Here is a very important information
for Nigerian Internet users. Big Brother, in the form of the
Jonathan administration, is watching you, and your communication is no longer
safe.
It is one of the most far-reaching
policies ever designed in Nigeria’s history to invade the privacy of citizens.
The Jonathan administration secretly, and in
open violation of lawful contracting procedures, has awarded an Israeli firm, Elbit Systems, with headquarters in Haifa, a $40million
contract to help it spy on citizens’ computers and Internet communications
under the guise of intelligence gathering and national security.
Elbit announced the contract award
Wednesday in a global press release
but was silent on the Nigerian destination of the contract. Its general
manager, Yehuda Vered, opaquely announced that “Elbit Systems will supply its
Wise Intelligence Technology (WiT) system to an unnamed country in Africa under
a new $40 million contract announced on 24 April… for Intelligence Analysis and
Cyber Defense,” but effusively claimed, in the statement, that his company is
“proud to be selected to supply this unique system, which is already
field-proven, fully operational and customisable.
“Elbit Systems is a world leader in
the fields of intelligence analysis and cyber defense, with proven solutions
highly suitable for countries, armies and critical infrastructure sites. We
hope that additional customers will follow in selecting our highly advanced and
cutting edge systems in these fields as their preferred solution,” Mr. Vered
added.
No single policy of this
administration has so far affected, in one fell swoop, the lives of 47 million
citizens, a third of the Nigerian population and about four times the number of
voters who brought the president to power two years ago.
Nigerian Citizens, the horde of
active citizens that use the computer and Internet, are the 10th in a global ranking that make them
27 per cent of Africa’s total Internet users, far ahead of Egypt [19th global ranking] and South Africa
[37th in global ranking].
The growth path of the Internet in
Nigeria has also been dramatic, rising from a mere 200,000 Internet users in
2002 to 47 million this year, according to data from the Global Internet user,
one of the Internet audit groups.
This development has not always
gladdened public officials in Nigeria many who have expressed open displeasure
at the use of the Internet by social media activists and the power of its possibilities
as an empowering medium for popular communication. The calls for regulation
have been loud in both the administration and in the Nigerian legislature.
Civic groups kick against DPI
because, they say, it makes it possible for censors to look into every single
Internet Protocol packet and subject it to special treatment based on content
(censored or banned words) or type (email, VoIP or BitTorrent Protocol).
DPI not only threatens the principle
of Net Neutrality and the privacy of users, civic groups say, it makes single
users identifiable and, in countries that flout the rule of law and violate
human rights, often exposes them to arbitrary imprisonment, violence or even
torture.
“The presidency had wanted this contract
to be a top secret,” said one of our sources. “The presidency did not envisage
that Elbit was going to make it public. Monitoring computers and Internet use
is a contentious issue and the National Security Adviser had tried to keep the
contract secret.”
Elbit says it will take it two years
to complete the project, by which time it claimed, the administration will have
“a highly advanced end-to-end solution, [to] supports every stage of the
intelligence process, including the collection of the data from multiple
sources, databases and sensors, processing of the information, supporting
intelligence personnel in the analysis and evaluation of the information and
disseminating the intelligence to the intended recipient…[that] will be
integrated with various data sources, including Elbit Systems’ Open Source
Intelligence (OSINT) solution and Elbit Systems’ PC Surveillance Systems (PSS),
an advance solution for covert intelligence gathering.”
The administration had indicated in
the 2013 budget that it would procure a Wise Intelligence Network Harvest
Analyzer System, Open Source Internet Monitoring System and Personal Internet
Surveillance System at a cost of N9.496 Billion ($61.26 million).
Now that the contract has been
awarded to Elbit for about $40million, it is unclear if the National
Assembly will raise questions as to what becomes of the extra $21million
earmarked for the project.
Investigations indicate that in
awarding the contract to the Israeli firm, no tenders or calls for bids were
made just as there were no public announcements. The contract was awarded
following a proposal from a single vendor who dictated the contract sum and the
terms of the contract.
The procedure for public procurement
of services as stipulated by the Bureau of Public Procurement
(BPP), the Nigerian agency charged with the duty of ensuring transparency in
all matters concerning government contracts, were largely ignored. In addition,
there are no public records indicating that the BPP approved this contract.
The manner of award directly
contravenes the 2007 Public Procurement Act. While the Act gives room for
single source contracts, the Elbit contract met none of the requirements under
which such special contracts could be awarded.
Section 47 (3) (iii) of the 2007 Act
stipulates that single source contracts are to be awarded in emergency
situations such as “natural disasters or a financial crisis”.
Presidential spokespersons, Reuben
Abati, and Doyin Okupe were not available for comments Wednesday. They
didn’t answer or return calls seeking comments.
Calls to Elbit’s headquarters in
Haifa, Israel, were also unanswered.
Shari
Clarkson, a spokesperson at the company’s subsidiary in the United States
declined comments on the contract saying only Dalia Rosen, a spokesperson based
in Israel, could comment. Rosen’s phone was unanswered.
No comments:
Post a Comment