State Security Laws can be defined as those laws that give a nation the leverage to protect its vital locations or areas against invasion or espionage. Also these laws protect pices of information that are vital to the security and peace of the nation against unwanted access.
Prominent among these laws id the Official Secret Act of 1962. The Act stipulates that any matter cl;assified as secret should be published.A classified matter under Section (1) of this act is ” any information under any system of security classification from time to time in use by any branch of the government is not to be disclosed to the public and would be judicial to the security in Nigeria.
The Act states that any person who (a) enters or is in the viccinity of or inspects a protected place ; or (b)photographs, sketches or in any other manner whatsoever makes a record of the description of, or anything situated in, a protected place; or (c) obstructs, misleads or otherwise interferes with a person engagedin guardinga protected place; or (d) obtains, reproduces or retains any phography, sketch, plan, model or documenty relating to, or to anything situatedin, a protected place, shall be guilty of an offence. The above offences carry 14 years imprisonment.
The law specifies the following locations as protected places. Any naval, military,or air force establishmentin Nigeria used for or in connection with the protection, storage or testing, by or on behalf of the government, of equipment designed or adapted for use for defense purpose, and other building, structureor work in Nigeriaused by the government for defence purposes. Also considered as a protected place is any location in Nigeria designated by an order made by the Minister of Defence as beign an area from which the public should be excluded in the interest of the security of Nigeria.
On the other hand, a matter is classified when it includes any information or thing whch under any system of security classification from time to time in use by any branch of the government, is not disclosed to the public and of which the disclosure to the public would be prejudicial to the security of Nigeria.
Unarguably, the above laws impinge on the freedom of expessionnand the press as stipulated in Chapter 4, section39, sub- section 1 of the 1999 Constitution as amended 2011″ Every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including freedom to receive and impart ideas and information without interference.
But despite how obnoxious these laws may look, it is an incontrovertible fact that “security and welfare of the people is the purpose of government. The bottomline of the above argument is that the State Security Laws were promulgated for the good of the country. They were promulgated to protect the territorialnintegrity of Nigeria, promote the security and peace of the country, and check or nforestall espionage of the nation’s military installations.
It is on this basis that Walter Greenwood Tom Welsh (1985) opine that the Official Secret Act have various aims which include the prevention of spying, wrongful communicationof the bstate secrets and any breach of official trust. According to them, to obtain, collect, reward or communicate to any person any information that might be or is intended to be useful to the enemy is prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state.
Written by Okechukwu Keshi Ukegbu
