Nigerian democracy needs positive utilisation of AI
Artificial Intelligence
As the global community commemorates the 2024 International Day of Democracy, with the theme, ‘Artificial Intelligence as a Tool for Good Governance’, the necessity for the Nigerian state to adopt the positive uses of AI in an evolving world and understand that it is not prepared to confront its fallouts is incontrovertible.
Since 2007, September 15 has been celebrated worldwide after it was established through a resolution passed by the United Nations General Assembly.
According to the UN, the IDD provides “an opportunity to reinforce the importance of upholding free speech, civil liberties, and the rule of law; ensuring accountable institutions; and protecting and promoting human rights.”
Democracy is weak in most African countries, including Nigeria. In Nigeria, elections are compromised, with the judiciary, instead of the electorate, having the final say.
With a perceived absence of the dividends of democracy, Nigerians are turning their backs on it, as voter turnout crashed to 27 per cent in the February 2023 presidential polls.
Free speech is under threat. Under President Bola Tinubu, the police and security agents are hounding journalists for doing their work.
Protesters against bad governance and economic hardship are on trial for treason.
In the upcoming governorship poll in Edo, there are fears that the September 21 contest might not be free, fair, or credible.
After 25 years, the dream of a prosperous democracy has been shattered. Only the political class is benefiting from the democratic contraption.
In 2018, multilateral agencies said Nigeria, with 87 million citizens, had upstaged India as the global poverty capital.
In 2022, a joint study carried out by the National Bureau of Statistics with multilateral agencies indicated that 133 million Nigerians are living in multidimensional poverty.
A year later, the World Bank added 7 million citizens to the 133 million figure after Tinubu cancelled petrol subsidies and merged the naira exchange rates.
In a year where more than 50 countries, representing half of the global population, are holding elections, the High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence recently released a report “with recommendations on harnessing AI benefits while mitigating risks.”
In his message to commemorate this year’s observance, the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, notes that AI has the potential to enhance public participation, equality, security, and human development but warns that if “left unchecked, its dangers could have serious implications for democracy, peace and stability.” This is true.
The Minister of Communication, Bosun Tijani, at a stakeholder meeting in Abuja on Monday, said the democratisation of AI would positively impact the growth and development of the country.
“Artificial Intelligence has always been with us; however, our focus is that we want it to drive prosperity in Nigeria. The policy to drive its adoption and deployment will be crafted to the benefit of all,” he said.
The Federal Ministry of Communications recently released the country’s National AI Strategy document, which is currently being reviewed by ministries, departments, and agencies.
It will be adopted as a national policy to guide all government efforts in AI.
A new study by the National Information Technology Development Agency indicated that the development and implementation of AI strategies can catalyse innovations and aid in the rebalancing of power structures in the country.
Another study published by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship and the World Economic Forum found that prioritising inclusive and responsible AI practices will foster cross-sector collaborations and tackle existing country-specific challenges.
However, for all the laudable prospects that the adoption of AI holds for the Nigerian economy, its positive impacts on governance, electoral practices, and civil engagement have not been fully explored.
Part of the challenges are a stultifying lack of accountability in governance, weak institutions, overarching corruption, political godfatherism, absence of governing philosophy, and inadequate digital infrastructures.
Furthermore, the incongruity of AI solutions based on foreign models with the Nigerian political and social context and its unique challenges has not been considered.
The Nigerian digital space is not fully prepared to confront the dangers posed by AI, which could have serious implications for democracy, such as the proliferation of misinformation, outright disinformation, the spread of hate speech, and the use of deepfakes.
In a 2023 open letter report, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk, along with over 1,000 other tech leaders, urged stakeholders to put a pause on large AI experiments, citing that the technology can “pose profound risks to society and humanity.”
Another top concern cited by a 2024 survey by AvePoint was about data privacy and security, considering the large amounts of data concentrated in AI tools and the lack of regulation regarding this information.
Sadly, the narrow views of individuals have culminated in an AI industry that leaves out a range of perspectives.
According to UNESCO, only 100 of the world’s 7,000 natural languages have been used to train top chatbots.
Additionally, tech experts have pointed out that 90 per cent of online higher education materials are produced by European Union and North American countries, further restricting AI’s training data to mostly Western sources.
Notably, online media and news have become even murkier considering AI-generated images and videos, with AI voice changers and deepfakes infiltrating political and social spheres.
These technologies have made it easy to create realistic photos, videos, and audio clips or replace the image of one figure with another in an existing picture or video.
Consequently, bad actors have created avenues for sharing misinformation and propaganda, creating a nightmare scenario that has made it nearly impossible for citizens to distinguish between credible and fake news.
During a recent visit to the BBC World Service in London, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, lamented the rapid spread of misinformation, disinformation, and fake news among youths in Nigeria, noting that it was a key challenge that erodes trust between the government and the people.
In May, he described fake news as “a cancer that may lead to a breakdown of law and order in the country,” adding that “democracy cannot grow without media and press freedom.”
The fear of social manipulation caused by AI has emerged as a new reality as politicians rely on social media platforms to promote their viewpoints and solicit electoral votes.
A report by the BBC indicated that politicians, including the United States President, Joe Biden, and the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, have found themselves victims of deepfakes.
The campaigns leading up to the Indian election on June 5, 2024, involved extensive use of AI, including deepfake impersonations of candidates, celebrities, and dead politicians.
According to an estimate by Wired, millions of Indian voters viewed deepfakes.
The elections held in Indonesia and Pakistan in February offered a glimpse of the negative influence of technology on democracy as AI technologies steadily intruded into the electoral arena.
The President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., wielding a TikTok troll army, reportedly captured the votes of younger Filipinos during the Philippines’ 2022 election.
Amidst these unfolding realities and the intersection of AI in global politics, Nigeria should first ensure that strong institutions are built to shape and strengthen its democracy on the plinths of moral transparency and civic empowerment.
Instead of clamping down on press freedom or targeting journalists with arrests or harassment, the Nigerian government should invest in a democracy that allows for civic engagement, youth participation, and political dissent.
Individuals and civil society groups should adopt the positive use of AI to hold the government at all levels accountable, combat the spread of fake news, scrutinise claims made by politicians, and deepen the practice of open democracy.
