Tunde Odesola

When citizens exasperatedly say ‘Nigeria is a plane on autopilot’ or when they dismissively say ‘Nigeria na cruise’, they are disclosing much more than the words reveal. They are lamenting a nation whose humanity has shattered, leaving a truckload of iciness in its wake. Both expressions often stem from a place of discontent, subtly bemoaning a country’s slipping from the realm of Human Intelligence into a domain submerged by the mechanicality of Artificial Intelligence.

With these two sentences, Nigerians are mourning the absence of empathy, that precious virtue Shakespeare christened “the milk of human kindness,” which is lacking in today’s governance, coupled with its replacement by apathy, that malevolent spirit of indifference. Beneath both expressions lies a deep frustration with a leadership culture increasingly divorced from human feeling, equity, democratic dividends, common sense, and accountability.

The emerging reality recalls the Yoruba proverb about the hunter who, in pursuit of a rat, sets fire to the forest that provides food and shelter.

Those who insist that Nigeria is flying on autopilot are not wrong. From the mangled highways of crippling economy to the blood-soaked fields of banditry and terrorism, calamity envelopes the nation’s landscape like harmattan haze. Yet, while the storms rage below, the political pilots in the cockpit assure passengers that all is well, aware that suffocating inflation will not ‘let the poor breathe’.

Their defence of the current state of affairs rests on three familiar syllogisms. First, that previous democratic administrations wrecked the aircraft and handed over a damaged machine. Second, that repairing a nation in free fall requires patience and time. Third, that despite the turbulence, Nigerians have been enjoying the dividends of democracy over the past three years. These syllogistic excuses don’t boom from the loudspeakers of Aso Rock alone; they thunder from the megaphones of every state governor and from the gongs of local government councils across the nation.

Whether these propositions are profound truths or convenient excuses is a matter on which empty stomachs, grieving families, kidnapped victims, and the unemployed hold very different opinions. However, what holds dear to the people’s hearts is for governments at the three tiers to wear a human face and provide security, employment, welfare and infrastructure.

The latest brazen kidnapping of 46 schoolchildren, toddlers and teachers in the Ahoro-Esiele and Yawota areas of Oriire community in Oyo State calls for the nation’s political leadership to step into the cockpit,  get hold of the gears, and move the aircraft from auto-pilot to human-pilot.

Aside from the noise and empty assurances of safety that attend each kidnapping in the country, the Bola Tinubu administration must, as a matter of emergency, collaborate with the legislature and state governors to speed up the creation of state police, purchase sufficient sophisticated arms, and provide adequate welfare for security forces. In its barbarity, the bandits’ beheading of the male teacher abducted along with toddlers and pupils at the Oriire school is the worst of abductions.

It strongly behoves the three tiers of government to rechannel energy and refocus vision. For instance, the multibillions of taxpayers’ money spent yearly on sending pilgrims to Jerusalem and Mecca on religious jamborees can be used to improve the country’s security. It goes without saying that the executive, legislative and judiciary arms of Nigeria are dens of corruption.

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A nation that allocates in its 2026 appropriation budget the sum of N135.22 billion for electoral lawsuits and earmarks N900 billion for conducting the next general elections is on autopilot, powered by Artificial Intelligence. Both budgetary provisions do not reflect humanity in the intelligence that informed them. How does a government allocate funds to future elections and litigations when the country is crackling under terrorism and banditry attacks, and soldiers at the frontlines lack superior arms to outrun terrorists? Nobody hears about the return of unspent budgetary allocations to the federal purse after the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua era, when a minister of health and others were jailed for not returning N300 million of unspent 2007 budget funds to the national treasury.

In today’s Nigeria governed by apathy, however, the monthly salary and allowances of each senator are N1.06 million. This is the gospel according to the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, the government agency responsible for monitoring national revenue accruals, disbursing funds from the Federation Account, and determining fair revenue-sharing formulas among the federal, state, and local governments. RMAFC even gave a laughable breakdown of the salary earned by each Nigerian senator.

It runs thus: Basic Salary: N168,866.70; Constituency Allowance: N422, 166.66; Vehicle Fuelling/Maintenance: N126, 650; Domestic Staff: N126, 650; Personal Assistant: N42, 216.66; Entertainment: N50,660; Utilities: N50,660; Newspapers: N25,330; Wardrobe: N42,216.66; and House maintenance: N8,443.33. Between what the RMAFC says Nigerian senators earn and the stupendous lifestyles they live lies the albatross of corruption. Is RMFAC saying Nigerian senators break skulls and limbs during elections to earn N1.06 million monthly? Nigerians are still awaiting the resignation of EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, who, upon sighting the weight of evidence against former Kogi Governor, Yahaya Bello, vowed that he would resign if he “did not see the case through”.

Addressing a news conference, Olukoyede, who looked angry, thundered, “Do you know how much has been lost to corruption in this country? If we allow this thing to go this way, I don’t have the moral right to run after anybody, to say I want to investigate anybody in Nigeria. We (had) better proscribe the EFCC!”

Today, Bello is on his way to the same Senate.

So, isn’t Nigeria truly on autopilot? Don’t you agree that “Nigeria na cruise”? Nigerian political leaders have replaced their Human Intelligence with Artificial Intelligence, putting a wedge between service and delivery, replacing the warmth of humanity with the iciness of artificiality.

On the other side of the Artificial Intelligence coin lies Human Intelligence. Currently, there are growing concerns over the global widespread use of Artificial Intelligence. Scholars, students and workers are afraid that AI dominance would lead to job loss, uncreativity, laziness, an increase in crime, pollution, etc.

Indian-born American journalist, political commentator, and author, Fareed Zakaria, began his university education at Yale and ended it with a PhD at Harvard. Zakaria is the host of CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS, and he writes a weekly column for The Washington Post. The 62-year-old is also the editor of Newsweek International and an editor at large of Time.

Recently, he delivered a graduation speech at Bard College, New York. He warned his audience from the outset. “I need to give you a trigger warning. I’ve noticed in this commencement season (that) some graduation speeches have provoked a few boos from students. So, I should probably warn you that I am about to utter the two most provocative letters in the English Language today: AI”

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Not a few boos greeted Zakaria’s opening shot. But he went on all the same. Before I elaborate on his seminal speech, I will distil Zakaria’s central argument in one sentence: The rise of Artificial Intelligence should not make us fear becoming obsolete; it should make us rediscover what makes us uniquely human. He said, “People naturally ask: What will be left for human beings to do?” But perhaps that is the wrong question. The better question is: “What does AI tell us about all the things that we humans already do, and do — distinctively and irreplaceably?” The answer, I think, is profoundly hopeful.”

In the view of the erudite scholar, humans, over the decades, have wrongly equated intelligence with calculation, memory, logic, analysis, and pattern recognition. He argues that AI is beginning to outperform humans in these areas, and asserts that Human Intelligence is not merely analytical. For him, HI also includes emotional understanding, moral judgment, empathy, intuition, social awareness, imagination, and consciousness.

According to him, the human brain is a three-pound miracle that consumes roughly 20 watts of power while AI requires gigantic data centres, consumes enormous energy, funds, and occupies vast physical structures, yet the human brain effortlessly performs tasks such as understanding context, reading emotions, recognising intention, navigating social situations, understanding irony and ambiguity all of which remain difficult for machines.

Hear Zakaria, “Your three-pound brain is sitting quietly inside your skull, using less energy than a laptop charger. And yet it can do things that still baffle machines. A toddler can recognise a face instantly in poor lighting, understand tone and emotion, navigate a crowded room, learn language socially, infer intentions, and grasp context — all effortlessly.”

Like leaders at the three tiers of government in Nigeria, AI can write about grief, describe fear and generate commiseration letters to the families of the abducted, but Artificial Intelligence cannot mourn, fear death, fall in love, feel regret, or experience loneliness. Zakaria believes that a machine can simulate emotion, but a human actually experiences it.

The scenario above is similar to Nigerian governments seeing people merely as statistical figures for taxation, voters for elections, and citizens in need of a ruler because the DNA of their reasoning is artificial.

Art matters because of the artists. Politicians matter because of the masses. Not in Nigeria, however. One of the speech’s most powerful insights is about creativity, where Zakaria argues that people do not value art solely because of the final product. They value art because it emerged from human life, it carries human struggle, and embodies human experience. He asserts that when we read Charles Dickens, Toni Morrison, and Gabriel Marquez, we are entering another consciousness. We care about the suffering, hope, doubt, and imagination behind the words. The creator matters as much as the creation.

Nigerian leadership does not carry the people along. It does not humanise. It dehumanises in its response to kidnappings, the provision of infrastructure and measly minimum wage to workers.

Imperfection is a virtue, not a vice, says Zakaria. This assertion is arguably the deepest theme in the speech. The prolific writer uses the Kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. Instead of hiding the cracks, kintsugi highlights them, and the crack becomes part of the object’s beauty rather than a defect to conceal. Kintsugi is rooted in the Japanese aesthetic of Wabi-Sabi, which finds beauty in imperfection, simplicity, ageing, incompleteness and impermanence. Kintsugi philosophy says that a thing is not less valuable because it has been broken. In fact, it may become more beautiful because of its story.

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Contrarily, imperfection is a vice in Nigerian governance as political leaders see themselves as gods, excellencies, before whom the people must bow. Unlike Kintsugi, Nigerian politics always pretends that break never happens, hiding kidnap casualty figures, cooking the books, forgetting “the crack, at times, let the light in.”

Turning the conventional AI fear upside down, the popular journalist says man should not be worried that machines are becoming too human, rather man should be worried that humans are becoming too machine-like. He sees this already happening through obsession with productivity, optimisation, efficiency, branding, performance metrics, etc. In trying to compete with algorithms, people risk losing spontaneity, compassion, authenticity, and emotional depth.

A life devoted solely to efficiency, discipline and functionality may lose love, intimacy, moral courage and human connection, so says Zakaria, who submits that a perfectly optimised life can be a tragic life.

Explaining that human greatness emerges from suffering, the Indian-American recalls that some of Beethoven’s most compelling symphonies were composed when he was almost totally deaf. “A machine may someday write a technically flawless symphony. But it will never know the anguish of Beethoven, who composed his Ninth Symphony — one of the greatest pieces of music ever written — when he was almost completely deaf. When we listen to the Ninth Symphony, what moves us is not simply the arrangement of notes. It is the sorrow, perseverance, and triumph of a composer determined to create transcendent sounds that he would never hear,” he says. Zakaria maintains that human suffering is not merely an obstacle to overcome, it is often the source of wisdom and greatness.

Beethoven’s homily is not for the Nigerian political leader. It should be told to the Marines. Suffering ke? Nibo? Tufiakwa! The earth is for Nigeria’s political class, and the fullness thereof.

Zakaria also asserts that human relationships are irreplaceable. Technology, according to him, offers connection without intimacy, communication without community, companionship without commitment, whereas human beings need friendship, recognition, affection, dignity, and love. He says excessive reliance on technology can deepen loneliness rather than resolve it. Everything is replaceable in the eyes of Nigerian politics. Integrity being the first.

He told the graduates that the future belongs to those who cultivate human qualities, saying that instead of competing with AI, they should develop qualities AI cannot possess, such as judgment, wisdom, courage, trustworthiness, forgiveness, friendship, humour, compassion, etc.

The paradox running through the entire address is that the stronger AI becomes, the more valuable humanity becomes. While many assume AI diminishes human importance, Zakaria argues the opposite. As machines master logic, efficiency, and analysis, society should rediscover the value of emotion, morality, creativity, relationships, authenticity, and imperfection.

Both on political and personal levels, the employment of Human Intelligence in taking critical decisions or arriving at breakthroughs is far more desirable than the sole use of Artificial Intelligence. However, the two can produce astounding results when combined in wise measures.

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