Cyber Security, Sovereignty and Democratic Governance in Africa, Challenges (Published)
Much of Africa is presently firmly committed to advancing the standards of democracy and human rights that has become topical over the past two decades. Priority reforms to forge a non formidable democratic rule that will secure and maintain the sovereignty of the African nation include the need to improve on both the information society and knowledge economy. This shades light on one of the key phenomenon in the digital age which is our strong dependence on information systems in our life styles, living conditions and our security. Cyber security is a phenomenon which is closely tied to the rapid expansion of information and communication technologies. It has taken a global proportion and occurs across Africa as well as the world in general such that no individual society can disregard it. But Africa has a huge challenge on the face of high rate of cyber crime, cyber terrorism, cyber fraud, cyber attacks and cyber warfare. These cyber threats do not only constitute challenges to humanity and its governance mechanism but they also show us beyond doubt that our policies, institutions, infrastructure and our defense and security systems are not only unprotected but are fragile in nature. The cyber criminals used these threats to continue their malicious pursuit for spying, destabilizing people, organizations and governance perpetrating sabotage or destroying information systems thereby provoking fear psychosis. This highlights the shortcomings and weaknesses of security, governance systems and sovereignty in general. In this environment of growing insecurity, the digital divide is widening to Africa’s detriment and getting trivialized in the same way as poverty that ravages Africa. The continent is still not enjoying all the dividend of digital technology and yet it suffers all the disadvantages more than any other. This work is set to anticipate and analyse governance trend in the face of Africa’s cyber security and sovereignty issues and challenges. To do so we shall identify the barriers to digital sovereignty by securing the digital and technological sovereignty of states in Africa by proposing ways and means of achieving this digital sovereignty. Again, we shall suggest ways of promoting democracy by preserving fundamental rights and civil liberties especially by protecting personal data and to propose the areas where Africa needs to refine its cyber legislation so as to deepen trust in the information society. This is what this work is set to achieve.
Keywords: Africa, Democratic, Governance, Sovereignty., cyber security