The National Assembly has approved a budget of N4.87 billion for the National Intelligence Agency to record, intercept, and monitor mobile phone conversations and communications, including Thuraya and WhatsApp.
The sum is part of President Muhammadu Buhari’s N895.8 billion supplementary budget, which was approved by both houses of the federal parliament last week after being increased by roughly N87 billion.
According to Senator Barau Jibrin, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, the funding is intended to purchase military weapons and combat the spread of COVID-19.
According to the extra budget accumulated, the NIA would spend N2,938,650,000 (USD $7,145,653.37) on the Thuraya interception solution and N1, 931,700,000 (USD $4,697,142.78) on the WhatsApp interception solution.
Aside from that, the NIA received an extra N129 million to let its staff participate in overseas training.
WhatsApp, on the other hand, has claimed that all calls made through the app are end-to-end encrypted, meaning they can’t be intercepted, traced, or recorded.
End-to-End Encryption ensures that all messages and calls are transformed into a code and those encryption standards are followed. This ensures that any information you give when talking online is safe and secure. End-to-End Encryption is provided by WhatsApp to its users in order to provide safe phone conversations.
However, even though the Nigerian government and NIA will ultimately succeed in monitoring conversations made through Thuraya, I’m still curious how the Nigerian government and NIA intend to intercept WhatsApp calls of individual Nigerians.
What are your thoughts?
