President Muhammadu Buhari says his government will continue to monitor activities of terrorists online to control radicalization of citizens by terrorist groups, and other violent cells, following huge traffic online due to COVID-19.
Buhari, in his remarks at the AQABA Process virtual meeting in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Wednesday, said the migration to cyber space posed greater risk for radicalization, especially with the growing constraints on physical contacts and movements.
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“It’s important to state that the spread of COVID-19 has led to the movement of activities to cyber space.
“Furthermore, lock-down policies and restrictions of movement in affected areas means that people would move their day to day social and business activities to cyber space.
“This, however, comes with an increase in the risk of individuals being radicalized online,” he said.
Buhari said his government would sustain efforts to make adjustments to new lifestyles and be sensitive to the security underpinnings as experts tried to find vaccines for COVID-19, and a possible acceptable cure.
He said Nigeria developed a robust framework led by Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 to coordinate and oversee the country’s multi-sectoral inter-governmental efforts at containing the spread and mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said the government had also taken measures to tackle the devastation of social and economic dimensions of the pandemic with a focus on the most vulnerable citizens in the society through provision of palliatives as well as other economic stimulus packages.
The president said the measures came at a cost, but would be sustained, while citing Mali as an example where social and economic challenges took a toll on government and pushed democracy to a “breaking point.”
“Such situation could create a vacuum that can be exploited by terrorists and violent extremists,” he said.
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