Experts and stakeholders in public administration have called on the Federal Government to urgently deploy Artificial Intelligence (AI), digital governance tools and effective data management to strengthen governance, improve service delivery and tackle insecurity in the country.
The call was made on Thursday in Abuja during the 6th Annual International Conference of the Association of Nigeria Public Administrators (ANPA), themed “Artificial Intelligence, Digital Governance and the Future of Public Administration in Nigeria.”
The high-level conference brought together public administration practitioners, scholars, policymakers, and industry leaders to discuss critical reforms and innovations needed to reposition Nigeria’s public service for efficiency in the digital age.
A major highlight of the conference was the induction of new Fellows of the Association, including a prominent youth leader and immediate past National Public Relations Officer of the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), Comrade Dotun Omoleye.
Also inducted were Hon. Joshua Audu Gana, the lawmaker representing Lavun/Mokwa/Edati Federal Constituency of Niger State in the 10th National Assembly, and Engr. Michael Oluwagbemi, Chairman of LoftyInc Group and immediate past Chief Executive of the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative (PCNGI), alongside other distinguished personalities.
Speaking at the conference, the National Vice-President of ANPA, Dr. Nwigwe Charity Ndidiamaka, said Nigeria can no longer afford to cling to traditional, paper-based bureaucratic practices, stressing the need for a proactive, technology-driven public administration system.
She said the adoption of AI and digital governance has become essential, not optional, for improving public service delivery and rebuilding citizens’ trust in government institutions.
“Digital governance challenges us to rethink how public policies are formulated, how public resources are tracked, and how public trust is earned in an era of algorithms and data analytics,” Ndidiamaka said.
She called for urgent investment in digital infrastructure across the three tiers of government – federal, state and local – warning that unequal technological capacity could widen the development gap between urban and rural communities and further exclude millions of Nigerians from governance.
Ndidiamaka also stressed the need to equip public servants with relevant digital skills, urging the government to completely redesign training programmes at the Public Service Institute and other MDAs to meet the demands of modern governance.
In his keynote address, Engr. Michael Oluwagbemi, who is a leading voice in innovation and technology, charged the Federal Government to move beyond mere data collection to effective use of information for intelligent decision-making.
“It is not knowledge that is power; data is key, and data is power,” Oluwagbemi declared, drawing applause from participants.
According to him, Nigeria is sitting on a goldmine of data but lacks the capacity to process and deploy it for national development. He said the effective application of AI and data analytics could help strengthen national security, predict crimes before they happen, improve public services and enable government to anticipate challenges before they escalate into crises.
Oluwagbemi cited examples of how AI-powered surveillance, predictive analytics and data-driven intelligence have helped other countries disrupt terrorist networks, track kidnapping syndicates and improve border security – a model Nigeria must urgently adopt given its security challenges.
He also called for stronger domestic control, sovereignty and governance of data to ensure that artificial intelligence technologies serve Nigeria’s national interests and do not expose sensitive national security information to foreign manipulation.
“The ultimate goal should be to build a government that uses intelligence to make better decisions, improve service delivery and drive national development,” he said.
Participants at the conference agreed that the future of public administration in Nigeria lies in digital transformation, urging the administration of President Bola Tinubu to make AI and data governance central to its Renewed Hope Agenda.
