Professor Olubukola Olugasa, a distinguished Professor of Law and Technology at Babcock University, has issued a high stakes mandate for Nigeria to establish a robust legal framework to balance technological acceleration with societal responsibility.
Delivering the university’s 59th inaugural lecture, titled “The Quest for Return to Eden: Balancing Technological Acceleration with Legal Safeguards for Long term Societal Responsibility,” he warned that innovation risks outstripping ethics without clear legislative guardrails.
He specifically called for the creation of Nigeria's exclusive digital platforms to ensure total data sovereignty. Comparing this necessity to the Dangote Refinery, he argued that developing an exclusive national broadband is now a fundamental pillar of national security.
The lecture highlighted the importance of integrating law and technology to bolster transparency, pointing to the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) as a vital tool for verifying voters and securing results via the IReV portal.
He urged Nigeria and the Global South to stop replicating Western technological pathways, which he suggests often perpetuate colonial structures. Instead, he advocated for forging culturally attuned, innovative alternatives through international collaboration.
To support this shift, Olugasa stressed that Nigeria’s energy capacity must be strengthened by integrating diverse sources into the national grid, backed by firm legal frameworks and constitutional amendments to recognise indigenous laws.
He also signalled an urgent need to overhaul legislation for digital governance. This includes enacting laws to promote natural farming while limiting Genetically Modified Foods (GMFs) and legislation to minimise the indiscriminate use of paper in transactions.
He concluded by urging Nigeria to stop trailing behind global powers. He insisted that by charting an independent course, Nigeria can lead the Global South in developing a resilient, sovereign, and technologically advanced future
