At the 2025 Akwa Ibom Tech Week, former Speaker of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, and one-time governorship aspirant, Rt. Hon. Onofiok Luke delivered a timely message that resonated deeply across Nigeria’s technology ecosystem: the profiling of young tech professionals as cybercriminals must end.
In his speech, Hon. Luke spotlighted a troubling pattern, one that has seen legitimate remote workers, software developers, and freelancers unfairly targeted by security agencies simply because of how they work or live.
“There are documented cases of legitimate remote workers being profiled as cybercriminals,” he said. “Some have been harassed or detained because their neighbours could not reconcile their home-based work life with visible financial independence.”
A Dangerous Misunderstanding
Hon. Luke cited data from the Digital Security and Ethics Council (DSEC), which reported over 130 arrests in March alone, most of which never advanced beyond media headlines.
“How many of those arrests led to convictions?” he asked. “How many innocent people were caught in the wrong net?”
For him, this isn’t just a social concern; it’s a policy failure, revealing a dangerous gap between law enforcement’s understanding of the digital economy and the realities of legitimate online work.
“This is not downplaying the genuine efforts of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC),” he clarified. “It is rather a call for the fight against cybercrime to be smarter, more informed, and more human.”
Policy awareness all to action for the tech community
Beyond addressing profiling, Hon. Luke challenged Nigeria’s growing tech ecosystem to pay closer attention to governance and legislative processes that affect their work.
“Too often, our brightest minds are building global solutions disconnected from the policy-making processes that affect them locally,” he observed.
He pointed to a bill currently before the National Assembly seeking to establish a Fintech Regulatory Commission, urging stakeholders to monitor its progression and contribute during the public hearing stage.
“A single regulation, a tax policy, or a data law can change your operational reality overnight,” Luke warned. “If this ecosystem continues to sit on the fence when it comes to governance and lawmaking, you will continue to be victims of ill-structured policies.”
From mistrust to collaboration
The former Speaker proposed a clear path forward: active collaboration between the tech ecosystem and law enforcement agencies.
“The police, the EFCC, and the NCC must not view the tech community as suspects,” he said. “Likewise, the tech community must not view enforcement agencies as their enemy. Let’s bring both sides to the same table for dialogue, training, and trust-building.”
Luke called for joint sessions at future editions of the Akwa Ibom Tech Fair, including law enforcement officers, cybercrime units, and digital rights advocates, to help officers understand what legitimate digital work looks like.
“Let them see firsthand what our young people are building,” he urged. “Let them understand gig work, remote freelancing, and coding as legitimate professions.”
Such understanding, he believes, will empower agencies to better distinguish between criminal activity and authentic digital entrepreneurship, while protecting Nigeria’s global image as a tech hub.
Toward a smarter, fairer digital future
Hon. Luke’s speech underscores a pivotal truth: Nigeria’s digital economy cannot thrive where fear, profiling, and misunderstanding persist.
For the country to fully harness its innovation potential, law enforcement and tech innovators must see each other as partners, not opponents.
As Luke concluded, the path forward lies in dialogue, policy engagement, and mutual education, a smarter, fairer, and more human approach to policing the digital space.
Luke’s speech underscores a pivotal truth worthy of reiteration: that Nigeria’s digital economy cannot thrive where fear, profiling, and misunderstanding persist.
For the country to fully harness its innovation potential, law enforcement and tech innovators must see each other as partners, not opponents.
As Luke concluded, the path forward lies in dialogue, policy engagement, and mutual education, a smarter, fairer, and more human approach to policing the digital space.
The presentation was followed by a loud round of applause from the young audience, who deeply connected with his words, not only because of the conviction and passion with which they were delivered, but because they reflected their lived reality.
Many of these young tech workers have, at one time or another, had to explain to law enforcement officers that they are not “Yahoo boys.”
It was a moment that captured both the urgency and the hope of a generation determined to redefine what it means to work and thrive in Nigeria’s digital future.
“We need a smarter, more informed, and more human fight against cybercrime. One built on understanding, not suspicion.”
— Rt. Hon. Onofiok Luke, Akwa Ibom Tech Week 2025
Read Also: https://techsudor.com/nigeria-moves-to-create-a-single-fintech-regulator/
