Introduction
When you pay a visit to a typical Nigerian office, it is worrisome to note that the many workers employ manual methods to execute their duties. With the developed countries in the West miles ahead due to their use of AI, Nigeria needs to quickly adopt this offering to pace up the actualization of the SDGs. This essay seeks to highlight some ways in which AI can be leveraged to actualize the SDGs.
Health care
Although doctors in Nigeria have been trying their best to diagnose diseases using traditional methods, there have been limitations regarding efficiency due to their inability to promptly analyse patient data history and deliver accurate treatment plans. This often leads to the degeneration of a patient’s health. The adoption of artificial intelligence into the nation’s healthcare will help medical personnel to be able to track patient’s data, analyse them and prescribe accurate medication.
Secondly, due to the lack of artificial intelligence, the healthcare system is often overwhelmed over her inability to make accurate predictions. Importing artificial intelligence will help health professionals to make more predictive and proactive decisions capable of prolonging the lives of patients.
When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, developed countries employed the use of artificial intelligence to monitor the spread of the disease through data analysis from flight schedules. In Nigeria, we struggled to track passengers who had direct and indirect contact with the first disease carrier. This eventually led to the spread of the disease across the country. Incorporating artificial intelligence into the healthcare system will play a crucial role in the public health of the country and serve as a useful tool to combat future epidemics and pandemics.
Dr. Stella Adadevoh tragically lost her life during the Ebola virus outbreak while caring for a patient, highlighting the dangers medical professionals face. The implementation of artificial intelligence kits can enhance safety for workers by protecting them from infections.
Additionally, precision robots could assist surgeons by preventing operational errors, such as leaving tools inside patients after surgery.
AI can also aid radiologists in identifying tumours more accurately and expedite drug production processes, reducing the time it takes to develop pharmaceuticals. Artificial sequencing and DNA matching technology could alleviate the stress associated with paternity tests by simplifying the process.
In a survey of more than 300 clinical leaders and healthcare executives, more than 70% of the respondents reported having less than 50% of their patients highly engaged while 42% of the respondents said less than 25% of their patients were highly engaged. Machine learning with the ability to personalize and contextualize care should be incorporated into Nigeria’s system to nudge patients to adhere to their medication, diet, and daily lifestyle.
Unemployment
With Nigeria’s unemployment rate for 2023 at 3.07%, A.I.'s ability to predict and recommend job matches can be leveraged to train and get more Nigerian youths employed.
Education sector
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”-Nelson Mandela
According to a prediction by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), over 1.2 billion people are under threat of being displaced by 2050 due to natural disasters and climate change. The Fulani tribe in West Africa who are mostly nomads in nature have been finding it difficult to be educated due to the limitation of the traditional system of education. With about 6000 teachers tasked to educate the over 12 million population of these nomadic people, there is a need to think outside the box. How prepared is the Nigerian education system to accommodate the displaced that may accompany this prediction? Adopting AI-powered learning will help Nigeria overcome this problem.
A young girl from Nigeria named Miracle Kparezua wouldn’t have gotten a University education were it not for the intervention of online learning. She had suffered from cerebral palsy, which delayed her education and made her unable to neither talk nor walk for the first seven years of her life. After several failed attempts to gain admission into the traditional University, she opted for NOUN (an open distance learning university that makes learning accessible, flexible, and available to everyone everywhere). AI Online learning should be designed to be more interactive, immersive, and engaging. They should also engage multiple approaches that fit the specific needs of learners to bridge the educational inequality divide.
In Northern Nigeria, the negative activities of bandits and Boko-haram (an Islamic sect that prohibits Western education) are already creating cultural educational apathy in the region. On the 7th of March 2024 for instance, Insecurity is making many people in Northern Nigeria be scared of education. The attack of LEA primary and secondary school Kuriga in Kaduna state and the abduction of about 137 learners by gunmen is a typical example. With these incidents becoming a norm, adopting the use of AI to monitor and trigger alarm signals about the encroachment of bandits is an effective way to promote Western Education in Northern Nigeria.
“Most of the courses we study in Nigerian schools need an update of curriculum and scrapping of others. Of what use is learning typewriting in 2024 and making it a core course”. Curriculum formulators need to leverage AI to create robust curriculums that can stand the test of time.
With Artificial intelligence, the creation of intelligent tutoring systems capable of providing personalized feedback and support to learners will help free up time for Nigerian learners and teachers to engage in meaningful interactions and jaw-breaking research.
In the past, there were large cases of fraud and falsification of credentials in the education sector due to a lack of technology. The Ministry of Education needs to incorporate blockchain technology to create secure and tamper-proof records of learners’ performances and certificates.
Since many Nigerians have access to digital technology, traditional and religious leaders should be equipped with AI gadgets to sensitize the public and de-radicalize religious extremists.
As the world transitions to the use of clean energy, the abundance of renewable energies in developing and underdeveloped countries with high rates of illiteracy should be leveraged, using solar power personalized learning gadgets capable of transforming the lives of the disadvantaged populace.
Many Nigerian leaders currently on stage wouldn’t have acquired education without the free primary education of 1955. With Nigeria classified as a lower middle-income nation according to UNESCO Institute for Statistics, AI needs to be used to identify and monitor the progress of those in need of free education. This will help guarantee the upward social mobility of the disadvantaged and alleviate poverty.
With more teacher shortages envisaged in the future, Blockchain technology can be used to compute competitive salaries and create professional development courses that will attract talent and prevent teachers’ migration to other professions.
Deforestation and Biodiversity
Between 2000 and 2004, Nigeria lost 55.7% of its primary forests. With the prevailing rate of deforestation at 3.5% annually, and the country predicted to lose all its forest areas by 2025 if nothing is done, AI can identify suitable areas for reforestation, select the most appropriate tree species for specific sites, and monitor reforestation progress.
Inequality
Although AI offers opportunities to accelerate female representation, it won’t happen without deliberate efforts to bridge the divide. With women representing only 30% of the global technological space, educating and encouraging young girls in Africa to get into the STEM sector will create platforms capable of bridging the divide.
Through AI, policy makers will be able to analyse large data sets about the impacts of social programs and design initiatives that can effectively develop the country.
Security
Due to the limitation of human security coupled with the escalating level of insecurity, Nigeria lost of about $40.6 billion in 2020. This has left the country in a destitute state. Deploying AI will facilitate early threat detection, enhance monitoring and prediction, reduce vulnerability and secure the country.
Waste management
Although Nigeria generates an estimated 32 million tons of waste per year, the World Bank projects that the country will generate 107 million tons of waste by 2050. With pollution capable of causing harm to man and his environmental, AI driven technology can enable efficient resource allocation, optimize waste collection and scale the recycling process.
Due to geographical disadvantage, people in riverine areas find it difficult to be educated. With pollution a menace in these regions, following the footsteps of Kunle Adeyemi who designed a floating school on 256 blue plastic barrels in a shantytown is an innovative way to recycle waste to help disadvantaged Nigerians.
Justice
A prison officer once said, “Many people languishing in Nigerian prisons are there for crimes they never committed”. With the backlog of cases and the manual process that characterizes the judicial system in Nigeria, AI”s integration will help in analysing legal data, automating routine legal tasks and hasten the judiciary’s decision-making process.
Food security
Despite technological advancements, Nigeria still depends on crude technology for agricultural purposes. With this system unable to provide sufficient food for the growing population and the country relying on $10 billion of imports to meet its food and agricultural production shortfalls, there is need to think outside the box. The incorporation of AI can help in saving cost of farm inputs, monitoring crop and animal performances and promoting smart food production to actualize food security.
Power Sector
Despite the huge investment in the power sector, the national grid collapsed about 105 times under the administrations of President Bola Tinubu and his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari according to The PUNCH newspaper. With a majority of the country depending on electricity to operate, this made the nation lose millions of naira.
Since many of these collapses have been linked to the activities of vandals and terrorists, using AI technologies to monitor these facilities is an effective way to positively transform Nigeria’s power generation.
Politics and Governance
Before the advent of the internet, youths across Africa engaged frequently with adults in village squares to discuss weighty issues like governance, culture, and security. This practice was, however, abandoned with the introduction of technology. While the younger generation migrated, the older generation who should have been providing mentorship and guidance in the digital social halls remained stuck in the traditional halls. This disconnect made the youths lose focus and concentrate on trivial issues incapable of promoting governance. Democratizing AI will restore the connection.
I have noticed that young men and women, who were traditionally active politically while in school, often shy away from mainstream politics upon graduation. This may be connected to their preoccupation with the demands of their daily lives coupled with a constant barrage of fake news and trivial issues on social media, which makes many drown in the Ocean of political apathy and gender misrepresentation. According to a 2017 report by the Library of Congress, fake news and disinformation during election seasons have become a challenge. A good example was the “Jubril rumour” that alleged that President Buhari had died before the 2019 elections in Nigeria.
AI can help nation’s combat fake news through the analysis of patterns, languages, and context to aid content moderation. The Nigerian Government needs to adopt AI to flag fake news, monitor the activities of elected public servants, and report areas of need. This will be an effective way to encourage good governance, discourage fake news perpetration, and promote effective representation.
Conclusion
With the world moving to the use of AI, Nigeria has to follow suit to prevent the actualization of the SDGs from being a mirage.
Resources:
Institute for Economics & Peace. Over one billion people at threat of being displaced by 2050 due to environmental change, conflict and civil unrest. Available at: https://www.economicsandpeace.org/wp-content-uploads/2020/09/Ecological-Threat-register-Press-Release-27.08-FINAL.pdf
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