By the time many Nigerians begin to understand the full implications of artificial intelligence, the most consequential decisions about its future may already have been made.

That is why Nigeria must ask itself a difficult question: Where are we in the global AI conversation?

Not where are we in the conversation about using ChatGPT to write school assignments, generate social media captions or create amusing images.

The more important question is: Where is Nigeria, its leading technology companies, its AI startups, its universities, its researchers and its policymakers as the world debates who will build, control, govern and benefit from AI?

The question is urgent because the world is moving.

From July 17 to 20, 2026, Shanghai hosted the World Artificial Intelligence Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance.

The event brought together the technology industry, researchers, policymakers, investors and innovators for discussions spanning AI governance, industrial applications, innovation, investment, youth development and talent recruitment.

The scale alone should command Nigeria’s attention. The conference featured more than 140 thematic forums, over 1,400 international guests, more than 1,100 participating companies and over 3,000 exhibits across a display area exceeding 100,000 square metres.

Its ecosystem also included dedicated platforms for venture capital, industry connections, AI knowledge, youth innovation and international cooperation.

This is not merely another technology exhibition.

It is a glimpse into the contest for the future.

The world is no longer debating whether AI will transform economies, education, healthcare, agriculture, security, manufacturing, media and governance.

The debate has moved to a more consequential stage.

Who will build the systems?

Who will own the infrastructure?

Whose languages and cultures will be represented in the data?

Who will set the rules?

Who will provide the talent?

And who will be reduced to merely consuming what others have created?

Nigeria must not be content to be a consumer.

We have been here before.

Nigeria was once late to the personal computer revolution.

We were late to aspects of the internet revolution. We watched other countries build digital platforms, payment systems and technology companies while our young people became some of the world’s most enthusiastic users of those products.

Yet Nigeria also demonstrated that it could build.

The country has produced globally recognised technology companies, a vibrant startup ecosystem and a generation of young people who have shown that Nigerian innovation can compete beyond the country’s borders.

The question now is whether that entrepreneurial energy can be converted into serious leadership in artificial intelligence.

Where are Nigeria’s leading technology companies in this conversation?

Where are the Nigerian AI startups developing models, tools and applications that understand the realities of Africa?

Where are the Nigerian universities building serious AI research capacity?

Where are the Nigerian researchers working on our languages, our healthcare challenges, our agricultural systems, our financial realities and our public institutions?

Where is the private sector investing in the computing infrastructure, data systems and talent required to compete?

And where is the government in the global conversation about the rules that will govern AI?

These are not questions intended to suggest that Nigeria is doing nothing.

The Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, under Dr Bosun Tijani, has taken steps to position Nigeria within the global AI conversation. In June, the minister unveiled the government’s vision for a National AI Trust, following a convening involving government representatives, AI experts, business leaders, academics and civil society.

In July, he was appointed a founding member of the AI for Good Global Commission, an international body focused on trusted, inclusive and coordinated approaches to AI.

These are important developments.

But the scale and speed of the global AI race demand that Nigeria do more than participate in conversations. Nigeria must develop a national sense of urgency.

That urgency must extend beyond the Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy.

The Ministry of Education must be deeply involved because the AI race is fundamentally a talent race.

Nigeria cannot hope to build AI companies with an education system that does not adequately prepare students for computational thinking, data science, mathematics, research and the ethical questions surrounding emerging technologies.

The Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology must also be central to the conversation.

AI cannot be treated merely as another digital economy initiative. It is a scientific, industrial and national development question.

The country needs a coordinated strategy that connects education, research, industry, infrastructure, regulation and investment.

Nigeria must also ask a more uncomfortable question: Are we preparing our young people to build the future, or merely preparing them to look for jobs in systems built by other countries?

Young Nigerians are often encouraged to learn how to use AI tools. That is useful, but it is not enough.

The next generation must also learn how to build the tools.

They must understand data; study algorithms; engage in research; develop solutions for Nigerian problems; and create models that understand Nigerian languages and contexts.

For a country with hundreds of languages and a population of more than 200 million people, the implications are enormous. Nigerian languages and Nigerian realities cannot be left entirely to foreign technology companies to interpret.

Research has already highlighted the underrepresentation of Nigerian Pidgin in generative AI, demonstrating the danger of a future in which technology increasingly shapes communication while Nigerian linguistic realities remain poorly represented.

This is why AI is not simply a technology issue.

It is a question of sovereignty.

A country that does not develop the capacity to understand and shape AI may eventually find that decisions affecting its economy, education system, media, healthcare, security and public administration are increasingly influenced by systems it neither built nor controls.

The World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai offers Nigeria an important lesson.

The conference did not limit itself to artificial intelligence as a technical subject.

It connected AI to investment, industry, research, youth innovation, talent recruitment, international cooperation and global governance.

That is the approach Nigeria needs.

The country must not wait until AI has already transformed every sector before deciding to create a policy.

It must not wait until Nigerian businesses have been disrupted before asking how they can adapt.

It must not wait until our brightest young people have become users of foreign AI systems before asking where our own AI companies are.

And it must not wait until international rules have already been written before asking whether Nigeria’s interests were represented.

The central question is not whether Nigeria can become the next China or the next United States in artificial intelligence.

The question is whether Nigeria can become the best version of itself in the AI era.

Can AI help improve learning in overcrowded classrooms?

Can it help farmers make better decisions?

Can it improve access to healthcare?

Can it help preserve Nigerian languages and culture?

Can it make public services more efficient?

Can it help young Nigerians create businesses and jobs?

Can Nigeria contribute ideas to the global debate on responsible AI governance?

These are the questions that should be asked urgently.

The future will not wait for Nigeria to finish debating whether artificial intelligence is important.

While many young people are rightly demanding jobs, better education, improved infrastructure and a better quality of life, Nigeria must also recognise that AI will increasingly influence all of these things.

The country, therefore, has to be at the table—not outside the room, not watching from a distance and not arriving after the rules have been written.

The message from Shanghai is clear: the AI conversation is no longer approaching.

It is already here.

Nigeria has the talent, the market, the entrepreneurial energy and the problems that AI can help solve.

What it needs now is urgency, coordination and the courage to move from being a major consumer of technology to becoming a serious builder and shaper of the future.

Nigeria must not arrive very late to the AI table.

Because by then, the seats may already be taken.

• Oyediran, a journalist, writes from Ibafo, Ogun State