SIR: I am worried about the lack of law on data sovereignty in Nigeria because the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will transmit 2023 election results electronically. Nigeria needs a law on data sovereignty to handle the problem of hacking of election result portal during the 2023 elections.
The result viewing portal of INEC was attacked by hackers from outside the shores of the country during the recently held Ekiti and Osun governorship elections. INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, who revealed this while delivering a keynote address at a stakeholders’ conference on election result management in Abuja, also said the commission had recorded several other attempts to hack into the cyber security system of the result viewing portal.
Yakubu said: “Another technical concern for us is the repeated attempts to break through our cyber security system for the portal. Our engineers reported several cyber-attacks on the portal during the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections, some of them from as far as Asia.
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“I am glad to note that all of them failed. However, while we are confident in the security solutions that we have deployed for IReV (result viewing centre) and all our web presence, we must remain vigilant and continue to strengthen our defences. We have tasked our engineers to do everything possible to fully protect the IReV and all our web resources.”
Law on data sovereignty will help lawyers to file and substantiate their cases concerning hackers that may emanate from electronic transmission of results in Nigeria’s future elections. The law will address the potential for abuse of Internet-based technology in the election context, and make recommendations on steps that should be taken by Election Administrators, voters, and those involved in Election Protection efforts.
Nigeria has not enacted a law on data sovereignty that INEC can use to transmit 2023 election results. The amendment of Nigeria’s electoral law is not enough to transmit the 2023 election results in Nigeria. Nigeria needs a law on data sovereignty to enable INEC to transmit the 2023 election results.
- Inwalomhe Donald,
inwalomhe.donald@yahoo.com