Nigeria’s First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, says the world is moving deeper into the digital era, but there is a strong need to keep humanity at the centre of every innovation. She made this known while speaking at the ‘Education Above All’ plenary session during the 12th World Innovation Summit for Education, WISE, in Doha, Qatar.
While praising Qatar’s achievements in education, Senator Tinubu shared the stage with the First Ladies of Lebanon and Syria. She stressed that no religion forbids girls from receiving education and explained that the federal government is committed to giving every Nigerian child access to the opportunities that learning provides. She said, “Everything begins with education. We are doing all we can as a government to advance the education sector. We must collectively look at the bigger picture, knowing that Nigeria has a huge human capital resource and that is what we thrive on.”
She highlighted the global impact of Nigerian youth, noting their success in arts, education, fashion, the movie industry and agriculture. According to her, “Our youth are doing tremendously, and not only that, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is treating innovation and technology as the bedrock of human capital development.”
The First Lady also spoke on the rise of digital literacy in Nigeria, describing it as a major tool for growth. However, she mentioned that technology comes with challenges. She said, “Nigeria, being an emerging economy, digital literacy has helped us a lot because it is faster, it reaches a lot more people. It also comes with its downside. Our young people are either using it for good or negatively. We believe we would keep empowering the young ones in this area and they would do better.”
The chairperson of Qatar Foundation and host of the summit, Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser, called for education to play a bigger role in transforming lives by linking young people with new job opportunities. Other speakers, drawn from over 150,000 participants worldwide, stressed that humans must remain at the core of global changes. They noted that human values and ethics should guide how artificial intelligence is used, asking whether progress makes sense without human values.
The 12th World Innovation Summit for Education, WISE, carried the theme Humanity.IO, focusing on human values at the heart of education.
