Just like there may not be a successful stage play of Hamlet without the character; ‘Prince of Denmark’, broadband (internet) access for Nigerians may not be successfully realized without sophisticated regulatory framework on ground to govern activities of persons online. To this end, to say that there is no expedient need for more laws to regulate activities of persons online in Nigeria is like to speak in blank prose.
According to a recent data of internet users released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in November, 2016, the NCC body calculated the number of internet users to be about 92.4 million, a huge surge compared to the data released in the month of August of the penultimate year.
It is apparent from the figures above that access to internet by Nigerians is increasing exponentially, thus, there is a dire need for refined policies and regulations to smoothen and suit these rapid developments taking place at every sector of the society. This paper considers necessary measures, enforcements and or implementations, that needs to be underlaid in order to achieve the goal of “internet/cyber safety”.
One of such ways of implementing suitable regulations for our internet activities is through analysis of our online activities in recent past, for example, the ‘#bringbackourgirls’ campaign that trended on social media and drew a lot of attention from the international community which brought to limelight the scourge and blight in the Northeastern part of Nigeria,the rest of the world joined in this online campaign and this helped a tad to put the government on its toes on the issue of the 295 kidnapped chibok girls and insecurity in the Northeastern part of the country. Also the ‘#Occupynigeria’ which also went viral during the fuel subsidy crisis in Nigeria to protest and express dissent on the removal of fuel subsidy in Nigeria.
Of course, broadband has improved government’s efficiency through transparency and openness in dissemination of information across various government sectors, business organizations, educational sector and others. Without much ado, all these above are welcome developments that access to broadband has brought to Nigeria and its citizenry.
However, Nigerians will not be too quick to forget the case of Cynthia Osokogu, a lady who was lured from the Northern part of Nigeria to Lagos under the guise of business deal by her assailants via chats on facebook (the popular social media network) and was eventually gruesomely murdered in a hotel in Lagos. Many unreported cases of revenge porn (a situation where an ex-lover upload nude pictures or videos of his or her estranged partner to humiliate him or her). This has traumatized many victims with some committing suicide. Furthermore to the above mentioned ignoble acts are issues of internet fraud,phishing,credit card fraud,false unfounded and vitriol comments about personalities online to discredit such person and or tarnish his or her image and reputation, inciting articles that provokes and or instigates sectional uproar. Cases of bank heists linking same to Nigerian scammers e.t.c.


Looking at the chequered history of our internet activities in Nigeria, there is thus a need for reform in our cyber laws poised with individual right to freedom of information and privacy.

I argue that utopian fiction signals that the time is now ripe for radical re-evaluation of activities of netizens, hacktivists and innocent internet users so as to prevent and prohibit horrendous situations that flows with the joy of internet access. In the real time of frenzy instagram, facebook, twitter and blogs, we have a culture in which the nitty-gritty truth does not matter, as long as the overall narrative of any given story is right and well structured to believe .This should rather not be the situation.


In conclusion, as our use of web continues to evolves, we must not lose sight of both the power that these tools (internet) have and the possibility that our abuse of them could destroy what we love about them, thus the need for paper laws to regulate our emerging paperless society.