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IIM marks World Archives Day, seeks passage of data protection law

The Institute of Information Management (IIM) Nigeria, weekend joined the rest of the world to mark World Archives Day and called on the National Assembly to do everything possible to pass the Nigerian Data protection Bill into Law as soon as possible.

Business Hilights recalls that globally, June 9th is the day set aside by the United Nations for the celebration of the international archive day.

In an interview, the President and Chairman, Governing Council of IIM, Amb. Dr. Oyedokun Oyewale said “And as part of the global community, we are equally celebrating World Archives Day here in Nigeria and in order for us to raise awareness talking about our records and archives management”.

On the importance of the initiative, Dr. Oyewale averred that “Like I said earlier on, I am the president of greener foundation and also the chairman IIM. These two organizations since 2004, has actually been helping to develop the frontiers of information management not only in Nigeria, but across Africa”.

“And we have been organising programmes; training certifications and we aim to get towards ensuring that professionals have best of technology, best of events and happenings in the information and management industries and we have worked with several international organisations in promoting information management and ensuring that information management professionals are properly trained that they are aware of their roles and responsibilities when it comes to managing the dynamics when it comes to information, and also making sure that organizations, government and individuals imbibe certain standards when it comes to managing records and information.

Continuing, he noted that “You will agree with me that in this part of the world, we lack enabling laws when we talk about managing records and information. In Nigeria today we don’t have data protection law, just last week I was in the UK for the IIM induction and a day before our induction in the UK, the UK government actually reintroduced their data protection regulation. That is the general data protection regulation, it came into force on the 25th of May and you see these are some of the things that we as Africans should imbibe.

IIM boss argued that “There is need for the National Assembly to speedily pass the data protection law in Nigeria. Over the years, we have been hearing about the national identity card project and you know, how on earth will you have such a sensitive project without having enabling laws that will ensure that data that are being captured are captured for the purpose for which they said they are capturing them.

According to him, “The usage of those data, how are they being governed, are they rules, are they specification, are they processes, are they procedures that will ensure that your information, your data, my information, my data that are being collected re used appropriately. So, these are some of the several issues that are on ground that the institute is actually out to resolve.

“Because there is no government anywhere in the world that can move any country forward without the need of quality information, if the correct and quality information is not available, it will be difficult for the government to know the number of unemployed citizens it will be difficult for them to know those that are aged, it will be difficult for them to know the number of graduates that are turning out, so as to be able to provide adequate employment for them, it will be difficult for them to know the infant mortality rate, the health care requirements and so on. All of these things grossly depend on quality information and that is why we are out and that is why we are here to create awareness.

“Let people know the importance of records and archive management, because in this part of the world, we only see tangible things as assets like houses, vehicles equipment and so on. But, information is another asset that government should take seriously, they should pass all the necessary laws and make sure that people do the right thing at the right time and also make sure that only trained and qualified personnels are saddled with the responsibilities of managing personal information, government information and corporate information.