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By Paul Williams
Non-governmental organization, Spaces for Change has held the 2025 Digital Security Clinic for journalists and civil society organizations in the South South of Nigeria.
The two-day training, organized under the auspices of the Civic Space Resource (CSR) Hub, with support from Ford Foundation, held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, from December 3 to 4, 2025, saw organizations from across the South-South/South-East regions participating in the clinic.
Executive Director of Spaces for Change, Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri, said the clinic “is designed to respond to the evolving digital threats facing media and civil society organizations. As digital risks grow more complex with AI-powered attacks, increased surveillance, disinformation, and targeted threats to civic actors, the clinic offers practical guidance to help you (participants) navigate and counter these challenges.”
Earlier, Ibezim-Ohaeri had said participants “will explore key areas such as threat assessment, secure communication, online privacy, data protection, and strategies for safeguarding digital assets. The program also includes mobile device security and emerging tactics for defending against digital manipulation. Through interactive sessions and hands-on exercises, you will strengthen your understanding of digital threats and develop effective strategies to protect yourself and your organization.”
Spaces for Change’s Michael Itegbe explained that the training was designed to build the digital resilience of civic actors on how they can protect themselves in the digital space and carry out their activism in a way that doesn’t really affect them.
“The program, as the name implies, it is a digital security clinic. It’s a clinic where we want to build the digital resiliency of civic actors. Everything happens in the online space, from how we assemble, how we communicate, even online protests. And these civic actors are in most scenarios, targets, where they are being spied upon.
“They carry out their activism in a way where they don’t feel protected. So, this clinic is there to teach them their digital rights, to teach them digital to the candidates for their advocacy, to teach them cybersecurity best practices, data protection, and a lot of other issues. We believe it is very very important to ensure that they carry out their activism in the digital space without any challenge.
“We had different sessions where we learned about data protection, digital rights, cyber security, digital tools for advocacy, and also issues around gender-based violence. A session was on tech-facilitated gender-based violence and digital security using a gendered lens. We covered different issues just to ensure that civic actors can carry out their activism in a way that doesn’t really affect them,” he said.
Itegbe said issues motivating the training include the fact that “civic actors in Nigeria don’t really know some things in the digital space. It’s a scenario where they still use traditional methods of protecting themselves. And look at how the world is advancing. Everything now is in the digital space, from how we communicate, how we assemble, even protesting in the online space. It’s important that they know how to navigate digital space in a resilient way.”
Commenting on the importance of the training in the media space, he pointed out that journalists in Nigerian “are being tracked, they are being spied upon, they are being surveilled, and they don’t even have a means of knowing they are surveilled. The knowledge we’ve learned, especially the security tips and all that, types of malware, types of things like phishing and other kinds of scams and things like that, so they can be able to identify when those things happen, and that will be a better way for them to protect themselves.
“Basically, everything they were taught here, from effective storytelling to different issues we expect them to go out there and the knowledge they’ve learnt here they should put it into practice. We’re looking forward to a future where civic actors can do their job in peace,” he said.
Elder Lekia Christian, Chairman, Ogoni Civil Society Stakeholder Forum, described the training as “an eye-opener, because even in some areas where I felt I had sufficient depth and understanding on issues particularly when it comes to Tech justice, I discovered that I was as good as a student.
He said his knowledge base had been enriched, adding that “The issues discussed were quite relevant particularly within the context of what I do as a civil society person and I’m sure that for everybody who participated in this program they will equally be as enriched as I am and I believe seriously that moving forward, the impact of this program will reflect in how we do our work and it will also guide us in terms of our personal security within the digital space.
“I can only say a big Thank You to Spaces for Change and their sponsors this is one area where they have truly touched a very vital segment of the society those who ordinarily would have been vulnerable you know as a result of how passion have driven them you know along the line of duty in pursuit of public good you know are now better equipped you know in terms of personal security particularly within the digital space,” Lekia said.
