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Founder of Rise Network, Dr. Toyosi Akerele-Ogunsiji, has warned the federal government to wean itself off artificial intelligence (AI) systems developed outside the country, as such dependence mortgages the nation’s digital future and national interests.
Akerele-Ogunsiji said the country’s growing engagement with artificial intelligence must go beyond adopting foreign AI tools to developing indigenous expertise, technologies and regulatory capacity that reflect Nigeria’s languages, cultures and national priorities.
She made this submission during a panel session titled “Votes, Voices and Algorithms: Who Is Most Exposed?” at Beyond the Ballot: National Summit on Electoral Information Integrity, held at Abuja Continental Hotel, Abuja.
The two-day summit, scheduled for November 2–3, 2026, is focused on artificial intelligence, foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) and the integrity of Nigeria’s 2027 elections.
Convened by the International Press Centre (IPC), the Centre for Media and Society (CEMESO) and DAI, under the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN) Programme, the summit brought together stakeholders to examine emerging threats posed by AI, deepfakes, misinformation and disinformation to Nigeria’s electoral process.
According to Akerele-Ogunsiji, many of the global AI systems transforming societies are not developed around Nigeria’s local languages, cultural realities and priorities, making it difficult for the country to exercise effective control over technologies it does not own or develop.
“My worry about the general conversation around how we are interrogating artificial intelligence in Nigeria is that the global artificial intelligence systems changing our lives so radically and rapidly are not built based on Nigeria’s languages, culture or priorities.
“It is difficult to govern a system or a technology that is not built within the jurisdiction of our country. You cannot govern what you do not have control over, whether it is policy or law,” she said.
The AI expert criticised what she described as the growing tendency to treat artificial intelligence as a buzzword, arguing that Nigeria must invest in the technical expertise required to understand, develop and govern the technology.
She said the country needed more AI engineers, software developers, researchers, ethicists and university lecturers capable of building indigenous solutions rather than relying primarily on foreign platforms.
Akerele-Ogunsiji, who disclosed that she spent four years researching the impact of artificial intelligence on Nigeria’s national and economic security for her doctoral dissertation, said she struggled to find sufficient local research materials and qualified lecturers to support aspects of her academic work.
She questioned Nigeria’s preparedness to manage the technology, asking how many more experts the country needed to develop before it could effectively govern artificial intelligence.
She also called for artificial intelligence education to become a compulsory component of Nigeria’s education cur riculum, stressing that the country could not confront emerging technological challenges with outdated knowledge.
“We cannot face today’s challenges with yesterday’s knowledge,” she said.
On the implications of AI-generated misinformation for the 2027 elections, Akerele-Ogunsiji identified deepfakes and the growing difficulty of distinguishing authentic information from manipulated content as major threats to electoral integrity.
However, she warned that an even more dangerous consequence could emerge when individuals exploit the existence of AI-generated content to deny genuine evidence of wrongdoing.
She described this phenomenon as the liar’s dividend, explaining that politicians could engage in actual misconduct and subsequently dismiss evidence of their actions by claiming it was generated or manipulated using artificial intelligence.
Similarly, criminals could commit offences and, when confronted with evidence, attempt to discredit it by attributing it to AI.
“My worry is the liar’s dividend that would happen in the course of this electoral cycle. Real things are happening, and people are beginning to attribute them to AI. You are going to see politicians actually do things, and you are going to see criminals commit crimes, and they will say it is AI,” she warned.
According to her, the danger goes beyond the production and circulation of fake videos or images. As deepfake technology becomes more accessible, the mere possibility that digital evidence could be manipulated may give people an excuse to dismiss authentic recordings, photographs and other evidence.
This could make it increasingly difficult for journalists, fact-checkers and citizens to establish the truth, particularly during election campaigns when allegations, political attacks and controversial statements are likely to circulate widely.
The implications, she suggested, could be serious for electoral accountability, as citizens may struggle to determine which information is genuine and which has been manipulated, while public figures could exploit the uncertainty to escape responsibility for their actions.
Akerele-Ogunsiji also cautioned against reducing the artificial intelligence conversation to manipulated videos showing one person’s face on another person’s body, describing such applications as a relatively basic level of AI.
She argued that the broader implications of the technology extend to data collection, profiling and the ability to analyse people’s behaviour through their digital footprints.
She illustrated this with an experience in which she used ChatGPT to investigate the ownership of a vehicle after noticing its National Assembly registration number at the Abuja airport.
She explained that the information people generate through their everyday activities, including where they travel, what they say and how they interact with others, can become data that artificial intelligence systems may analyse.
The Rise Network founder further warned that Nigeria’s AI development strategy must consider the needs of rural communities and people who are often excluded from technological advancement.
She argued that artificial intelligence systems designed without adequate consideration for local languages and underserved communities could deepen existing inequalities rather than bridge the digital divide.
She disclosed that an artificial intelligence for elections hackathon had recently been launched to encourage young Nigerians to develop solutions around multilingual civic technology.
The initiative, she explained, was intended to promote AI applications that understand Nigerian languages, respond to local realities and support broader civic participation.
She stressed the need for solutions that serve not only urban technology users but also farmers, teachers and residents of rural communities.
Otherwise, she warned, artificial intelligence could automate existing inequalities, leaving those who already have limited access to technology further disadvantaged.
Other panellists at the session included Mr Ade Atobatele, Founder of Bootstrap Africa, and Mr Dayo Oketola, Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman. The discussion was moderated by Maupe Ogun-Yusuf.
While Akerele-Ogunsiji emphasised the need for indigenous AI capacity, digital inclusion and safeguards against AI-generated misinformation, Atobatele argued that Nigeria’s immediate electoral challenges should also be examined within the context of vote buying, rural realities and transparency in election result management.
Oketola, in his contribution, clarified that INEC’s Result Viewing Portal, IReV, is designed to make polling-unit results available for public viewing and is not an electronic results collation platform.
The discussion highlighted the need for Nigeria to address both emerging technological threats and longstanding weaknesses in its electoral information management system ahead of the 2027 general elections.
