The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), has trained media practitioners, lawyers and other stakeholders on access to information, data and digital rights in Nigeria.

A lecturer at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Dr Olubunmi Afinowi, said at the session that at the time of drafting the Nigerian Constitution, digital rights were not conceived.

Afinowi said that data and digital rights as a specialised area, was borne out of current innovations and technological advancements.

She noted that thankfully, the constitution was expandable to accommodate current trends and there was a need for proper governance of the digital space.

He quoted; “Section 37, provides for the rights of privacy within homes and this is why I said the drafters of the Constitution did not conceive of digital rights at the time.

“The beauty of the law is that we can expand its interpretation. So, now if we look at the provisions of Section 37 and we expand this by indication, it includes communications within the digital space, not just communications, interactions and activities within the digital space.

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“We have the Data Protection Act, which was signed into law this year and I will just point out to specific provisions, the protections of the law and to safeguard the rights, freedoms and interests of data subjects.

“That is you and I as citizens in line with the Constitution and also to provide for the regulation of processing of personal data and so and to protect data subjects and so on,” she said.

Afinowi spoke on Legal Strategies for Promoting Data and Digital Rights in Nigeria.

The Executive Director, Dataphyte, Mr Joshua Olufemi, also spoke on: “Media Strategies for Promoting Data and Digital Rights in Nigeria’’.

Olufemi said that as an ecosystem, media needs a lot of collaborations outside its space and circle, specifically embracing innovation, technology, government amongst others.

SERAP Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, in his welcome address, said that Nigerians had rights to privacy and protection as guaranteed under the 1999 constitution as amended.

Participants at the event included law students, lawyers, media professionals as well as other stakeholders in the ecosystem.