Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has warned against the dangers of uncontrolled Artificial Intelligence (AI), urging Nigeria and other African countries to develop indigenous capacity to harness the technology for solving grassroots challenges and accelerating national development.
Obasanjo gave the warning at the Ajibosin 3.0 Annual Symposium, themed, “Leveraging Artificial Intelligence to Solve Grassroots Problems and Accelerate National Development”, held in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
He acknowledged that although he lacked technical expertise in AI, its potential misuse made it imperative for Nigerians to understand, regulate and maintain control over the technology.
“I don’t know too much technically about AI, I don’t. But I know that anything that is not in your control can be abused against you,” he said.
The former president added that Nigeria must acquire the knowledge and capacity to determine how the technology is developed and deployed to serve its interests.
“I believe if we are masters of our own goal as far as AI is concerned, we will make AI do for us what we want AI to do for us,” he stated.
Obasanjo also expressed concerns about the manipulation of identities and the distortion of information through AI-generated content.
He cautioned against adopting foreign policies and technologies without carefully considering their implications, recalling how slavery, colonialism, globalisation and structural adjustment policies had shaped Africa’s economic and political experiences.
He questioned Nigeria’s continued dependence on foreign economic prescriptions, particularly those of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, insisting that African countries must develop home-grown approaches to addressing their challenges.
Obasanjo challenged participants to explore practical applications of AI in tackling critical national problems, including out-of-school children, food insecurity, healthcare delivery and local pharmaceutical production.
He also stressed the importance of preserving our cultural heritage, noting that culture encompasses language, food, dressing, traditional greetings and other elements of collective identity.
According to him, the destruction of a people’s cultural identity could expose them to enslavement.
Earlier, the Convener and Founder of the League of Northern Democrats, Dr Umar Ardo, warned that artificial intelligence could become another instrument of economic exploitation in Africa if the continent failed to take control of its data, technology and digital infrastructure.
Ardo, who was the guest speaker, described AI as a potential new instrument of extraction, drawing parallels between the exploitation of African data and the historical exploitation of the continent’s human resources, natural resources and skilled labour.
He called for African-owned technology, stronger data protection frameworks and increased investment in local innovation.
Ardo urged Nigeria and other African countries to develop indigenous AI systems and prioritise applications that address challenges in agriculture, healthcare, local government administration and grassroots development.
