By Daniel Abia

Port Harcourt —Vice Chancellor of the Nigerian British University, NBU, Prof. Hakeem Fawehinmi, has called on the Federal Government to deploy Artificial Intelligence, AI, in tackling the rising wave of insecurity in the country.

Fawehinmi said if effectively deployed, AI has the capacity to create more jobs for the teeming population of the youths.

The don said these while fielding questions from newsmen shortly after the maiden inaugural lecture of the Nigerian British University in Asa, a border community between Abia and Rivers states.

The inaugural lecture was delivered by Prof. Ekpe Okorafor, who is the Dean, Faculty of Computing and Information Technology in the institution.

The VC noted that AI would engender precision and boost manufacturing, improve economic planning and other spheres of human life and expressed optimism that governments at all level will leverage on the revolution to do things better.

He said: “Artificial Intelligence will promote the Nigerian economy through digitalizing most of the processes which we do manually.

“I’m not saying it will put people out of jobs but it will create precision in manufacturing, in the educational sector, even in fine arts, design and many other disciplines.

“So, AI has come to stay. It will also enable planning because it could handle big data, analyze it and make decisions based on the data that was given to it.

“So, it has come to stay and it will play a major role in aviation, transport industry, logistic supply chain management and so on. So, it will play a positive role in the economy.”

On insecurity, he said AI provides ready and scientific ways of tackling the challenge, adding: “AI can effectively do that because the robotics and other aspects of it can be used to detect threats and act in good time without much casualties.

“So, it will be able to help us in that regard through the searchlights and on ground, in the regimented pattern, the way the military works. So, AI has come to stay.”

Earlier, the inaugural lecturer, Prof. Okorafor stressed the need for the domestication of AI to reflect the African culture and experiences.

He said: “The key questions are that when we are building these models, the question is who owns the data? Whose biases are being encoded in those models whether it is unconscious or conscious.”

“And so, if your data is not included, then those models will not represent

Alhaji Nwadu Chiedu, the chairman of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (Delta State chapter), promised the local Muslim  community’s full support for the directive. He urged herders to adopt contemporary ranching methods and peaceful coexistence.

The security meeting was attended by important security heads and community representatives, important local government stakeholders, young leaders, and farmers were among the other attendees of the security conference.