to disseminate
inflammatory comments.
“We are witnesses to the use of social media to disseminate
subversive content to incite violence and heightened tension, causing unrest
and sparking widespread looting and destruction across the country,” he said.
The NSA, however, added that the cyberspace has helped in
the enhancement of Nigeria’s national security, economic transformation and
national development.
“Our country is currently at a turning point in its history,
a significant section of our population of over 200 million people are young and
entrepreneurs, we are also witnessing a rapid rise in our adoption of the
internet in our daily lives,” he said.
Also speaking, Abayomi Olonisakin, chief of defence staff,
said cyber terrorism is the most unpredictable challenge Nigeria is currently
battling with.
Represented by Charles Oghonwen, an air vice marshal from
the defence headquarters, Olonisakin said: “Cyberspace has been the main
warfare after the lands, sea, air and space has no boundary and hence does not
obey conditional rules in warfare.
“It remains open to exploitation buy state actors, organised
syndicates, sect, criminals and terrorists. Cyberterrorism has become the most
precarious challenge facing us today as a nation.
“The use of cyberspace to facilitate various terrorist
activities, such as recruitment, training, propaganda, intelligence gathering
and fundraising, cyber terrorism is now globally recognised as the fundamental
threat to global security.”
The senate had introduced a bill to regulate social media
but it was widely rejected.
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com