A 2018 French dramatic comedy film directed by Fred Cavaye, Nothing to hide, is adapted from the 2016 Italian film Perfect Strangers by Paolo Genovese. It is the story of a group of old friends and their partners. They were meeting for a dinner party hosted by Marie and Vincent. A rare lunar eclipse is also expected to occur on the same evening.
At the dinner table, after hearing of Ben’s questionably humorous story, the story about a woman who discovered her husband’s extramarital affairs. She did after his death at the hospital when she looked through the messages on his unlocked mobile phone. The group then starts to discuss their phone lock settings and share information on their phones with their partners.
To spice up the dinner, Marie then suggests a game where everyone surrenders their phones to the centre of the table and any messages, emails, or calls received on anyone’s phone would have to be shared with everyone else. As the game progresses, more secrets begin to unravel, putting doubts on their friendships and marriages.
To succeed, the government needs steady and reliable internet connectivity and friendly website.
Likewise, as the federal government of Nigeria is about to embrace the Open Data Initiative, which provides a platform for a single, comprehensive view of data, won’t the adoption of open data begin to ravel more secrets and build distrust between the federal government and the citizens? Would it be beneficial to both parties? Before an answer suffices, first, what is open data? Open data is information that anyone can access, use and share. Open data is used when made available in a common, machine-readable format.
For instance, if adopted by the corporate organisation, it brings together and enriches data from all of the organization’s lines of business and across all its systems to deliver real-time intelligence back into the applications and services.
If adopted by a married couple, it means the man will share every form of information, good or bad, with his wife. It does not mean the man would not password his smartphone. Invariably, it means the man would give his wife the same access he has to his wife and vice versa. She would answer his phone calls. He would answer her phone calls.
Reading each other’s text messages, WhatsApp chats and Twitter messages will not be a forbidden act between the couple. Such an act will become second nature, as the couple will readily and willingly share information, and the lives of the couple will become as open like a book. There will be nothing to hide. If adopted by a government, open data brings transparency and democratic control. It encourages participation. It raises self-empowerment. It breeds openness. It exposes the government to scrutiny. There will be nothing to hide.
The above offering is in order since the minister of communication and digital economy, Isa Pantami, announced recently that the federal government is taking steps to “fully embrace” open data initiative. According to Pantami, the initiative would enable the government to compete and attract global recognition in the world of information communication technology.
Speaking in Uyo at the Nigerian Open Data Conference held in the capital city of Akwa Ibom State, he stated that for Nigeria to play a key role in the ongoing data revolution Nigeria needed to embrace open data initiative and “improve data literacy of its citizenry.” He knows that data in the 21st-century data is the single most important driver of innovation, competitiveness and growth. As such, Nigeria needs to become an integral part of the data revolution. Embracing the open data revolution will bring the country at par with other developed nations that are using data to solve myriads of problems.
The minister knows that data can be used to solve a problem or create opportunities for the people. He also knows that the open data initiative involves uploading non-sensitive government information on the internet. The information may include agricultural prices, vehicle registration, and tax matter in “machine-readable, reusable and accessible formats for economic growth, advancement, transparency and accountability in the delivery of services”.
Reading each other’s text messages, WhatsApp chats and Twitter messages will not be a forbidden act between the couple.
To succeed, the government needs steady and reliable internet connectivity and friendly website. Knowing this, Pantami said government’s web pages must interface with a central data.gov.ng portal. Aside, the federal government needs to adhere to the open data standard, which describes how some sets of data should be made publicly available. It defines data concerning a particular subject, for example, building permits (BLDS).
So, Pantami assures that there will be a continuous digitization and uploading of high priority data sets in accordance with the format. This helps the government to meet the supply side and in turn prompt the citizen to dialogue with the data. Nevertheless, if properly done, open data initiative can become the raw materials the citizens need to engage the government and help to improve the public services such as public planning, provide feedback to government ministries on service delivery quality, innovation and economic value.
However it goes, open data will also expose some of the government’s secrets. This would turn the government into an open book, read by all. By extension, the government will be subjected to different scrutiny and will have nothing to hide.
*Olaegbe ([email protected]) (This article has previously been published).
