Emmanuel Ogu

Emmanuel Ogu

Founder and President, #DearGovernments Organization (DearGovs)

Biography

Emmanuel C. OGU is an aspiring Tech Diplomat, who is currently a trained Computer Scientist, a Chartered IT Professional, an Advocate for Digital Rights & Freedom, a Cybersecurity & Policy Analyst, a Technology Governance & Digital Development Expert, and a Sustainable Development Researcher. He holds a BSc. Degree in Computer Science (Technology), a MSc. Degree in Computer Science (Networking and Telecommunications), and a PhD in Computer Science with a research focus in Cybersecurity, since 2011, 2014, and 2018, respectively. He brings more than 7 years cumulative experience doing impactful research, collaborations, and advocacy activities at the intersection of Information Technology with such transdisciplinary domains as Public Policy, Governance, Regulation, and Advocacy. More so, as his interests align with contemporary discourses in Digital Development, Cybersecurity & Digital Security, Sustainable Development, Internet Governance, Privacy & Data Protection, Ethical AI, and Digital Rights / Freedoms. Indeed, the impact of his research and advocacy traverses a number of global sectors, including healthcare, financial services, governance & public administration.

He is Founder / President at the #DearGovernments Organization (DearGovs). DearGovs is a non-governmental, non-profit, civil society Organization of globally-engaged researchers and advocates undertaking evidence-based policy research on Internet Regulations through her Observatory on Regulations for a Better and Inclusive Internet (ORBIT); and then driving advocacy campaigns through a global network of hundreds of advocates that decentralizes into regional initiatives & activities to inspire and advise progressive governments on the journey towards an open, inclusive, and sustainable Internet. With presence across 4 World regions, DearGovs is a Youth-led intervention against the growing regulatory impropriety of governments that apply the force of regulation / legislation to centralize and consolidate technological and digital interests within and across national boundaries, in ways that not only undermine the digital rights, interests, and participation of other stakeholders (end-users, businesses, etc.) in the global digital ecosystem, but also threaten the sustainable development of the Internet that fosters this global ecosystem. You can learn more about the work of DearGovs here: https://www.deargovs.info/p/about.html, and https://www.deargovs.info/p/home.html.

Emmanuel is a globally-engaged researcher and advocate. He was Youth Ambassador of the Internet Society (ISOC) to the 15th Annual Internet Governance Forum (IGF) of the United Nations hosted virtually in 2020 (https://www.internetsociety.org/fellowship/igf-youth-ambassadors-program/ambassadors/2020/). The IGF is the global multi-stakeholder meeting of the United Nations that bring together stakeholders from across the vast global Internet ecosystem to deliberate and decide on burning issues that affect the future of sustainable Internet growth and development. He has also recently been selected as a Youth Fellow (the Nigerian in a cohort of 34 Youth activists and professionals from 27 countries) representing the Civil Society and Academia at the 72nd Annual General Meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) (https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/icann72-fellowship-participants-2021-07-06-en). This is in addition to having served on various national and international working groups across the Internet governance ecosystem – including the #Youth4DigitalSustainability Working Group coordinated by the German Informatics Society (GIS), and the Youth Internet Governance Forum (YIGF) (https://gi.de/meldung/youth4digitalsustainability-auftakt-des-globalen-netzpolitik-austauschs); and recently being appointed as co-Chair of the Internet Governance Working Group of the Internet Society Nigeria Chapter (ISOC-NG). These are to highlight a few.

Emmanuel is currently a Faculty member at the Department of Information Technology, in the School of Computing & Engineering Sciences, at Babcock University, Nigeria. There, he teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the Computer Science and Information Technology, while also supervising and undertaking high-impact applied research within this domain. He has appeared on platforms at various national and international conferences across industry and academia, as an expert speaker and panellist – including the First Global Health Security Conference (GHS) in Sydney, Australia; the 17th Development Dialogue (DD17) in The Hague; the 2020 Annual Conference of the Development Studies Association of the United Kingdom (DSA2020); the First Virtual Mozilla Festival in 2021 (MozFest 2021); the Informing Science + IT Education (InSITE) 2019 (Jerusalem, Israel), and 2021 (virtual) Conferences; and the West African Internet Governance Forum (WAIGF). These are some recent few.