Nigerian Minister, Northern Governor Visit Egypt To Aquire Security Platform For Monitoring People's Calls

 

A Nigerian minister and a governor of a northern state recently visited Egypt to get security platforms to monitor people's calls, text messages and other forms of communication.

According to a security source, the minister and governor made a quick trip to the North African in a bid to find technological ways to trample on people's freedom of speech. 

The governor and the minister are both controversial and have also been in the news lately for the wrong reasons. 

"A minister and a governor went to Egypt this week to get a security platform for monitoring calls of citizens. It was a really quick trip," the source said.

The clampdown on free speech in Nigeria has become heightened under the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

Towards the end of 2015, a Petition Bill targeting online and print media as well as regulating social media posts was sponsored in the Senate but it was followed by a public backlash. 

In 2019, lawmakers introduced the National Commission for the Prohibition of Hate Speech bill and the Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulation and other Related Offences bill.

These bills also attracted public critism.

Similarly, conversations about a Nigerian firewall were started during EndSARS protests last year. It was gathered that the EndSARS protests in 2020 made the government more desperate to control the cyberspace. 

In a December 2020 report, University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, noted that the Nigeria’s Defence Intelligence Agency had acquired equipment that it can use to spy on its citizens’ calls and text messages.

University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab researches on digital surveillance, security, privacy and accountability.

The report, titled Running in Circles: Uncovering the Clients of Cyber-espionage Firm Circles, said a telecom surveillance company by the name of Circles has been helping state security apparatuses across 25 countries, including Nigeria, to spy on the communications of opposition figures, journalists, and protesters.