Pascal Oparada
Nigeria’s minister of communication and digital economy, Isa Pantami, has signed Nigeria up in an organisation made up mainly of Muslim countries, reports The Peoples Gazette.
The newspaper reported on Wednesday that Pantami, without due consultation, registered the country in the Digital Cooperation Organisation (DCO).
The organisation is made up of the Kingdom of Bahrain, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the State of Kuwait, the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Sultanate of Oman, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The aim of the organisation, as listed on their website, is to optimise “policy and regulatory frameworks to expand cross-border data flows and digital trade among DCO members.” Other potential benefits of the group include a plan to “reduce the digital divide across the DCO” and also to “align approaches to engagement and negotiations with private sector actors.”
Pantami’s latest move has unsettled many who see the move as undermining the country’s secularity.
The minister has been pushing for Nigerians to harmonise their digital records by linking their phone records with their national identity numbers.
Experts fear that Nigeria’s data may be compromised following the latest move by the minister.