Experts Warn Nigeria risks AI Chaos Without Urgent Governance, Security
Samuel Mobolaji
Artificial Intelligence experts have warned that Nigeria’s rapid adoption of AI without strong governance, security, and ethical frameworks could expose the country to serious technological vulnerabilities.
At the 2025 Africa’s Beacon of ICT Merit & Leadership Awards, Chief Visionary Officer of Digital Encode, Prof. Peter Obadare, criticised the rising trend of “AI washing” — where basic tools are misleadingly promoted as AI without proper oversight. He stressed the importance of AI governance to avoid national-level risks.
“Everything is being called AI today, from photography apps to automation tools. But no one is talking about AI governance. That’s a dangerous gap,” Obadare said. Drawing parallels with early internet development that lacked security foundations, he warned Nigeria not to repeat the same mistake with AI.
Citing global standards such as ISO/IEC 42001 and 38507, Obadare said ethical and secure AI must begin with protecting data, algorithms, and the systems behind them.
Echoing similar concerns, the Chief Operating Officer of Spectranet, Amrich Singhal, said Nigeria risks being left behind if trust is not built into its AI systems. While praising the country’s young, tech-savvy population and expanding AI use in agriculture, health, education, and energy, Singhal described current regulations as inadequate, underfunded, and poorly enforced.
He warned that AI could be exploited to spread disinformation, clone voices, and disrupt democracy. “It’s no longer a question of readiness. It’s a question of urgency,” Singhal said.
Both speakers pointed to past global AI failures like Microsoft’s Tay chatbot and Amazon’s biased hiring tool, stressing that oversight failures—not the technology itself—are to blame. They also referenced security breaches at OpenAI and DeepSeek to highlight the risks of deploying AI without rigorous safeguards.
A recent UN report confirmed that just seven countries currently lead global AI governance — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US — raising concerns about representation and fairness in global decisions affecting AI development and regulation.
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