How stakeholders forced FG to reject data bill

The Chief Executive Officer and National Commissioner, Nigeria Data Protection Bureau, Dr Vincent Olatunji, has said that the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), rejected the data protection bill in 2019 due to concerns from stakeholders.

He said this at the closing ceremony of a three-day workshop on Data Protection and Legal Drafting organised by Nigeria Digital Identification for Development Project on Wednesday in Abuja.

The NDPB CEO said, “The general and best practice is for you to have a principal law for data protection, which is why we are putting in place measures to have a principal. Some of us may be aware that in 2019, one was passed by the National Assembly and sent to the President for assent. But due to various concerns raised by stakeholders, he did not assent to it.”

Olatunji further stressed the need for the data protection law and further solicited legal support to facilitate the data protection bill in Nigeria.

According to him, there was a need to ensure that the custodian of data information and those given the information to were safeguarded and protected.

In his remarks, the Project Coordinator, Nigeria Digital ID4D Project, Mr Solomon Odole, said that the workshop was organised to engage stakeholders in strengthening the legal and institutional framework in the country.

He added, “We believe in proper engagement in what we do. We strongly believe that if stakeholders are properly carried along, we will always and timely achieve whatever we want to accomplish.

“Stakeholders must be put first and that is what we have been doing to get results and the stakeholders we have been dealing with are wonderful.

“We believe that the Federal Ministry of Justice is a critical stakeholder in this whole process so we want to work in synergy with the ministry to see that the bill is passed by the end of this year.”

The Director of Legal Drafting Department, FMOJ, Ms Ifunanya Nwajagu, said that there was no sustainable development without data.

Nwajagu commended the NDPB and ID4D for putting the workshop together and assured that the ministry would work in synergy to move the project forward from the legal angle.