Can Law Leverage On The Internet In Nigeria? By Martin Beck Nworah Esq

At the Nigeria Internet Governance Forum (NIGF) 2018, Haru
Alhassan, the Director, New Media and Information Security of
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) stated that the number of
internet users in Nigeria reached a new record of 103 million
people. What this simply means is that so far, over 100 million
Nigerians have access to the internet and this is great news.

How can our legal practitioners and legal system benefit from
this growth in the internet world?

The Communications Act 2003 and Cyber Crimes Act 2015 play a
vital role in regulating the activities of Nigerians on the
internet. Going further, more conversations are currently ongoing
to make for a narrower legislature that will address the social
media issues experienced in the country, the social media being a
very popular arm of the internet where Nigerians spend a great
number of their internet time.

More than ever before, legal practitioners in Nigeria have the
opportunity of reaching out to a wider audience of the population
and giving them firsthand information on what their rights and
responsibilities are. Without breaking any of the Rules of
Professional Conduct, a legal practitioner who can tap into this
internet goldmine and get the populace more educated about their
rights will be doing great good for the cause of justice in the
land.

Tapping into this rich internet numbers in Nigeria, many legal
websites and blogs have taken the burden of publishing legal
opinions on their site every day. In addition to that, seasoned
legal practitioners of high repute can leverage on the millions of
people who access these websites on daily basis to give them legal
advice on different areas of the law.

In essence, Nigerians need to be educated further and better on
what their rights and responsibilities as citizens of the country
entail. Indeed, many people find it hard if not impossible to enter
a physical law office and seek for legal advice. The reasons may
not be far from the fear of lawyers and the uncertainty of what the
outcome may be. However, I must quickly add the internet is
changing all of these. People who can’t physically visit a law
office can read up opinions and build up courage to finally visit a
law office.

As the population of Nigeria is nearing 200 million persons,
legal practitioners and law firms need to increase their online
presence. While in truth not all legal services can be obtained
digitally, people can get a sneak of what they will get and the
need of employing the services of legal practitioners in their
daily dealings.

More than ever before, people need urgent education on the
plethora of services offered by legal practitioners and law firms
across the country. While the RPC forbids any form of overt or
covert advertising, legal practitioners can make use of available
internet tools to reach out to people. The use of websites and
legal blogs by different law firms and legal practitioners is a
very good example.

Can Law leverage on the popularity of the internet today? The
answer is yes. And going forward, better ways of synergizing these
two important tools will be discovered.

Martin Beck Nworah is an ICT Lawyer, social
media influencer and content creator based in Lagos State,
Nigeria.

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