A computer expert has called on the Presidency and National Assembly to set aside, a special budget for computerisation and ICT development in the country to make the youths employable.

Dr. David Dimoji who is the Dean, School of Science and Technology, Abia State Polytechnic, Aba, also called for a legislation to check and punish computer hackers in Nigeria.

Dimoji, while speaking with newsmen in Aba, also advised governments and institutions in the country to invest more in computerisation, digitisation and ICT development to match the needs of the time.

He lamented that lack of foresight of current political leaders who have refused to pump enough funds into computerisation to equip the youths have stalled their (youths) access to computer-based jobs.

“Ask yourself, what percentage of our annual budget is allocated to digitisation or ICT? We are still doing things in the analogue way. Some of our youth are still analogue while the world is turning from analogue to digital, that is why most of our youth are not employable,” the teacher said.

Dimoji expressed surprise at the high rate hackers were operating in the country, suggesting that legislation was urgently needed to check the trend for it not to land Nigeria in greater economic crisis.

A law, he said, would reduce the rate at which some ICT compliant persons hack into devices and documents without authorisation, citing hacking into bank account as a rampant occurrence.

“Some states are establishing laws to punish kidnappers and now that the issue of hacking is becoming a very common offence, I want to believe that the privacy act is no longer enough.

“The privacy act says that if you get access to a document or data you are not entitled to access, it is an offence. But I want Nigeria to go beyond the privacy act to make a special law that would punish hackers,” Dimoji said.

“This is because a part of our problems, especially in the economic circles today, is resulting from the activities of hackers. They hack into anything, including bank accounts, and if nothing is done to stop them, they can cripple an economy,” he added.

The Dean said that the governments should learn to be proactive, adding that following what had happened to other nations lately, Nigeria should not to wait until the country was hit by big-time hackers before acting.

He said that the only way to handle the problem of hacking was to make a law criminalising computer hacking and any person found guilty should be jailed.

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