In response to the public backlash regarding the cybersecurity levy, Senator Ali Ndume, Senate Chief Whip, commended President Bola Tinubu for attentively heeding the people’s concerns and pausing its implementation.
“It’s good that the president has now acted and we’ll go back to the drawing table to look at the Act again. When this administration came on board, the first issue that needed to be addressed was that of cybercrime. And it’s part of the purpose of government as outlined in Section 14,2 of our constitution. That the purpose of government is the security and welfare of citizens. And cybercrime is part of the security, very important one.
“So that’s why the government was in a hurry to look at the enabling law which was signed in 2015. To strengthen it, give more powers to the institutions charged with that responsibility to ensure efficiency and to address the issue of cybercrime which you know is ravaging the country and spoiling our reputation and name because of the incessant and increased cybercrime going on in Nigeria.”
“But I will add that we were in a hurry and so weren’t able to look at the nitty gritty of the issue until the CBN made that announcement. And also they didn’t look at it very well. And you’ll see the reactions of Nigerians was not good. Of course it is expected, looking at the situation we find ourselves. There are a lot of burdens on the common man and the low-income persons. And it’s not the intent of this government to add another burden on the middle class especially the low-income earners or Nigerians in general.”
“So, I still want to commend the President for that and as I said, I was expecting him to do that. But I also want to urge Nigerians to agree with this government that this cybercrime issue, the laws need to be critically upgraded,”He said.
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