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26 Transnat'l L. & Contemp. Probs. 13 (2016-2017)
Stumbling Uncertainly into the Digital Age: Nigeria's Futile Attempts to Devise a Credible Data Protection Regime

handle is hein.journals/tlcp26 and id is 19 raw text is: Stumbling Uncertainly into the Digital Age: Nigeria's Futile Attempts to Devise a Credible Data Protection Regime Andrew Ubaka Iwobi* Abstract: Nigeria's progress towards becoming a full-fledged member of the global information society has been impeded by its inability to devise a credible data protection regime. This Article focuses on Nigeria's recent attempts to regulate the processing of personal information within its jurisdiction. This inquiry is pursued through the analytical prism of legal transplantation. The Article exposes serious failings within the Nigerian legislative process and casts a critical eye on the injudicious and indiscriminate borrowing of foreign laws undertaken by Nigeria's regulatory authorities in their quest to join the ever-growing ranks of the nations with their own data protection laws. This Article also provides a veritable lesson in the potential dangers of legal transplantation. I. INTRODUCTION ................................................... 14 II. LEGAL TRANSPLANTATION AND ITS MANIFESTATION WITHIN THE NIGERIAN LEGAL SYSTEM ............................................ ....... 16 A. Legal Transplantation as a Legislative Tool ........................ 16 B. Colonization and Harmonization as Instruments of Legal Transplantation .......................................... 18 C. The Feasibility of Legal Transplants .................... ..... 19 D. Legal Transplantation Within the Nigerian Legal System.............. 22 III. THE EMERGENCE OF DATA PROTECTION AS A SUBJECT OF LEGAL REGULATION IN NIGERIA ........................................... 28 A. From Periphery to Center Stage: Nigeria's Place in Today's Global Information Society............ .................... ...... 28 B. The Law as a Mechanism for Safeguarding the Privacy of Personal Information: International, Regional and National Dimensions....... 30 IV. NIGERIA's LEGISLATIVE ENGAGEMENT WITH THE DATA PRIVACY AGENDA: A CATALOGUE OF FALSE STARTS AND DEAD ENDS.............. ........ 36 A. Overview ............................................... 36 B. The Cyber Security and Data Protection Agency Bill 2008 ............ 39 C. The Data Protection Bill 2011............................... 40 D. The Electronic Transactions (Establishment) Bill 2013.................. 42 E. The Personal Information and Data Protection Bill (Circa 2013) ..... 48 F. The Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act 2015................ 58 LL.B (Jos), Ph.D (Birmingham), Senior Lecturer and Course Director for the LL.M E-Commerce module, College of Law, Swansea University. The author is grateful to participants in the Swansea University Institute of Shipping and Trade Law (IISTL) Research Seminar December 2, 2015 for their invaluable comments on an earlier draft of this Article.

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