Op-Ed: Nigeria’s digital future needs trust

Keypoints:

Integrity must underpin digital growth
Innovation should widen economic opportunity
Democracy requires accountability beyond elections

THE Daily Times front page of May 12, 1973, carried a stark headline: ‘N44,000 swindle at NEPA’. It reported that at least seven National Electric Power Authority officials had been suspended over an alleged misappropriation of about N44,000.

More than five decades later, that report offers a starting point for a wider question: how can Nigeria turn its resources and ingenuity into lasting public benefit? Digital transformation must connect innovation with accountable institutions, productive work and a fairer distribution of opportunity.

Faster connections and new technologies can expand opportunity, but they cannot substitute for honest leadership and reliable public services. If digital transformation leaves familiar patterns of exclusion and impunity untouched, it will reproduce old inequalities through new systems.

From national wealth to shared prosperity

Nigeria’s economic promise rests on more than natural resources. It also lies in the creativity of its people and the businesses they build. Yet potential has too often become a comforting explanation for why prosperity remains just beyond reach.

Corruption, policy inconsistency and weak implementation deserve scrutiny. So do the practical barriers that determine whether people can turn ideas into income: electricity, transport, education, affordable finance and access to markets. A serious development strategy must address these foundations together.

GDP growth matters, but households also judge progress through jobs, purchasing power and the quality of public services. Economic success should therefore be measured by what people can do with their skills and earnings, and whether their children have better prospects.

Digital industries can help widen those prospects. However, software cannot replace agriculture, manufacturing or dependable infrastructure. Its greatest value may lie in making these sectors more productive, connecting producers with customers and reducing the time and cost of doing business.

Making the digital dividend inclusive

The possibilities surrounding Nigeria’s technology sector require sustained collaboration between government, businesses and educators. Training programmes and infrastructure investment should be judged by the opportunities they create, rather than the ambition of their launch announcements.

A young entrepreneur needs more than encouragement to innovate. An affordable connection, dependable power, clear rules and access to customers can matter as much as coding ability. Rural businesses and people outside established technology centres must also have a realistic route into the digital economy.

Government should simplify unnecessary administrative burdens while maintaining safeguards for workers, consumers and competition. Support for start-ups, investment in broadband and protection of intellectual property should help promising businesses grow. Such support must be accessible beyond the circle of firms with political connections.

The private sector has responsibilities too. Wealth must serve a purpose beyond accumulation. Businesses should create value through useful services, decent work and respect for the people whose information they hold. Prosperity becomes more meaningful when its benefits extend beyond a narrow circle of owners.

The task is to make participation possible. Digital literacy should reach schools, vocational centres and adult learners. People who cannot use online services must retain practical ways to obtain essential assistance.

Accountability beyond the ballot

Democracy depends on what happens between elections. Citizens need institutions that explain decisions, disclose spending and respond when public money is misused. Public office is a sacred trust. Leadership becomes stewardship when those exercising authority accept that they must account for its use.

Nigeria already has a relevant example. The Bureau of Public Procurement’s Nigeria Open Contracting Portal describes facilities for citizens to examine procurement information, follow contracting stages and provide feedback. It illustrates how digital tools can support scrutiny of public spending.

The existence of a portal is not proof of effective accountability. Its value depends on whether records are complete, timely and understandable, and whether concerns lead to investigation and action. Publishing information must be the beginning of scrutiny, rather than the end of an institution’s responsibility.

Nor does moving a process online automatically remove corruption. Officials can manipulate digital systems, restrict access or hide decisions behind opaque procedures. Independent scrutiny, audit trails and consequences for misconduct remain necessary whether a transaction takes place on paper or on a screen.

The protection of civic space matters equally. Technology that helps people question power should not become a convenient instrument for monitoring critics. Safeguards for privacy, freedom of expression and independent journalism belong at the centre of digital governance.

An approaching electoral test

With Nigeria looking towards its 2027 general election, the relationship between integrity and development deserves renewed attention. Campaign promises about jobs and modernisation ultimately depend on institutions capable of delivering them.

An election can open a path to renewal, but it cannot do the continuing work of government. Public trust is built through consistent decisions, fair treatment and the willingness to correct failure after the campaign has ended.

Digital communication can help people question representatives and examine promises. It can also circulate falsehoods rapidly. Parties, public institutions, media organisations and technology companies all have responsibilities to avoid misleading audiences and to correct demonstrably inaccurate information.

The larger democratic task is to make accountability routine. Citizens should not need another election before receiving an explanation for an abandoned project, an inaccessible service or an unexplained use of public funds.

Sustainability as a duty of stewardship

Sustainability is a duty of stewardship. The Christian understanding of caring for creation gives this responsibility a spiritual dimension, but the practical obligation extends to everyone. Environmental damage imposes costs on health, livelihoods and public finances, including burdens inherited by future generations.

Digital tools can assist with agricultural planning, environmental monitoring and the management of energy systems. Their usefulness depends on reliable data, trained people and institutions willing to act on what the information reveals.

Technology has environmental costs of its own. Devices become waste, infrastructure consumes materials and data centres require electricity. A credible strategy should therefore consider energy efficiency, repair, responsible disposal and the full costs of procurement.

Investment in renewable energy and resilient infrastructure should respond to local needs. Projects must be affordable to maintain and useful to the communities they serve. Sustainability loses meaning when it becomes a label attached to schemes whose benefits are unclear or whose costs are concealed.

Public trust in a connected economy

The argument for stronger cybersecurity in Nigeria is ultimately about people as well as infrastructure. A breach can expose private information, interrupt essential services and undermine confidence in the institutions holding citizens’ data.

Security should be built into digital services from the outset. Institutions need trained staff, clear responsibility for protecting information and credible plans for responding when something goes wrong. Purchasing technology without maintaining it is a poor substitute for preparedness.

Artificial intelligence requires similar care. It should strengthen human judgement and improve services while preserving responsibility for decisions. A government cannot claim to serve people if it places them at the mercy of systems they cannot understand or question.

Trust also depends on restraint. Collecting more personal information is not necessarily evidence of progress. Organisations should be clear about what they need, why they need it and how long they intend to keep it.

Moral renewal must become practical action

The questions prompted by that 1973 newspaper report remain relevant to Nigeria’s digital ambitions. Public office is a trust, and wealth carries responsibilities. But appeals to integrity become persuasive when they shape budgets, procurement, appointments and the everyday conduct of institutions.

Moral renewal must become visible in everyday conduct. Leaders must accept scrutiny. Businesses must respect the people whose labour and information sustain them. Public institutions must demonstrate that rules apply consistently. Service, humility and truth must guide decisions when doing so is inconvenient.

Nigeria does not lack ambition. Its challenge is to make ambition credible through service and results. Responsible digital innovation can contribute to that work, but Nigeria’s digital future will depend on the choices people make about power, opportunity and responsibility.

The prophetic call is to make those choices with courage and integrity. Nigeria’s renewal will take shape when public resources serve the public, honest effort has a fair chance of reward and leadership is measured by the lives it improves. Technology should help make that promise real.