Nigerian Software: ISPON Calls for Declaration of State of Emergency

President of the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON) Dr Chris Uwaje,  has said that it is strategically imperative for the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency for the mandatory development, acquisition, patronage, application and use of indigenous software.

Uwaje expressed concern that while Nigeria was still toying with the development of indigenous software, a silent economic digital warfare may have begun in the African Continent for the exploitation and control of Africa’s resources through the Software conduit.

He said that the abandonment of national responsibility on indigenous software development has the potential to impact Nigeria’s national development and security, both now and in the future. He    warned   that there were monumental risks in the procurement, application and use of software outside indigenous control. He also expressed concern that Nigeria was ill prepared to respond to a major software-related disaster in the emerging digital economy of the nation.

Uwaje added that current evidence shows that that the new world will be built and sustained entirely by software knowledge and intelligence capacities. He said that warfare is currently being waged in the cyber space with the avalanche of various worms and viruses targeted at pulling down the power and economic base of countries.

Uwaje specifically warned about various threats unveiled in the cyberspace recently especially that of the Stuxnet worm, tagged the world’s first “weaponized” computer virus with the potential to destroy.

The virus has already hit its remote target in the Republic of Iran. Stuxnet, a very sophisticated secret computer worm, in the last year has not only crippled Iran’s nuclear program but has caused a major rethinking of computer security around the globe.

Stuxnet,  according to Uwaje is an incredibly advanced, undetectable computer worm that took years to construct and was designed to jump from computer to computer until it found the specific, protected control system that it aimed to destroy, i.e. Iran’s nuclear enrichment program.

Uwaje had last year called for a national software legislation based on national software policy and strategy. He had argued that the technologies being used on a day to day basis is not just the obvious physical devices like the ATMs, cell phones or computers, but involve  others which cannot be seen physically like software.  Uwaje stressed that in a bid to ensure that software development is given a pride of place in the country,  ISPON has originated plans to enthrone the establishment of a National Policy and strategies for Software Development.

He stated that setting up a national software development policy and awareness agenda therefore, is against the backdrop that building software capacities presents immense economic opportunities for nation building.

Source : Thisday