A prominent youth leader and immediate past National Public Relations Officer of the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), Comrade Dotun Omoleye, has been inducted as a Fellow of the Association of Nigeria Public Administrators (ANPA).

Also inducted as Fellows were Hon. Joshua Audu Gana, the lawmaker representing Lavun/Mokwa/Edati Federal Constituency of Niger State in the 10th National Assembly, and Engr. Michael Oluwagbemi, Chairman of LoftyInc Group and immediate past Chief Executive of the Presidential CNG Initiative, alongside other distinguished personalities.

The induction took place in Abuja on Thursday during the association’s 6th Annual International Conference.

The conference, with the theme, “Artificial Intelligence, Digital Governance and the Future of Public Administration in Nigeria,” brought together public administration practitioners, scholars and other stakeholders to discuss reforms and innovations in public service delivery.

The event focused on the role of artificial intelligence, digital technologies and effective data management in strengthening governance, improving administrative efficiency and advancing national development.

The induction of Omoleye, Gana, Oluwagbemi and other distinguished personalities as Fellows formed part of the activities marking the conference.

Speaking at the conference, the National Vice-President of ANPA, Dr Nwigwe Charity Ndidiamaka, called for a transition from traditional bureaucratic practices to a more proactive, technology-driven public administration system.

She said the adoption of artificial intelligence and digital governance had become essential to improving public service delivery and building citizens’ trust in government institutions.

“Digital governance challenges us to rethink how public policies are formulated, how public resources are tracked, and how public trust is earned in an era of algorithms and data analytics,” she said.

Ndidiamaka also called for improved digital infrastructure across the three tiers of government, warning that unequal technological capacity could widen the gap between urban and rural communities.

She stressed the need to equip public servants with relevant digital skills and redesign training programmes to meet the demands of modern governance.

In his keynote address, Oluwagbemi urged the government to move beyond data collection to the effective use of information for intelligent decision-making.

“It is not knowledge that is power; data is key, and data is power,” he said.

He said the effective application of artificial intelligence and data analytics could help strengthen national security, improve public services and enable government to anticipate challenges before they escalated.

Oluwagbemi also called for stronger domestic control and governance of data to ensure that artificial intelligence technologies serve Nigeria’s national interests.

He said the ultimate goal should be to build a government that uses intelligence to make better decisions, improve service delivery and drive national development.