By MBACHU GODWIN Abuja
Political leaders and Nigerians have been called upon to embrace Artificial Intelligence skill to catch up with technological development in the world.
President of The Next Big Thing Continental, Chief Ralph Okey Nwosu made the call at a conference on Artificial Intelligence with the theme “AI Orchestration , The Conductor Approach”
Nwosu said the essence of the conference is to create awareness on the importance of Artificial Intelligence, adding that the Nigerian system needs AI to evolve.
He said “Leadership is the answer. However, for this, our summit, and the next big thing, we don’t want to scapegoat anybody. If we start today, it’s still a good thing.
And what we want to do with the next big thing is to awaken our consciousness. When we see people who do amazing things, we recommend them and tell them to become the change agents that will support the development of tomorrow. One wrong spot, one wrong spot, before you know it, you see the lions everywhere.
“One invention, and like some of the people that we intend to recognize, people in the fintech industry, one good invention by a few young men and women has created a phenomenon that has revolutionized banking, i.e., for instance, almost everybody now knows about this. You ask even the mechanic up there, who doesn’t go to the bank? You can say Opay, Money Point, and so on. They know how to maintain their account, they know how to run their account, they know how to keep their account.
These are the kind of leadership we want to encourage. People leading from where they are. People leading from where they are.
The infrastructure they’ve created, the structure system they’ve created, may have created over 10,000 jobs without even them knowing this. So we want to encourage a lot more stellar personalities to do more. Before you know it, we just say, let government stay out of the way, and focus on the most infrastructure they can do, and building security.”
“Just as one of the countries we are recognizing is Morocco. Morocco came up with a visionary leadership that is providing the electric power that has more or less revolutionized the country. If government can invest in that, in other African countries, the young people will grow.
The Ghana Cyber Security Agency started a system that has revolutionized security in Ghana. We want to see that take place everywhere. And you can see here, in our meeting, that military people, police, security, and intelligence officers, they came here because they know what we’re talking about.
“The politicians and the people in politics may want to leave talking too much. But what we’re doing in the TNBTC is not to talk too much, but to populate our cities, our towns, our communities, with leaders who are performing amazing work of creativity and innovation. Sir, you didn’t talk about political leadership.
You have on the revolution in Fintech. What about political leadership? Because political leadership has to a great extent determines what thrives and what does not thrive. But don’t you think they need AI to thrive? They need AI.
“The arrangement we are structuring with the university and other universities is to help in bringing AI to the doorstep of many people who need it. In the government houses, in the security agencies. So by the time you take them to their different constituencies and they start to see the difference.
Very soon. We are sensitizing people. We are creating algorithms that when you apply, you see everything, every couple that went from traditional account to any state government.
And you see how the filtration process has evolved. So no more any secrets. And if everything has become very open and transparent, the political leaders will get more disciplined.
You know, for me, I’m in politics. I’m also in this business of mission building. What attracted me into politics is because of development.
We are not doing very well in that part. Therefore, I had to take a step back and say, you know what, we can do a lot of things if we populate the country, the constituencies, the cities, with people who are not in politics but who are innovators, creative thinkers, and leaders. People who think they are doing things, hiding, hiding money, they will not see that you can’t hide money anymore.
That everything is on the open. And they are the first to get disciplined. There was a question, there was a word by the chairman that was not like technical class, so I must be ready to get a technology.
“Are you ready for that technology? It just goes to the political leadership. But if you see now, the young men and women are already beginning to do good jobs with that. Until three or four years ago, all you know about banking is your traditional bank.
But now, you can see that that technology has been acquired. And it’s been provided, you know, maybe, it’s now not at humongous expenses. Therefore, the people can afford it, and they are using it.
The country must not depend on government the most. And what I appeal for, for the purpose of businessmen and entrepreneurs, is that government should stay out of their way. Government should stay out of their way, and as much as possible, work on building policies and creating infrastructures”
